John Williams was born on April 22, 1825, in Philadelphia. He never knew his father, and his mother placed him in the care of ship captain Theophilus B. Husted when he was two weeks old. Husted remained there until around 1836, when his uncle Silas Williams brought him to Clermont County, Ohio. He later wrote that he had “always been of a roving disposition.” He “traveled considerable [distances] by railroad and steam boats up and down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans” and “traveled to some extent in the western states.”

 

He married a woman named Achsah around 1847, and they had at least six children: Silas, born around 1847; Arthur, born around 1851; Elizabeth, born around 1854; Laura, born around 1857; Sarah, born around 1860; and Albertina, born around 1862. They lived in Tate, Ohio, and Williams worked as a farmer. By 1850, he owned $200 of real estate.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on July 23, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company F of the 34^th Ohio Infantry. The regiment took part in the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1864. Union officials consolidated the regiment with the 36^th Ohio Infantry in February 1865. Williams mustered out on July 27, 1865.

 

He settled in Goshen, Ohio, after the war and resumed his work as a farmer. He remained in Goshen for the rest of his life, and he died there of heart disease on January 5, 1907.

SOURCES