My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in the book, The History of Putnam County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1888.  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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A. J. Williams, county clerk, was born in Gallia County, Ohio, January 7, 1853, where he lived until about twenty-one years of age, when he came to Putnam County, Mo., locating in Grant Township, where he taught school for five years. He then interested himself exclusively in agricultural pursuits until the fall of 1882, at which time he was elected to his present office by the Republican party, and was afterward re-elected in the fall of 1886. April 9, 1876, he married Eliza E. Minear, daughter of Rev. Alpheus, a United Brethren minister, and pioneer of Putnam County, who still resides in Grant Township. To them one son and two daughters have been born: William Ernest, Bertha L. and Maggie L. Mr. Williams belongs to the F. & A. M. and A. O. U. W. William Williams, Sr., the paternal grandfather, was born in Fairfax County, Va., September 17, 1757, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, serving in the Continental Regulars eighteen months, enduring many hardships and receiving no pay. He was in the battles of Camden and Guilford, and the-siege of “Ninety-Six.” In 1832 Congress passed a law which gave him a pension, but his death occurring August 23, 1832, he never received it. He was married, in Greenbrier County, W. Va., to Mary Watts, May 21, 1795. This lady was born in Maryland in 1776, and was a descendant of a Scottish family of the name of Watts. She died in 1860. Her husband died in Gallia County, Ohio, where he immigrated during the early history of the State. The father of our subject, William, was born in Greenbrier County, Va., December 8, 1808, and married in Ohio, September 11, 1834, to Lucinda Allison, a native of Gallia County, and born January 25, 1816, and still a resident of that county, where William died July 4, 1887. Three of their children died in infancy, but six sons and one daughter were reared to maturity; one son has since died. One son, James K., served in the Eighteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and two others, William H. and John H., were in the 100-days’ service. The maternal grandfather, Allison, of A. J., was born in Virginia, served in the War of 1812, and died in 1872 at the age of eighty years. The grandmother (Carter) Allison, was a native of Virginia, and in early childhood located opposite Mount Pleasant.

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This family biography is one of 139 biographies included in the Putnam County, Missouri portion of the book,  The History of Adair, Sullivan, Putnam, and Schuyler Counties, Missouri published in 1888 by Goodspeed Publishing Co.  For the complete description, click here: Putnam County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Putnam County, Missouri family biographies here: Putnam County, Missouri Biographies

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