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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jefferson County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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E. W. Williams, a bachelor of Leland, and one of the largest and most successful planters of the county, as he is one of the deservedly popular residents, is a native of Tennessee, having been born in Memphis, in 1850. His father, Gen. Joseph R. Williams, came originally from Petersburg, Va., but as a citizen of Tennessee became a prominent man and a lawyer of ability and influence, his extensive wealth adding largely to a just reputation. He was a member of the State militia of Tennessee before the war, and belonged to the Memphis Blues, of which he was captain. He owned large interests in Memphis, to which he devoted most of his time, not practicing the legal profession in later life. He was once a member of the I. O. O. F. His death occurred in 1881 at the age of sixty years. His wife, formerly Miss Jane T. Wilkins, of Kentucky nativity, is still living in Memphis, in fair health, at the age of sixty years. Mr. and Mrs. Williams were the parents of nine children, five of whom are living, and of these our subject was the eldest. In 1809 Mr. Williams came to Arkansas, locating at his present residence, which was then in Arkansas County. He received a liberal education, partly in Toronto, Canada, and at Washington and Lee University, Virginia, becoming well informed as a student, and in after life a man of wide reputation through his extensive reading. He now has upward of 22,000 acres of land under his control, is proprietor of a general supply store for the hands that work on the place, and has one of the largest gin houses on the river. Mr. Williams is a genial, whole-souled man, thoroughly liked by all his acquaintances. The place on which he lives is one of the oldest settled farms in the county, his father having been first married in the present house May 12, 1845, to Miss Elizabeth H. Taylor, daughter of Lewis Taylor, one of the early settlers of Arkansas, who came from Virginia in 1838, and located part of this place. Elizabeth was born in 1826 and died in 1847; they had one son, now deceased.

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This family biography is one of 136 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jefferson County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Jefferson County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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