OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 10B ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 February 24, 2005 ************************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West by Darlene E. Kelley Geneology by Byron Williams Tid Bits - part 10B. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 10B. Geneology of Byron Williams of Clermont John and Rachel Williams were builders of homes each with larger provision for conveience. After the rollicking, adventurous, and often perilous life of those pioneer times in the river trade, he gladly enjoyed the quiet of buying, improving, and selling real estate during the expansive period of the region. The business was followed through forty years without a losing deal. He was a popular teacher until occupied with larger affairs. I 1846 they left the lower Stonelick to improve the Wooster Pike just east of Goshen that resulted in four sets of farm homes of more than usual comfort. From there they came in October, 1859, to near Williamsburg, where in 1862-3 they completed the " Williams Homestead " which was most happily enjoyed till his death, March 21, 1876. Memory delights to recall the generous charity of his happy, successful life that, despite the trial of river associations, was never marred by a profane word, a personal brawl, or a drunken hour. He was a notable Free Mason, and she made a sister of the Eastern Star when the order was first started, and then for a generation forbidden. Although noted as one not long to stay, Rachel Williams lived on with her son in the homestead with a slightly step and fine memory until July 19, 1904, when, because of a fall, though not serious at first, she was taken to her room, where the bright, alert, efficient and beauty loving spirit slowly declined until her life of ninty-six years, six months and sixteen days closed, July 22, 1909. Three of her children died early. Their daughter, sketched and pictured in Rocky and Brancroft's History of Clermont as Mrs. Louisa W. Bishop, of Batavia, was born September 25,1832, and died in her Batavia home, February 21, 1908, with a spirit that was calmly ready. Byron Williams, the third and only grown son of John and Rachel Williams, was born April 22, 1843, at their home then on the north bank, about three-fourths of a mile from the mouth of Stonelick creek. In March, 1846, the family moved to the early home in Goshen, and in the fall of 1847 the brick house was finished and occupied, about a mile from Goshen, in the fork of the Blanchester road from the Wooster Pike. That house was the home of the family for twelve years, during which a common school was attended one mile further east on the Wooster Pike, where there was no lack of ambition in the instruction offered if not taken. In the fall of 1853 algebra was commenced. Olmstead's Natural Philosophy was added, and then Burritt's Geography of the Heavens was undertaken in 1854. Meanwhile, Green's Analysis and Structure of the English Language was a continuous exercise. Owing to the promotion of one of the class to position of teacher, the same text books were continued another year. During the next year the course was reviewed for the benefit of another teacher. During the intervals in the scholastic recreations of those four years, the spelling and definations of the first fourth of Worcester's Academic Dictionary were literally learned and conned by rote to be cast into the teacher's teeth. In 1857, Cutter's Anatomy, Mitchell's Ancient Geography, Classical Dictionary and Lincoln's Botany, all unabridged, were taken. In 1858 the four weeks' session of the teachers' institute in Batavia was a large experience. During the school session of 1858/59 a study of chess was substitued for mathamatics. After that a summer term in George H.Hill's Select School, at Owensville, for geometry and suveying, was easy. Such were the course in one of the country district schools in Clermont " before the war." Though raised on a large farm the amount of a day's plowing was not done. Because of the sequel of a severe attack of scarlet fever in the fourth year, the boy was permitted to ride and hunt at will, and that will was not bad. Without a playmate near, a habit of reading and studing at home was formed that resulted in a love for books, which chiefly included Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Goldsmith, Addison, Burns, Byron, Scott, Moore, Irving, Hawthorne, and the American poets. Everything in the old Ohio School Library was read from the Swiss Family Robinson to the Stones of Venice. In this way the winter of 1859/60 was passed into a summer of squirrel hunting over the father's land in Sterling township. In September, 1860, the classical course was commenced in the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, and followed there or at home to the last page, except the much disliked metaphysical part. A much coveted share in the Union army was hindered by the persistant fever trouble. The unsought charge of the "Union Schools" of Williamsburg for 1865, -66-67 was tendered and accepted. Then for eleven years, needed assistance was given in the extensive business of an aging father. For some five years after 1872, considerable profit was gained in a parnership with John Park for the manufacture of the American Pruner. In 1875-76 much time was used in administering upon the estate of the maternal grandfather, John Glancy. In 1876-77, time and money were freely spent in securing the Cincinnati & Eastern Railroad. Much time was occupied in 1876-77-78 as the executor of his father's estate. His time was still farther employed in 1878-79-80-81- as superintendant of the Williamsburg schools. In 1879 a partnership was formed with Oscar Snell for the manufacture of novelty goods in wood, which an eighty horse power engine and saw mill were placed on lot #59, with an iron roofed and sided building 40x130 feet, well stocked with machinery. But, in the financial stringency of that period, manufacturing interests suffered most of all, and so the promising but ill-timed firm of Snell and Williams was closed in 1885, and all the debts were paid by Williams, who quit manufacturing with some loss and much experience. In November, 1884, the unsought appointment as school examiner for Clemont County was accepted by Judge James B. Swing, to be in a board with James Hulick and the justly celebrated educator Dr. Frank B. Dyer. That association was a turning point to a more definate concentration of effort for a better purpose than a chase for coin. In Septemeber, 1885, the duty of superintending the Williamsburg schools was taken for two years, during which the high school at that place was established and the first class of ten students was graduated April 21,1886. The duties of the President of the Clermont County Teachers' Institute during the sessions of 1886 and 1887 at New Richmond were done when and where the greatest expansion of that Institution was attained. In September, 1887 the duty of superintending the Milford schools was undertaken and performed for three years. A purpose to undertake work on a public platform was delayed by urgings to go to the front line in the original effort to introduce and establish graduation from the common schools as a prime factor of our educational system. The success of that effort has been mentioned on another page. [If Byron Williams had done nothing else for mankind, the work of that year gratuitously given, is worth to his memory all that it cost him, For in that year result, his work as a public school teacher, in the pleasant words of Dr. Dyer, " closed in a blaze of glory." ] With that and and nine years as a school examiner, the best at home, for a teacher, had been attained. The village had been served three terms in the council, and, when not teaching, ten years in the board of education. Clermont Social Lodge of the Masonic fraternity had had nineteen years of official service, of which ten were in the master's chair. Chances to teach larger schools abroad were not considered but, instead, several trips were made to our Navy yards, Goverment shops and military posts, which were much study was given from the civil point of view to our navel strength. After other lecture work, the lecture on " Our New Navy " was placed on the professional platform for the season of 1892-3, and won immediate favor. A lecture on " Our Young Defenders," or Cadet Life at West Point and Annapolis; and another named " From the Ohio to the Hudson via Vicksburg and Appomattox," or From the Cradle to the Tomb of Grant, were added with fine public approval. This work was continued through twenty five States and until 1900 with a gratifying mass of press clippings. Then a history was prepared for Thirey and Mitchell's Encyclopedic Work on Clermont County. The time between February, 1907, and May, 1908, was intensely occupied with the composition and imposition of the Centennial History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, which is rated by librarians as the most profusely and elogantly illustrated county work yet published. The preparation of a fitting text for the beautiful pages, while a grateful was also a most exacting task. Besides other prose and metrical work, both published and unprinted, much of a history of Cincinnati and Hamilton county was written for an unfinsihed work. Much of the year 1912 and 1913 has been employed with the historical part of these volumes. [ Which this submitter has in her library.] Except for temporary absence, Byron Willams had lived since December 9, 1862, in the ancestral home, still more endeared by the presence of the wife he married, June 14, 1866, and as the birthplace of their children. Mrs. Williams, once known as Katherine Park, is the third daughter of John and Elizabeth Park, as told on other pages of this work, in which their son, Maj. Dion Williams, is sketched. Their daughters, Ella and Louise, are graduates of the Williamsburg High School. Louise married Charles R Kain, for six years a clerk in the Cincinnati postoffice, and the eldest child of Albion T. and Elizabeth Kain. The children of Charles R. and Elizabeth Kain are Eldon Williams and Katherine Eloise. Though trained, believing and efficient in home makng, as the best of woman's life, Katherine Park Williams has shared in the trend of time. While in Milford, in 1887 to 1890, she was one of the Beechhurst Circle that developed into the Progress Club. On returning to Williamsburg, in 1890, at her home was organized the Friendship Circle that has followed in 1897, by the Vesta Club. In these societies for woman's sake every call was favorably answered. In 1886 she was a charter member of the largely successful J.H. Jenkins Women Relief Corps, of which she was secretary and president four or five years each. She was secretary of the association that erected the beautiful Soldier's Monument in Williamsburg. She was all but unanimously elected a member of the Williamsburg Board of Education, of which she was chosen clerk, and then president, for one year each. As the daughter of a Mason and the wife of another, she is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, of which her daughter Ella, is also a member, and has served numerous years as secretary of Celestine chapter. Ella Williams has been closely associated with club affairs, in which she has been secretary and president, with much work on executive committees. But her chief concern has been to secure for the community a public library, of which she has freely and continously served as the librarian. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Continued in part 11.