yesterday's tennessee

DUKE WILLIAMS FAMILY NOTES

Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith

Buried in the old Section of the Lexington, Tennessee cemetery are, in one long line, south to north: DUKE WILLIAMS, son of JOHN and ELIZABETH WILLIAMS, born Feb.14, 1768;died Sept.22, 1834. ELIZA JANE WILLIAMS, daughter of C.& JANE ALLISON WILLIAMS, born May ll,1832; died Aug.26,1840. NANCY ALLISON WILLIAMS, daughter of CHRISTOPHER HARRIS WILLIAMS AND JANE ALLISON WILLIAMS, born June 13, 1834; died Sept.7, 1852. DUKE WILLIAMS, son of CHRISTOPHER HARRIS WILLIAMS AND JANE ALLISON WILLIAMS, born July 30, 1827;died Nov.24, 1856. CHRISTOPHER HARRIS WILLIAMS, son of DUKE and EDE HARRIS WILLIAMS, born Dec. 18, 1798;died Nov.22, 1857, with a notation that he had served ten years in Congress from "this" district.

DUKE WILLIAMS' father, JOHN WILLIAMS, of Welsh descent, "wore the British uniform in the French and Indian War. When the Revolution broke out, Williams served as lieutenant colonel of the Hillsboro Minute Men and soon was promoted colonel of the Ninth North Carolina Line. Later he served under George Washington in New Jersey and under Nathanael Greene in North Carolina. After the war he was named Surveyor of the Western Lands of North Carolina. JOHN WILLIAMS left his home and moved into this region, which became Tennessee and settled near Knoxville. "Based upon his military services in the Revolution, his great-great grandson, the Hon. JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS became a member of the Society of the Cincinnati in 1914. (JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS, by George C. Osborn, Baton Rouge,1943, page 2)

DUKE WILLIAMS moved into Henderson County late in his life and is buried in the Lexington Cemetery as indicated above. The burial location of his wife, EDE HARRIS WILLIAMS, is not known to the present writer.

Among DUKE WILLIAMS' children, with EDE HARRIS WILLIAMS, his wife, was a daughter, whose tombstone reads: To the memory of our Mother, LYDIA HARRIS TAYLOR, born in Caswell Co., N.C. Oct.23, 1800; Died at Spring Creek, Tenn. Nov.16, 1831. On the right side of this tombstone is inscribed: Daughter of EDE HARRIS and DUKE WILLIAMS. The SOUTHERN STATESMAN, Jackson, Nov. 19, 1831 mentions her death, as the wife of JESSE TAYLOR and had died Nov.16, leaving a widower and three children. The only other tombstone in this old graveyard is that of LUCY BROWNING wife of Major JESSE TAYLOR, 1831-1887. The WEST TENNESSEE WHIG, Jackson, April 27, 1887, mentions the death of LUCY, wife of Major JESSE TAYLOR, died in Jackson, April 25, 1887; burial at Spring Creek. These Taylors kept a girls' school at Spring Creek in the 1870s."Colonel Taylor's cemetery" is located in northeast Madison County; about 1.1 mile north of the crossroads in the village of Spring Creek, at a point on U.S. Highway 70,turn west into a private driveway, drive past the frame house and at about .1 mile begin to walk to a high point in a field due west about .4 mile from U.S. Highway 70 to this cemetery, terraced off from the surrounding ground. In Madison County deed book 4, page 85 this cemetery is called "Colonel Taylor's graveyard," referring to Colonel SAMUEL TAYLOR, postmaster at Forked Deer Post Office, the first such office in the Spring Creek area and later he was Jackson's first postmaster. Colonel Taylor died of tuberculosis, November 6,1825 in Jackson and was buried in the town's oldest cemetery and his remains were later moved to what is now Riverside Cemetery. Members of his family continued to bury at the family graveyard near Spring Creek.

The annual returns of Masonic Lodge 64,Constantine Lodge, Lexington, mentions the deaths of DUKE WILLIAMS, March 24, 1856 and CHRISTOPHER H. WILLIAMS, Nov. 22,1857.

CHRISTOPHER HARRIS WILLIAMS, son of DUKE and EDE HARRIS WILLIAMS, was a prominent Tennessean. BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONGRESS,1774-197l (Washington, 1971), page 1926:

WILLIAMS, Christopher Harris (grandfather of John Sharp Williams), a Representative from Tennessee; born near Hillsboro, Orange County, N. C., December 18, 1798; pursued an academic course and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studied law; was admitted to the bar about 1820 and practiced; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1837-March 3, 1843); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1842 to the Twenty-eighth Congress; delegate to several State and National conventions; was elected to the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses (March 4,1849-March 3,1853); was not a candidate for renomination in 1852; resumed the practice of law in Lexington, Henderson County, Tenn., and died there November 27, 1857; interment in Lexington Cemetery.

U.S.Census, 1850, October 31, Henderson County, civil district 10, page 183:

CHRISTOPHER H.WILLIAMS, age 52, lawyer, born North Carolina
JANE WILLIAMS, age 45, born Tennessee
DUKE WILLIAMS, age 22, born Tennessee; a physician
CHRISTOPHER H. WILLIAMS, age 20, born Tennessee; lawyer
NANCY A.WILLIAMS, age 16, born Tenn.
SARAH C. WILLIAMS, age 13,born Tenn.
LAURA J. WILLIAMS, age 10, born Tenn.

CHRISTOPHER HARRIS WILLIAMS, JR. who moved "from Lexington to Memphis and, choosing his father's profession, went into Henry G. Smith's law office. Later he became Smith's partner and still later the firm became Williams and McKisick with an office on the north side of Court Square. On May 30, 1853, the successful young lawyer married ANNE LOUISE SHARP ... her father, JOHN McKNITT SHARP, was captain of Company A, Mississippi Rifles, under the command of Colonel Jefferson Davis during the Mexican War." (Osburn, page 3)

C. H. WILLIAMS, JR., nickname "Kit" Williams, served as colonel of the 27th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, CSA, and was killed in the battle of Shiloh, April 1862 and along with his wife, who predeceased him, is buried in the Sharp family cemetery near Yazoo City, Mississippi.

Their son was JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS, born July 30,1854 and died Sept.27, 1932, who became a distinguished member of Congress and senator from Mississippi. (See, his biographical sketch in DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, ed. by Dumas Malone (New York,1936),volume 10, page 277.

Other works by Jonathan K. T. Smith can be found at the Madison County Records Repository at TNGenWeb.