BIO: Samuel H. WILLIAMS, Centre County, Pennsylvania

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the 
Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical 
Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 96-97

SAMUEL H. WILLIAMS [portrait], one, of Bellefonte's able and enterprising 
merchants, is a man whose history bears witness to a high ideal of citizenship. 
A gallant soldier, a successful businessman, a progressive and public-spirited 
citizen, his example is worthy of emulation.
  On his father's side, Capt. Williams descended from an old Dutch family that 
lived in Lancaster County, Penn. His ancestors, however, had resided farther 
east prior to their location in this State. David F. Williams, his grandfather, 
a hatter by trade, was born in Lancaster county, and married Miss Lydia Scott, a 
member of one of the pioneer families of Chester County. He passed the last 
years of his life with a daughter Elizabeth, who had married James Canon, and 
lived at Port Matilda in Centre County. Of his other children: one son was 
killed in the Mexican war; Thomas F. died in Lancaster county, Penn.; and John 
F. became the father of our subject. The latter was a native of Chester County, 
and he, too, made choice of the hatter's trade. And located at Downingtown, in 
that county, He married Eliza Bunting, a daughter of Samuel Bunting, who came 
from the North of Ireland with his wife and settled on a farm on Muddy Run in 
Chester County, which is still in the possession of the Bunting family. Of the 
six children of John F. and wife, our subject was the eldest, the others being: 
Morgan R., who entered the army from Chester County, serving in 

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 97

the 106th P.V.I., and died from the effects of wounds received in the battle of 
Fair Oaks; David, who died from inflammatory rheumatism; Horatio, now engaged in 
business in California; and John and Annie, both of whom died in infancy.
  Capt. Williams is a native of Chester County, where his birth occurred March 
19, 1839. At the age of fifteen he left his early home to learn the trade of 
house painting with his uncle by marriage, a resident of Stormstown, Centre 
County. His apprenticeship was barely ended when the Civil war broke out, and he 
was among the first to answer President Lincoln's call for defenders, enlisting 
April 19, 1861, in Company H, 7th P.V.I. In August of that year he returned 
home, his term having expired; but in February, 1862, he re-enlisted in Company 
H, 56th P.V.I., and served until hostilities ended, receiving his discharge July 
I, 1865. His regiment was incorporated in the Army of the Potomac at its 
organization, and his entire service was in connection with it, and ended only 
with its disbandment. Capt. Williams was a gallant soldier, and his military 
record is a highly honorable one, and is one to which his children and his 
children's children can refer to with pride. Enlisting as a private soldier, he 
rose step by step until he became captain. For a time he served as a musician; 
became a sergeant, was commissioned second lieutenant of Company H, 56th P.V.I.; 
was brevetted first lieutenant and commissioned October, 1864; was brevetted 
captain of Company I, same regiment, and commissioned in February, 1865. He 
shared the fate of the Army of the Potomac from the beginning to the end, 
participating in the numerous skirmishes and engagements of the regiment, among 
which were: Gainsville, Groveton, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, 
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, in 
front of Petersburg, Hatcher's Run, Yellow House and Five Forks. The Captain 
reenlisted in 1864 as a veteran.
  At the close of the war Capt. Williams located at Philipsburg, in Centre 
county, where he followed his trade until 1868, when he moved to Bellefonte, 
which borough has since been his place of business and home. He has for years 
been engaged in business in the line of paints, oils, wallpaper, picture frames, 
etc. He is active and influential in business circles and especially interested 
and prominent in military affairs. For the past fifteen years, or longer, Capt. 
Williams has been identified with the N.G.P.; in 1880 and 1881 he was on Gen. 
Beaver's staff; and for several years following this he was on the staff of Gen. 
Wylie as brigade commissary sergeant of the 2nd Brigade of the N.G.P. He served 
eight years as quartermaster of the 5th Regiment N.G.P., commanded by Col. 
Birchfield, his term expiring February 28, 1897. In politics he is a Republican, 
and for five years he served as a school director, and six years as a member of 
the borough council, Socially he is a member of the F. & A. M.; of the G. A. R. 
Post at Bellefonte, of which he is past commander; also past colonel of Camp 59, 
U.V.L.
  On November 1, 1865, Mr. Williams was married to Miss Sarah McMillen, a native 
of Huntingdon County, Penn., and to this marriage were born four children, 
namely: Horatio C., painter by trade, who married Miss Della Osmer; John H. also 
a painter, who married Miss Myrtle Bullock; Ella, the wife of A. Lincoln 
McGinley, and has two children-Sarah and Margery; and Willis Edgar, at home. 
Mrs. Williams died in 1880, and in 1880 Mr. Williams was united in marriage with 
Miss Laura E. Hamilton, and they have one child, Marilla, born at Bellefonte on 
December 4, 1883, and now one of the bright girls of the Bellefonte High School. 
The mother, Mrs. Laura E. Williams, a daughter of the venerable James Hamilton 
and wife, of Bellefonte, a record of whose lives is given elsewhere in this 
volume, was born on the old Hamilton homestead near Pleasant Gap, in Centre 
County, where she received the benefit of the neighborhood schools, but later 
was sent to the boarding school at Jacksonville, where her education was 
completed. Mrs. Williams has been a member of the M. E. Church from girlhood, 
and is active in the Ladies Auxiliary society of the Church. She is an estimable 
lady.