My Genealogy Hound

J. P. Williams, general merchant of Grady, Lincoln County, Ark. Nothing is of more interest to the country at large than a comprehensive sketch of the lives of the great men, who by their success and enterprise contribute largely to the welfare of the communities in which they reside. Therefore, a history of Lincoln County, must in order to be complete, contain a sketch of him whose name appears above. He was born in County Cavan, Ireland, in 1828, and is a son of Robert and Mary (Parker) Williams, and is the sixth of eleven children born to his parents. In 1854 he went to Australia, and passed about thirteen years there in the gold mines. Afterward he spent about four years in the mines of New Zealand, after which he emigrated to California, spending two years there, and then coming to Arkansas, locating where Grady now is, where he built a store and started a general line of merchandise. He was instrumental in establishing the post-office which was for years called Williamsburg, in honor of his good deeds. After establishing a fine business at this point he emigrated to Colorado, where for a number of years he engaged in silver-mining, and where he still owns valuable silver mines. He returned to Grady where he has since been a most highly successful merchant. Besides his other possessions, Mr. Williams owns a valuable farm. All this prosperity is due entirely to his own excellent judgment and untiring industry, and Mr. Williams is a citizen who is universally admired and respected by his acquaintances. He is actively interested in promoting the cause of temperance, and is a devout member of the Episcopal Church. His sister Mary lives with him, having moved with her brother, R. Williams, to the United States when quite young. Prof. Robert Williams was a man of fine talent, being for some time a teacher of languages in the Queen’s College at Kingston, Canada, and also teaching in different parts of the United States. For some years he was book-keeper for the Western Union Telegraph Company, at St. Louis, Mo. He was in reality educated for an Episcopal minister but because of loss of hearing was compelled to abandon that plan for his life. He was generally beloved wherever he located, and died in Grady, February 25, 1889. Four sisters came with him to the United States, only two of whom are living at this present writing.