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COLONEL JOHN WILLIAMS, one of the pioneer merchants, and one of Sangamon county's most enterprising, highly esteemed and successful business men, was born in Bath county, Kentucky, September 11, 1808. His paternal ancestors emigrated from Wales and settled in Virginia, where his father, James Williams, was born. His maternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, of the Presbyterian order, and settled in Pennsylvania. His mother, Hannah Mappin, was born near Pittsburg, in 1776. After marrying, his parents settled in Kentucky, from whence they moved to Illinois in 1823, and settled on the farm still owned by the subject of this memoir, and where they both ended their earthly life a number of years ago.
Mr. Williams' school privileges were confined to the primitive log school house of Bath county, and chiefly to the winter terms, his summers being occupied with labor on the farm; but being fond of books and study he made the most of what advantages offered. At fourteen years of age he began mercantile life, as store boy, in the store of J. T. Bryan, in Kentucky. He received no salary the first year, and the second year $50 and board was the compensation. In the fall of 1824, having completed his engagements, he, in company with several of his father's old neighbors, came on horseback to Illinois, and after visiting at his father's house two weeks, proceeded to Springfield, arriving October 11, 1824, and at once entered the employ of Major Elijah Iles as store boy, at a salary of $10 per month and board. At the end of a year, Mr. Iles credited him with $150, and offered him for the next year's services $200, which was accepted, and this was the annual amount received for five successive years of labor. In the fall of 1830, Mr. Iles wishing to retire from business, Mr. Williams bought his stock on four quarterly payments, started out as proprietor of the store, with a capital of $300, saved form his small salary in the six years. By energetic application and management, the payments of the purchase money were promptly met, and having a good credit the young merchant bought goods to keep up his stock, and by discounting his bills before due, saved paying interest. Pursuing the plan of his predecessor in honorable dealing and strict justice to his customers, success crowned the years of Mr. Williams' life, which, with two brief intermissions, extended over a period of fifty years, as proprietor of the business, beginning in September, 1830, and closing with the sale of the business to C. A. Gehrmann in September, 1880. A part of this time he had several different parties successively as partners. During the last twenty-five years George N. Black was in company with him.
In 1864, upon the organization of the First National Bank of Springfield, in which he was the prime mover, mr. Williams became its President, and held the office about eleven years, when he sold out his stock. When the Springfield & Northwestern Railroad was being built, Mr. Williams loaned the contractors $50,000, and other amounts subsequently, amounting in the aggregate to $200,000. The company being unable to repay the money, he had a receiver appointed, and after four years of his administration, the road was sold in 1878, by order of the court, and Mr. Williams became the purchaser. Upon the re-organization of the company, Mr. Williams owning a controlling interest, was made President of the road, which office expired by the sale of his stock in July, 1880, to parties in the interest of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company. In the summer of 1872, Mr. Williams, in partnership with George N. Black and S. H. Melvin, formed the Barclay Coal and Mining Company. They sunk the shaft the same year at
Barclay, eight miles from Springfield, on the Illinois Central Railroad. The company - now composed of Mr. Williams, George N. Black and Samuel Yocum - owns eighty seven acres in fee simple, on which they have erected over forty tenement houses, also the coal right of twelve hundred acres, and fifty coal cars. They employ from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five miners, and mine from four hundred to five hundred tons per day. Mr. Williams owns a number of pieces of city property and several farms, principal among them are the homestead of one hundred and forty acres, in and adjoining the corporate limits of Springfield, and a splendid farm of seventeen hundred acres in Menard county, near Athens, where his father first settled. At the breaking out of the late war, Colonel Williams was appointed Commissary General of Illinois, by Governor Yates, which position he filled six months, till the United States Government was prepared to take charge of the troops. He was afterwards appointed at the head of the
Sanitary Commission for Illinois, to receive and forward supplies donated to the soldiers. He served in this capacity, without compensation, about two years. He was nominated and run for Congress in this district in 1856, on the Fremont and Filmore ticket, and ran nearly two thousand ahead of his ticket, but the district being Democratic by about four thousand, he was beaten two thousand one hundred votes. He was one of the Board of Water Commissioners during the building of the City Water Works. Is President of the Barclay Coal Company. Colonel Williams was one of the original Trustees of the Lincoln Monument Association, and still retains that position. He is also a large stockholder and a Director of the Springfield Iron Company. In 1840, Colonel John Williams united in marriage with Lydia Porter, a native of Livingston county, New York, but a resident of Sangamon county, Illinois, at that time; six children have been born to them, all living, viz: Louisa I., the wife of George N. Black; Albert P., John
E., Julia J., the wife of A. Orendorff; George and Henry C. Williams. Mr. and Mrs. Williams are members of the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield.