Richard Williams Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1655-1656 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	RICHARD WILLIAMS, one of the prominent business men and 
representative citizens of Langford, Marshall county, was born in 
Cambria, Columbia county, Wisconsin, on the 16th of May, 1857, and is a 
son of William A. Williams, who was born, reared and married in Wales. 
He married Margaret Thomas, a native of Wales, and they became numbered 
among the very early settlers of Wisconsin, where they took up their 
residence about 1850. There his wife died in 1861, when the subject of 
this sketch was but four years of age, and the father thereafter 
continued to reside in Wisconsin until 1880, when he accompanied our 
subject to what is now the state of South Dakota, first locating in 
Brown county, whence both came to Langford in 1887, and here they are 
still living, the father being seventy-nine years of age at the time of 
this writing, in 1904, and being well preserved in both mind and body. 

	Richard Williams was educated in the common schools of his native 
county, and was engaged in farm work in Wisconsin until coming to South 
Dakota, in the fall of 1880. He settled in Brown county, having made the 
trip on foot from Milbank to Columbia, as the former place was at the 
time the western terminus of the railroad. He filed claim to a homestead 
near the present town of Bath and then returned to Wisconsin for the 
winter. In the following spring he returned to his homestead and 
initiated the work of developing the same. He remained on his farm until 
the spring of 1886, when he located in the village of Columbia, Brown 
county, where he engaged in the implement business, in which line he 
continued operations there until 1887, when he sold out and removed to 
Langford, Marshall county, and there became associated with his brother 
Rowland in the hardware business, under the firm name of Williams 
Brothers. They conducted the largest business of the sort in the county 
until 1892, when the subject sold his interest to his brother, the 
latter continuing the enterprise until his death. After retiring from 
the hardware business Mr. Williams was engaged in the farming implement 
business until 1900, since which time he has devoted his attention to 
the real-estate business and to farming, being the owner of extensive 
interests in the latter line, while his real-estate operations are of 
very considerable scope and importance. He is the owner of valuable 
farming lands in both Marshall and Day counties. 

	Concerning his public career we are able to quote from an 
appreciative article published in a local newspaper: "Mr. Williams has 
been more or less prominent in public affairs ever since coming to the 
state. In 1882 he was deputy assessor of Brown county and personally 
assessed most all the land in Brown county lying east of the Jim river, 
also a portion lying west of the river, including the city of Aberdeen. 
That same fall he was in charge of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 
Railroad Company's exhibit of South Dakota agricultural products at the 
Milwaukee exposition, which did much to attract the attention of home-
seekers toward the new state. In 1887 he was elected president of the 
first board of trustees of the town of Langford, and has often been re-
elected to the same office. In the fall of 1892 he was unanimously 
nominated by the Republicans of Marshall county for the office of county 
treasurer, but owing to the pressure of a personal business resulting 
from the death of his brother he withdrew from the race, though there is 
no doubt but that he would have been successful at the polls. He has 
been for the past nine years a member of the board of trustees of the 
grand lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen of South Dakota, and 
was for eight years chairman of that board, being held in high esteem in 
the councils of the organization. In 1889 Mr. Williams was elected a 
member of the first senate of the new state, from Marshall county, and 
in 1898 he was re-elected to the senate as representative of the thirty-
second district, comprising the counties of Day and Marshall. This 
district had been overwhelmingly Populist for two preceding elections, 
but owing to the strong hold Mr. Williams had on the friendship and 
confidence of the people he defeated the fusion nominee and served his 
constituents so faithfully and satisfactorily that he was unanimously 
renominated by the Republican senatorial convention of his district in 
1900, and was again triumphantly elected to the responsible office in 
which he had rendered so effective service." 

	Mr. Williams has been an enthusiastic worker in the cause of the 
Republican party and is an able advocate of its principles and policies. 
In addition to holding membership in the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, as already noted, he is also identified with the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. He and his wife are valued members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church in Langford, and he is also a member of its 
board of trustees. 

	On the 27th of January, 1887, at Columbia, Brown county, was 
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Williams to Miss Ida H. Reynolds, who was 
born in the city of Chicago, Illinois, on the 8th of April, I86I, being 
a daughter of Elihu G. and Ruth Reynolds, both of whom are now deceased. 
Mr. and Mrs. Williams have three children, Arthur, aged seventeen, 
Richard Glen, aged fifteen, and Gladys, aged nine, in 1904.