BIOGRAPHY: William WILLIAMS, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 248-9
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WILLIAM WILLIAMS, a young attorney of Johnstown, this county, was born January 
3, 1863, in Pittsburg, and is a son of Thomas and Margaret (Morgan) Williams. 
The trans-Atlantic origin of the family of which Mr. Williams is a member is in 
the little principality of Wales. His paternal grandfather, John Williams, was a 
native of North Wales, and lived and died in the land of his nativity.
     Thomas Williams, father, was born in North Wales on December 25, 1813, and 
died in Indiana county, this State, April 28, 1878. He was reared in his native 
country, and, like so many of his countrymen, was an iron-worker by trade, and 
followed that trade there until 1850, when he sought a new home in America, with 
its more liberal economic conditions. As Pittsburg was the centre of the great 
iron industry of this country at that time, he located in that city, and plied 
his trade there until 1863, when he removed to a farm he had purchased in the 
vicinity of Pine Flats, in Indiana county, in 1853. He had purchased a large 
tract of land in that section, and after locating thereon was engaged in the 
improving of it, and clearing it to cultivation. This led naturally to 
lumbering, and, in addition to farming and stock-raising, he was for a number of 
years engaged in that industry. Politically he was a whig, but upon the 
disruption of that party became a republican, with which party he affiliated the 
rest of his life. He was a reader and a thinker, and kept well posted on the 
political issues of the day, but was in no sense a politician.
     He was a devout Christian, and a zealous member of the Welsh Calvinistic 
Methodist church, and in that organization held the office of elder, both in 
Pittsburg and in his country home. He was three times married. He wedded, as his 
first wife, Elizabeth Jones, and to their union were born seven children, four 
of whom died in infancy. Those who lived to maturity were as follows: John, who 
is located in Scottdale, Westmoreland county, this State, where he is engaged as 
foreman in a large iron-working establishment. He entered the Civil War near the 
beginning of the conflict, in the Eighteenth regiment, Pennsylvania cavalry. He 
served three years, and saw much of the stern realities of war, and at the 
battle of Winchester, Virginia, was wounded and taken prisoner; Elizabeth, wife 
of Robert Morris, of Indiana county; and Thomas of Pittsburg.
     His second marital union, in April 1855, was with Margaret Morgan, of 
Wales. She came to this country with her brother, David Morgan, and her death 
occurred May 10, 1867. To the latter union were born the following children: 
David, who graduated from the Indiana State Normal school in the class of 1881, 
and is at present a superintendent of schools in the City of Quincy, Illinois; 
Sarah Ann, deceased, was the wife of Samuel Griffith; Catherine J., wife of 
Morris D. Jones, a merchant of Johnstown: William, the subject of this sketch; 
Mary Irene, who graduated from the Indiana State Normal school in the class of 
1887, and has since followed the profession of teaching, and is at present 
holding a position in Spellman Seminary, at Atlanta, Georgia; and Evan, who died 
in infancy.
     In February of 1869 Mr. Williams married as his third wife Ann Elizabeth 
Coy, and three children, Lewis C., Robert R. and Maggie Belle, blessed this 
marriage. They all reside at Grisemore, Indiana county.
     William Williams attended the common schools, and at the age of eighteen 
took up the profession of teaching. In 1882 he entered the Indiana State Normal 
school, and pursued his studies during two years, and graduated in the class of 
1884. After completing the course in that institution, he taught two terms in 
the borough schools of Johnstown, and one term as principal of the schools of 
Wilcox, Elk county, Pennsylvania. In 1887 he returned to Johnstown and taught a 
portion of another term, when, having decided to study law, he entered the 
office of W. Horace Rose, Esq., and, after pursuing the necessary course, and 
passing the required examination, was admitted to practice at the Cambria county 
bar January 12, 1891, and has practiced in that county ever since.
     His marriage with Agnes C., a daughter of John W. and Matilda Gardner, of 
Jenner township, Somerset county, this State, has been blessed in the birth of 
three children; Bruce Cardiff, Ora May, and Raymond Eugene.