My Genealogy Hound

Capt. Lewis N. Williams is a stock trader and farmer of Roc Roe Township, and was born in Bedford County, Tenn., in 1836, being the youngest of six sons born to William D. and Mary A. (Phillips) Williams, the former born in North Carolina, and the latter in Tennessee. They were married in the mother’s native State, and here the father was engaged in farming and stock trading. His death occurred while serving in the Confederate army. His wife followed him to the grave a few years later, her death occurring in Texas while on a visit to a son. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church. Lewis N. Williams received very limited early educational advantages, and at the early age of thirteen years, left home and went to Texas, where he spent some years working on a farm and in the stock business on the frontier. In 1862 he joined Company C of a Texas Battalion, and after the fight at Elk Horn, his company was reorganized at Des Arc, and became the First Texas Legion, afterward operating east of the Mississippi River. He was made orderly-sergeant of his company, was promoted to lieutenant, and finally for meritorious conduct was raised to the rank of captain. At the evacuation of Corinth, he lost his right arm, but remained with the army about a year longer, although not on active duty. He returned to Texas after this, and ran a wagon train of about twenty ox teams in Western Texas, being engaged in hauling cotton for the Government, and at the time of the final surrender was at Brownsville, Texas. He has spent many years of his life on the frontier, and has endured many hardships and privations, and has had many hairbreadth escapes from death, having been robbed several times. His life has been an eventful and interesting one, full of excitement and romance, and in all the difficulties he has encountered in his walk through life, he has met and surmounted them all. He first came to Monroe County, Ark., in 1867, but in 1870-71 was in the stock commission business in Memphis, and while there lost all his accumulations of years, and was left $1,000 in debt. He then returned to Monroe County, engaged extensively in stock dealing, and is now one of the wealthiest men of Monroe County, being the owner of about 4,000 acres of land. He has been interested in the development of the county, morally, intellectually and socially, and has the reputation of being a man of progressive views, thoroughly posted in all public matters. He is a Democrat politically, a member of the Famous Life Association, and in 1872 was united in marriage to Miss Dora Miller, a native of Mississippi, who died in 1883. His second marriage was consummated in 1884, his wife being Miss Josie Cannon, a native of Arkansas County, and a member of the Methodist Church.