John W. Williams, a veteran of the Civil war and the
acknowledged pioneer in this
county in the breeding of Poland China
hogs, for many years one of the outstanding
figures in livestock circles
in this section of Indiana, now living practically retired on his
well
kept stock farm, Homestead Stock Farm in Jackson township, is a native son
of Jay
county, a member of one of the real pioneer families of the
county, and has lived here
all his life.
Mr. Williams was born on a farm in Wayne township, this
county, November 10, 1845, and is a son of Samuel K. and Emelia (Gray)
Williams, the latter of whom was born in the vicinity of Greenville, in
Darke county, Ohio, and was a daughter of Jesse Gray, Indian fighter, mighty
hunter and skillful trapper. Jesse Gray was one of the most picturesque
figures of the Mississinnewa country in the days when
orderly settlement
was being effected throughout this region. He died at his home in
Noble
township, this county, in 1872, he then being eighty years of age, and was
buried
in the old cemetery at Camden, now Pennville, and concerning whom
further and
interesting details are set out elsewhere in this work, the
older chronicles of the county
having had much to say of his activities
hereabout in pioneer days. Samuel K. Williams was born in Miami county,
Ohio, and there grew to manhood. As a young man he became attracted to the
possibilities awaiting settlers in this section of Indiana and he came to
Jay county and entered from the Government a quarter section of land in
Wayne township, this county, where he established his home and remained
until 1851 when he moved to Jackson township, establishing his home on a
quarter of a
section he had bought there, theplace now owned and
occupied by his son John, and
there he spent the remainder of his life.
He was a good farmer and judge. of land values
and became the owner of
480 acres of land in this county, and for years also was widely
known as
a stock buyer.
He and his wife were the parents of seven children, those
besides the subject of this sketch having been Dorothy Elizabeth, Mary,
James H., Charles S., Robena and Jesse. Reared amid pioneer conditions, John
W. Williams was six years of age when his parents moved from Wayne township
to Jackson township
and he received his schooling in a log school house
known as the Poling school in this latter township. He was fifteen years of
age when the Civil war broke out and when seventeen years and six months of
age he enlisted his services in behalf of the Union cause and went to the
front as a member of Company B of the 138th regiment, Indiana Volunteer
Infantry, with which he served for four months. Upon the completion of his
military service he returned to the home farm and there remained until his
marriage
when his father gave him a tract of sixty acres of uncleared
land and he began farming
"on his own," clearing the land and making a
farm out of it. After his father's death he
bought from the other heirs
their interest in the home quarter section in Jackson
township and has
since resided there, meanwhile increasing his holdings until he
became
the. owner of 380 acres, two hundred acres of which he has recently divided
among his five children, giving to each one a "forty."
In 1865 Mr. Williams began breeding Poland China hogs,
buying his first breeding stock from Bob Riggs, of Oxford, Ohio, and he ever
since has been one of the leaders in the development and promotion
of
this strain of swine, one of the organizers of the local association of
breeders of
registered Poland China's in this county and for many years
one of the foremost exhibitors of that strain in the swine shows of the
country. Mr. Williams has shipped the products of his breeding pens to every
state in the Union and has also shipped to Europe. He is now the oldest
Poland China breeder living and his name is known wherever stock breeders
meet. For more than fifty years Mr. Williams has been an
exhibitor at
the Jay county fair and for more than a quarter of acentury at the Indiana
state fair. The best boar he ever owned was the famous "Giant Buster," which
died in 1920 and for which he had declined an offer of $20,000. Exhibits
from his pens have been made at most of the great stock shows of the country
and he has taken prizes in all of them. He also for forty years has given
his attention to the raising of pure bred Shropshire sheep and for the past
fifteen years has been breeding pure bred Shorthorn
cattle and has done
much toward promoting these strains her eabout.
Mr. Williams is a Republican and is a member of the Friends
church at Poling. He is a Freemason,
affiliated with the local lodge of
the Free and Accepted Masons at Portland, and is also a member of the local
post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Portland. John W. Williams has
been twice married, his first wife having been Rhoda Grdner, daughter of
William and Mahalia Gardner.
To that union three children were born, two sons and a
daughter, Samuel Morton, who died at the age of fifteen years, Worthy C. and
Emma J., the latter of whom married Harry Miles and has five children,
Marjorie, Esther, Mary, John and Robert Worthy C. Williams married Delpha
Goff and has ten children, Wayne, Ward, Wave, John, Charles Warner, Robert,
Ruby, Opal, Dorothy and Delpha. Of these children, Wayne Williams married
Mabel Hufferand has four children. Ward Williams married Gladys Jones and
has two children.
Wave Williams married Georgiana Beard and has one child, and Ruby Williams married Ralph Nine and has four children, Mr. Williams thus having eleven great-grandchildren, in whom he takes much delight. Following the death of his first wife Mr. Williams married Margaret Haffner, daughter of John Haffnerand who died on August 16, 1920, and to that union six children were born, three of whom, William, James H. and John Carl, are living. William Williams married Alta Jones and has six children, Gladys, Cecil, Wealthy, Truman, Helena and Mary. James H. Williams married Irma Glendenning and has one child, a daughter, Ruth, and John Carl Williams married Eva Brown and has two children, Frances and Maxine.
Biographical & Historical Record of Jay County, Indiana, Lewis Publishing Company, 1887