ZACHARIAH C. WILLIAMS

The following bio was taken from page 448 of the book entitled " Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

Zachariah C. Williams, son of Zachariah Williams and Sarah Davis, grandson of Drury Williams and Tabitha Marshall of Wilkes County, Georgia, came to Texas in 1870 with his wife Mary Elizabeth Iverson, and their five children. A son, Leonidas, had died in Alabama, and a son, Paul, was born and died in 1873. The surviving children were: Robert Walton, who married Catherine Elizabeth Wood: Sarah Evelina, who married first, Richard A. Mabry, and second, Charlie Deason; Zachariah C. Jr., who married Ita Villa Parker; Alfred Iverson, who married Sarah Crow; and Napoleon B. Williams, who married first, Mattie Sparkman, and second, Alice Hays.

Zachariah was born in Columbia County, Georgia, February 28, 1812 and graduated from the Georgia Medical College in nearby Augusta, Georgia, in April, 1835. His family moved to western Georgia and Alabama where his older half-sister’s husband, Colonel Felix Gibson, and his half-brother, Dr. Robert Walton Williams, joined by his younger brothers, Anderson and Gazaway Williams, were cotton brokers with warehouses at the new Georgia town of Roanoke.

Terrel’s "History of Stewart County, Georgia" relates how the Creek Indians, resentful of the loss of their territory, attacked Roanoke on the morning of May 15, 1836. The best known account of the burning of Roanoke is a letter written by General Gibson, which tells of his awakening to find Indians firing into his room, finally making his getaway through the ring of Indians surrounding his house, while Gazaway Williams jumped from an upper floor. Anderson Williams was killed early in the fight.

Life must have been more peaceable in succeeding years, until the 1860’s. My grandfather could remember seeing men in uniform, but it was Sarah Eveline Williams Mabry Deason who told me about the day the Yankees came. Her father was seeing a patient when the Yankees arrived and drove off all the horses and mules on the plantation. When he rode up to the slaves or ex-slaves, all flocked together and ran down the road to tell him what had happened. He turned his horse around and rode off. When he returned he was driving his horses and mules in front of him. What happened? He never said, and she didn’t know.

Zachariah C. Williams practiced medicine and farmed near Brachfield until his death in 1880. His wife had died in 1873 and they are buried in Shiloh.Submitted by Mrs. W.E. Langford