Edd Williams son of Rev. G.K. Williams (1873-1935)

Edgar "Edd" Lewis Williams was the first-born son of Rev. George Kearse Williams and his wife Shelomith Rushton.  He was born the 12th of July 1873 near Jenkins in Titus (Morris) County, Texas on his father's farm.  Edd Williams was the first of several generations of Williamses born in Texas.   As a boy he was called "Eddie" but as an adult he always went by "Edd" and many of his children thought his name was Edward and even Edwin.

When Edd Williams was seven years old his father was ordained a Baptist Minister and he was raised a preacher’s son. His grandfather Green Williams was also a Baptist preacher. His grandfather Green Williams died on or near his 6th birthday.

Edd Williams attended school at Hughes Springs where his father was a patron for the school's support in 1876 and according to his daughter Edd Williams was a typical “preacher’s kid, always in some kind of mischief. He often told his children stories from his childhood that made a daughter remark, “”I guess he was everything but a Saint.”  Edd would laugh while telling these stories but his wife would just get mad and say "Edd you shouldn't be telling these kids them stories!" But he would anyways and his children would just about die from laughing.

He was the oldest boy in a family of 12 children and had three older sisters, Maggie, Bettie, and Fannie who were all born in Alabama. Edd Williams liked to read and was said to have read “every book he could pick up”.  He was intelligent but because of his father’s financial situation could not afford to go to college.

Edd Williams was raised a Missionary Baptist but he had a very open mind about his religion and would listen to other ministers preach, which was what many wouldn't do. He did not follow his father and grandfather into the ministry however because according to his daughter, Edd became the principle wage earner for his father’s large family and this kept him from having the time to scholarly study the Bible.  In the late 19th century girls didn't work outside the home and with his father being a minister Edd Williams had to help make a living for the family.  Edd Williams worked as a laborer in various sawmills in the county and on neighboring farms including that of William Perser of Carterville in Cass County. 

One time when he was a teenager he said that there was a special dance to which he and some of his friends had not been invited. Edd decided to go to this party anyways with Tom a bunch of his friends, Tom Williams, Tom Glover, and Pierce Cates who all ran around together. The boys rode up to the party on their horses and “this old man came out and ran them off saying that they weren't invited” and they should leave.  They weren’t about to leave without having their fun so Edd and his friends decided, “how funny it would be to shoot out the lights at this party and see those girls run.”  Edd would just about die laughing whenever he would tell this story.  He said, "You could hear them silk petticoats just a rustling going Swoosh! Swoosh!"

After the boys shot out the party lights they went over to this affluent place and stole some chickens.  They had to eat them chickens in a hurry so they weren’t quite cooked all the way and Edd said they all got deathly sick.  He said, "We just fairly died we got the belly ache so bad."

It seemed that Edd was closer to his sisters than he was to his brothers. He may have resented the fact that George Myles wasn’t required to help out the family as much.

When Edd was 20 years old he became acquainted with William Perser's tall, blond, slender, and blue eyed daughter, Rosa Lee and soon was courting her.  On the 14th of January 1894 twenty-year-old Edd Williams married his seventeen-year-old bride at her father's home in Carterville.

Rosa Lee Perser was born the 14th of November 1876 at her father's farm in Carterville near the Corinth Baptist Church.  Her grandfather Andrew Jackson Perser came to Texas in 1855 with his three sons and wife and settled in Red River County. 

Her grandfather and uncle Levi Weldon Perser  both died in the Civil War and her father William John Perser and Uncle George Washington Perser also were Confederate War soldiers. The uncle who died in the Civil War was a private in Captain Hillary Ryan's Company of Alien's Regiment, Texas Infantry. This company also became the D Company of the l7th Regiment.  L.W. Perser at the age of 19 appeared on company Muster Rolls on the 20thof April 1862 when he enlisted at Gatesville, Texas. According to the Company roll for September and October 1862 it stated that L.W. Perser was absent without leave and that his furlough had expired. By November and December the roll shows that he was absent and sick at Little Rock, Arkansas.  The last record on L.W. Perser states that he died January 14th 1863 at Little Rock and that he was last paid on 31 August 1862.

In a Confederate Pension Application by Rosa Lee Perser’s uncle, G.W. Perser, he stated that he was born 1845 at Red River County, Texas and lived all his life in Texas except for two years in the 1850’s.  He has been a resident of Cass County since 1856 and enlisted December 1863 to serve in Company E Sixth Texas and Louisiana Regiment Harrison Battalion.  He was in the cavalry but was dismounted the last two or three months of the war.  George W. Perser was discharged the 16th of May 1865 at Nacogdoches, Louisiana at the close of the war. 

After returning to their widowed mother in Cass County the brothers soon married.  They married sisters, daughters of Elijah and Martha Ann Warren Carter of whom Carterville was named.  Both Elijah Carter and his wife are buried at the Corinth Baptist Church Cemetery in Cass County.

William John Perser was also a Confederate soldier and after the war he returned to Cass County where he married Martha Ann Carter on the 18th of November 1868 at Carterville in Cass County.  Martha Ann Carter was the 18-year-old at the time of their marriage and became the parents of five boys and seven girls before William Perser died on the 16th of May 1897.  He was gathering eggs in the hen house and as he reached up to gather an egg on the loft he broke a blood vessel and had a stroke and died. He was buried in the Corinth Baptist Church Cemetery.  Martha Ann Perser survived her husband by another seven years and died 6th of November 1904 of Malaria.  She was buried next to her husband in the Corinth Cemetery.

George W. Perser farmed and married late in life Patia “Pasha” Carter on the 19th of February 1881 at Linden, Texas.  Both Patia Carter and her sister Martha Ann Carter were born in Tallapoosa County, Alabama. 

Edd Williams and his bride spent their wedding night in an old deserted schoolhouse, which they transformed into a home.  As the newlyweds prepared for bed they were startled by the scream of a panther outside their door.  Edd Williams carried no weapon so the two honeymooners huddled in bed wide awake all through the night as the panther scratched and cried to get inside the schoolhouse.  Evidently the panther had been using the old building as its lair and was trying to reclaim it.  However after that first night it never returned and Edd and Rosie had no more trouble from that panther.

The first few years of their marriage Edd Williams and Rosie went to live with Edd's folks and Rosie and her mother-in-law Shelomith Williams did not get along well at all at first.  Shelomith Williams was an old fashion woman who believed that it was a woman's duty to wait on her husband and take care of all of his needs. But Rosa Lee was a very independent person and had very modem notions for the time in which she lived.  Rosa Lee told her mother-in-law that she was not going to wait on Edd Williams hand and foot and this made Shelomith think that Rosa Lee was a poor wife for her son.  Shelomith was also used to running her home with a tight grip and Rosa Lee resented being bossed around.

However when Rosie went into labor with her first child she appreciated Shelomith's no nonsense approach to life when she needed a doctor.  Edd Williams was a nervous father to be and did not want to leave Rosa Lee's side even to get a doctor but it was Shelomith who said, "Your Pa got the doctor for me and you married this woman so you go get the doctor for Rosie!" No one in that family crossed Shelomith so Edd went and got the doctor for Rosa Lee but it was a mid wife, which ended up delivering Edd first child, a son the named Clarence George Williams after Edd's father.

Clarence was born the 22 of May 1895 and was followed by eight more children while Rosa and Edd resided in Cass County Texas. All of Edd and Rosie’s children who were born in Cass County, Texas stated that they were born in the community of Avinger about 7 miles east of Hughes Springs. However census records for Cass County in 1900 and 1910 show that Edd Williams’ family was living in Justice Precinct 1 which included Linden, Almira, and Carterville. The small community of Carterville is on Farm Road 130 seven miles northwest of Linden in western Cass County. It was probably named for the Carter family, early settlers in the area, and was apparently settled in the 1860s.  Rosa Lee Perser’s mother was of this Carter family.

Rosa Lee Perser Williams’ death certificate stated she was born in Almira a rural community located at the junction of Farm roads 995 and 1399, eight miles northwest of Linden in northwestern Cass County about a mile from Carterville. The area was settled before the Civil War. A post office was established there in 1886 with Elijah J. Hanes as postmaster and was discontinued in 1905. During the 1890s the settlement comprised a store and blacksmith shop and a population of twenty-five. In 1904 the community had 102 residents. Corinth Baptist Cemetery is a few miles southeast of Almira and is the burial grounds for many of Rosie Lee’s people.  While Avinger is listed as the birthplace of Edd and Rosie’s children it is more likely they were born nearer to Carterville some 13 miles northeast of Avinger.

Clarence as he was called attended a small country school near Linden in Cass County until he reached high school.  Then he rode horse back into Linden until he graduated and then attended East Texas University, which was a small private college for one semester. 

In 1931 Clarence received some money from his wife's parent's estate and they moved back to Dickens to open a grocery store.  However by this time it was the worst of the Great Depression and his business failed when he was to liberal with his credit and then could not collect on his bad debts. So Clarence took his family back to Hughes Springs where his wife had some land on which they could live until he could get back on his feet.  Though the influence of Congressman Wright Patman who was Clarence’s Uncle Joe Perser's brother-in-law, he was made a foreman in the Civilian Conservation Corp and worked for the C.C.G until it was abolished.

In 1958 Clarence was forced to retire after a heart attack and he retired at Yoakum where he and his wife opened a Bait house for local fisherman, which he operated until his death. Clarence also served on the local daft board and was an avid fisherman.  He died during the night on the 30th of April 1972 after a good day of fishing.

Their oldest daughter, Ona Belle, was born the 5th of February 1897, followed by Austin Edgar who was born the 30th of January 1899. Onie Belle Williams was considered one of the “Belles” of Cass County because of her beauty and vivaciousness. Her sister in law, Pearl Callaway, the wife of Clarence, and Onie Belle never seemed to like each other because Pearl resented that when she was engaged to Wright Patman, Onie came along,  “batted an eyeball at him and he dropped Pearl for Onie B.  She was so beautiful and back then all she had to do was bat an eyeball and all the boys would just drop for her.  According to her sister Jerry Williams Smith “She was the Belle of the county and Dad seen to it that sister had nice clothe so sister was the boy Dad would have liked to have had, not that he was not fond of Clarence because he was but Dad was much closer to sister.”

She was a very independent woman who lived life on her own terms. Her sister Jerrie remembered her as “quite a scrapper” like her father and “nobody messed with sister either.” She was remembered as “the talented one” in the family and quite intelligent.  She evidently resented that her brother Clarence was allowed to go to college but she wasn’t. “Because of this there was always a clash between the two of them for years and years and years.”

The 1900 Census showed that Edd Williams was living near his wife’s relatives. The census was taken 23 June 1900 and listed the family as in Precinct 1 West of Petty’s Ferry and Jefferson Road as household 266. Near neighbors were Leroy Carter at Household 265, Rosa Lee’s maternal uncle James M Carter at household 263 and her paternal uncle George W. “Percer” at household 261. Here Edd said he was a 26 year old farmer renting his place. He said he was born July 1873 in Texas and married six years. Rosa L Williams was listed as his 23 year old wife born November 1876 in Texas and the mother of 3 children all living. At the time the census was taken Rosie was pregnant with her 4^th child. Children listed in the household were Clarence born May 1895, Ona B born February 1897 and Austin born January 1898.

In November Thurston Lee Williams was born. He was known all his life as “Joe” born 8th of November 1900.  During the next decade, Edd and Rosie bought the farm he was renting west of Carterville. Here Edd Williams continued to farm was well as operated a small saw mill.  Edd and Rosie had four more children before the 1910 census. They were Louis Milton Williams who was born the 22 October 1902 and nicknamed “Boots”. William Russell Williams known the rest of his life as “Tab” was born the 9 December 1904. Hattie Lillian Williams was born the 22nd of August 1906 and Horace Vernon Williams known the rest of his life as “Bunch’ was born 9 March 1910.

The 1910 census showed that Edd Williams was still living in Precinct 1. The census enumerated his family on 18 May as household 314. At household 316 lived Rosie’s brother Henry F Perser which also included her unmarried sister Pearl.  Edd is listed as “Edward L Williams” age 36 years and a general farmer. “Rosa L Williams was his 33 year old wife and the mother of 8 children all living.  The children in this household was listed as Clarence age 15, Onie age 13, Austin age 11, “Joseph” age 9, Louis age 7, Russell age 5, Hattie age 2, and Horace 2 months old.

A daughter named “Hazel Clyde” Williams was born 22 July 1912 and would be the last child born in Cass County, Texas. She was named after her Uncle Clyde Collins.  During this period of twenty years between 1894 and 1914, Edd Williams lived mainly near the community of Carterville where most of his children were born. He maintained a home for his family on a small farm while he operated several saw mills and a cotton gin. He also worked as a foreman for the Clark and Bois Lumber Mill for a time after his own saw mills were burned down. He also worked in road construction and was able to provide a good living until the economy toured sour and the price of cotton dropped drastically at the beginning of World War I.

Church records for the Missionary Baptist Church at Corinth located near Almira, in Cass County, Texas show that Edd Williams and Rosa were members of the church from April 27, 1902 to December 20, 1913.  Other members of the church who had family ties with Edd Williams wife were Eldon Ball, the Carters, Emma Cates, G.W. Percer, G W Percer Jr., Hubbard Percer, W L Percer, W P Percer, Ann Percer, Dollie Percer, M L Percer, Patien Percer, S E Percer, Millie Percer, Mary Percer, Melcinia Percer. 

About this time Edd Williams was hearing from friends who had moved west that land was going real cheap in West Texas. He had some financial reverses in Cass County so in January 1915 Edd Williams removed his family from Cass County. Additionally it was said that Boll Weevils had infested the cotton crop in East Texas.

Rosa Lee did not want to leave East Texas and resented for many years that Edd took her away from her kinfolk and neighbors. Edd Williams loaded his livestock and furniture on freight cars and took the train across Texas to the prairie cattle town of Dickens in Dickens County, where land was being traded to farmers. Edd Williams and Rosa Lee remained in Dickens County Texas for the next twenty years, which was the remainder of Edd Williams’s life. The Edd Williams family soon established themselves in the communities of Afton and Midway and became active members of those communities. Edd Williams farmed the remainder of his life and supplemented his families’ income by working in the oil fields in the wintertime.

Clarence Williams, their eldest son, elected to stay behind in Cass County as he was 19 years old he and he worked for his Uncle George Myles Williams.  After his father moved to West Texas Clarence married Pearl Callaway who was a school teacher at Midway near Atlanta in Cass County. They were on 14 November 1915 and the parents of four children, Theresa La Juan Williams, George Callaway Williams, Edgar Lyon Williams, and Billy Gene Williams.  Edd and Rosie Williams first grandchild, Theresa LaJuan Williams was born 4 May 1917 in Hughes Springs, Texas.

Clarence supported his family by working for his Uncle George Myles Williams in road construction until he enlisted in the Navy on the 6th of September 1917.  He served until the war was over and was discharged in July of 1919. 

Their eldest daughter Ona Belle Williams met ranch hand John Colberg in Dickens County. He courted Onie and they were married 5 February 1917 in the community of Spur.  Their first child Doris Roze Colberg was born 26 April 1918 in Spur, Texas. Another grandchild of Edd and Rosie was born 5 August 1918 in Hughes Springs to Clarence and Pearl Williams. George Callaway Williams was Edd Williams first grandson.

Edd and Rosa Williams completed their family with the births of three more children between 1915 and 1920. Elizabeth Lorrene Williams also known as Jerrie was born 13 April 1915, Winnie Morlene was born 14 February 1917, and Nellie Juanita was born 12th December 1920.

The 1920 Census taken on 11 March showed the family of Edd Williams in Justice Precinct 2 in Dickens County as household 58. He is listed as Edward L Williams instead of Edgar and was a 47 year old farmer.  The census isn’t clear whether he owned his farm but certainly he did. Within his household were his wife Rosa Williams age 41, Joe Williams age 18, Louis Williams age 16, Russell Williams age 15, Hattie Williams age 12, Horace age 10, Hazel Williams age 7, Elizabeth Williams age 5 and Winnie Williams age 2 months. All the children except Joe and Winnie were listed as in school yet Joe who was 18 was listed as no occupation even as a farm laborer.

Edd Williams’s sons Clarence Williams and Austin are not located on the 1920 census. Clarence was married with two children and may have been moving to Dickens although his first two children were born in Hughes Springs, Texas.  After his discharge Clarence removed his family to West Texas to be near his folks and he filled a vacancy as a Rural Mail Carrier at Afton.  In 1924 Clarence received an appointment as a Border Patrol officer and was stationed at Douglas, Arizona however his wife's health prevented her from joining him, and eventually they returned to Hughes Springs in Cass County. 

Austin Williams who would have been 20 when the census was taken must have left home and may have returned to Cass County. His sister Jerry Williams Smith said that Austin Edgar Williams left home at a young age and became a professional singer with a Gospel Quartet called “The Stamps.”  He inherited his father's excellent voice and was a popular Gospel music teacher in the South and is said to have giving lessons to Tennessee Ernie Ford. 

Austin Williams returned to east Texas and married Mattie Ione Roberson  15 July 1925 in Morris County. However Austin's music career ended his first marriage with a divorce when his wife lone Robertson refused to accept that kind of life.  They had two children Glynton Williams who was hit by a car and died at the age of 10, and Billie Ware Williams.  Austin and lone were separated for many years before they finally divorced.

Onie Colberg was living in Spur, Texas when  she was enumerated on 25 March 1920 in the Northern part of District 3. She was in the 179 household as the 25 year old wife of J.O. Colberg.  He was listed as 34 year old man born in Kansas who owned his own home and worked as a Garage Mechanic. They had a 1 year and 8 month old daughter listed as Doris Rose Colberg. However Onie was seven months pregnant at the time of the census as she gave birth to a son on 10 May 1920 in Spur.  He was named Virgil Oren Colberg.

Edd and Rosie Williams other children began to leave home, marry, and have families of their own in the 1920’s.  Louis Williams married Anne Ruth Danforth the daughter of Maby Danforth and Minnie Peacock. They were married 26 September 1921 in Dickens. Louis Milton Williams married Anne Danforth at the age of 19 and operated several Cafes in West Texas before moving to Downey, California in 1942.  He lived the remainder of his life in California where he worked in construction for the Conveyor Company of Los Angeles until he retired in 1967.  He removed to Yucaipa in San Bernardino County in 1971 and lived there until his death on 20 January 1978 at the age of 76.  The effects of Parkinson’s Diseases hastened his death.  Louis Williams had seven children, Oscar Louis Williams who died in Infancy, Raymond Leonard Williams, Edgar Hugh Williams. Willard Wallace Williams, Minnie Lee Williams, Bonnie Ruth Williams, and Milton Bradford Williams.

Thurston Lee Williams was known as Joe all of his life and he married Ruth Mims the 21st of December 1922 at the age of 22.  Joe Williams was a popular fellow among his family and friends however he had a problem with gambling which kept his father in debt trying to cover Joe's excesses.   No one blamed Joe because they knew he could not help it and his brothers and sisters loved him dearly.  Ruth Mimms Williams died from complication of childbirth in 1928. Joe was later remarried to Jane Wyllie and had five children before he died of a heart attack at Empire, California on the l4th of March 1967. Joe Williams' children were Joe Billy Williams, Truman Lee Williams, Bobbie Ruth Williams, Freddy Wayne Williams, and Don Williams.

Hattie Williams also married Thomas Alton Chesney in 1923 and she died in childbirth 11 December 1923 in Upland, San Bernardino, California.  Edd Williams16-year-old daughter Hattie, who died The 11th of December 1923 at Upland, California, is the only child who preceded him in death.  Hattie was pregnant with her son Raymond and had run off with Tom Chesney to California. When Hattie went into labor, because of her age, the doctor decided that it was impossible for her to deliver her baby naturally and talked Tom into having a Caesarian performed.  The doctor was totally incompetent according to the family and when he performed surgery on her, he cut through the pelvic artery and Hattie bled to death on the operating table.  However the baby was saved although his sixteen-year-old mother was dead at the hands of a “quack doctor”. Raymond Chesney was born 11 December 1923 at Upland and was adopted by his Aunt Onie Belle who had married John Oberlin Colberg and had two children of her own Doris Roze Colberg and Virgil Orin Colberg. His name was changed to Raymond Thomas Colberg.

William Russell Williams known as “Tab” Williams married Irene Putnam and had two daughters, Mildred Williams and Francell Williams.  Tab Williams remained in Dickens County where he farmed until his death on the 22nd of September 1958 at the age 53.  He died of a heart attack.  Tab Williams married outside the Baptist faith and this caused a strain between his folks and his wife's Church of Christ folks.

Edd and Rosie Williams had 14 grandchildren born during the 1920’s.  Virgil Colberg was born 10 May 1920 in Spur, Texas the son of Onie Colberg. Oscar Mabry Williams was born 10 June 1922 also in Spur the son of Louis Williams. This baby only lived 12 days. Raymond Leonard Williams was born 28 June 1923 in Plainview, Texas another son of Louis Williams. Edgar Lyon “Skee” Williams was born 8 August 1923 in Afton, Texas the son of Clarence Williams. Raymond Thomas Chesney Colberg was born 11 December 1923 in Upland California. Billy Joe Williams was 24 January 1924 in Afton, Texas the son of Joe Williams and a year later another grandson named Edgar was born. Edgar Hugh Williams was born 19 January 1925 in Portales, New Mexico. He was the son of Louis Williams but named after his uncle Edgar Danforth not his grandfather.  Another son of Joe Williams named Truman Lee Williams was born 3 August 1925 in Dickens County.  

Glynton Williams was born 9 March 1926 in Hughes Springs, the son of Austin Williams. After his folks divorced, Glynton Williams lived with his mother and stepfather in Cass County where he died from being hit by a car when he was 10 years old.

Louis Williams 4^th son, Willard Wallace Williams, also known as “Wad” was born 17 January 1927 in Portales, New Mexico.  Tab Williams first child was a daughter named Mildred Juanita Williams born 17 December 1927 in Dickens County, Texas.

Two more grandchildren were born in 1928. Billy Ware Williams was born 15 May 1928 in HughesSprings,Texas  the son of Austin Williams.  A girl named Bobby Ruth Williams was born in August 1928 in Dickens County, the daughter of Joe Williams. Her mother died of complications from Bobby Ruth’s birth and she died before 1930 census.  Minnie Lee Williams the daughter of Louis Williams was the last grandchild born in the 1920’s. She was born premature on 24 December 1929 in Muleshoe, Texas.

The 1930 Census of Dickens County, Texas is the last census in which Edd Williams is enumerated. However his wife Rosie Williams as his widow would be found in the 1940, 1950, 1960, and 1970 censuses however only the 1940 Census has been released.

The 1930 census was taken on 25 April for Edd Williams family. They were household 251 in Precinct 1 near the Roaring Springs to Dickens Highway on State Highway 18. Edd Williams was renting a farm  and his occupation was given as a general farmer. The government asked if the household had a radio and the answer was no probably because the farm was not hooked up to electricity. His name was correctly listed as Edgar L Williams age 56. Others within his household were his wife Rosa L Williams age 51, his son Thurston L Williams age 28, his son Horace V Williams age 20, his daughter Hazel Williams age 17, his daughter Elizabeth Williams age 14, his daughter Winnie Williams age 12, his daughter Nellie J Williams age 10, his grandson Billie J Williams age 6, and his grandson Truman L Williams age 4 and 6 months.

Edd Williams’ son Thurston L Williams was listed as a widower and a teacher in a singing school. Horace V Williams was listed as a farm laborer.

The 1930 census was taken after the Stock Market Crash in 1929 and the United States was beginning to feel the effects of what became known as the Great Depression. The census showed that Clarence had left his family behind in Hughes Springs to find work in Maricopa County, Arizona.  Onie Colberg was listed as living in Hobart, Oklahoma where her husband was a automobile mechanic. Raymond T Colberg is listed as John’s adopted son. Hazel Williams must have been visiting as she was listed as John’s sister in law.

Austin Williams by this time was a member of a singing Quartet that was traveling around the country performing gospel and country music. He cannot be located in the 1930 census but he is separated from his wife who is living in Linden, Texas with Edd Williams 2 grandsons Glynton Williams and Billy Ware Williams.

In 1930 Louis Williams is located in Earth, Lamb County, Texas with his family working as a cook in a café he operated there.  Tab Williams was farming in Precinct 1 of Dickens County as household 212.

During the Great Depression nine more grandchildren were born to Edd and Rosie Williams although three were born after his death. Billy Gene Williams was born 8 March 1931 in Hughes Springs, Texas the son of Clarence Williams.  Bonnie Ruth Williams was 31 October 1931 in Portales, New Mexico the daughter of Louis Williams.

All who knew him called Horace Vernon Williams by a nickname Bunch.  He married Edna Anne Gentry and was the last surviving brother of six sons of Edd and Rosa Lee Williams.  Here was a retired farmer and lived near Afton on Dickens County, Texas. He is the father of two daughters, Jerrie Anne Williams and Tommie Ruth Williams. Uncle Bunch’s wife, Anne Gentry was the daughter of Albert Claud Gentry who was born August 31, 1876 Knox County, Texas. He died November 1955. Her mother was Mattie Ernestine Law from Hamburg, Ark. She was died Dec 17, 1955. They ran a grocery store at Midway and had the post office at Alton in Dickens County.

Freddy Wayne Williams was born 21 Oct 1933 in Spur, Texas, the son of Joe Williams by his second wife.

Daughter Winnie Williams became pregnant in February 1933 when she was barely 18. The father a 21 year old cowboy named Lawrence Cooper of Roaring Springs. He refused to marry her so Winnie went to live with her married sister Onie Colberg in Hobart, Oklahoma. At the age of 16 Winnie gave birth to a son born 16 November 1933 in Hobart, that she named Jerry “Gene” Cooper. While staying with her brother Louis Williams in Earth. Lamb County Winnie while working as a waitress met 26 year old John Walker. He was a farmer who lived in town near the family of Louis Williams according to the 1930 Census.  Winnie and John were married in 1935 in Lamb County and John Walker raised Gene Cooper as his own son. Gene adopted the last name of Walker. John and Winnie had their own son Kenneth Carroll Walker born 21 December 1935 at Earth.  He was born after the death of his grandfather six months earlier.

In 1934 two more grandchildren were born. Francell Williams was born 4 April 1934, in Spur, Texas, the daughter of Tab Williams. Milton Bradford Williams was born 7 months later on 5 Nov 1934 in Earth, Lamb, Texas the son of Louis Williams.

Grandchildren born in the 1930’s after the death of Edd Williams were Kenneth Carroll Walker born 21 Dec 1935 in Earth, Lamb, Texas, the son of Winnie Walker. Jerry Anne Williams born 22 October 1939 in Dickens County, Texas the daughter of Bunch Williams, and Darlene [Darlyn] Howell born 9 Dec 1939 in Dickens County, the daughter of Nell

Edd Williams died at the height of the Great Depression on 16th July 1935 at his farm near Midway and Afton.  Edd Williams had walked all over his land the day with a government man to decide how much of his land he was going to lay aside in a soil bank. That strenuous exercise in a blistering Summer heat was said to have contributed to his death probably of heat stroke.  His death certificate stated that he was found dead in the fields and that since he was dead no doctor was called but simply the Justice of the Peace.

The death certificate informant was his son William Russell “Tab” Williams who gave the birthdate of his father, whom he listed as “Mr.E.L. Williams” as 10 January 1873, born in Texas. He knew the name of his grandfather whom he listed as “G.K.  Williams” but for Edd’s mother he wrote unknown. Evidently he did not consult his mother Rosa Lee Williams when filling out the form.

Another story told by family members was that Rosa Lee discovered that her husband of forty-one years had died in his sleep when she went to wake him for breakfast.  His grandson Raymond Chesney Colberg was visiting the family in preparation of going to a fair the next day. He had slept with Edd that night but didn’t realize his grand-father had passed away until Rosa Lee went to wake him.

Edd Williams was buried at Dickens Cemetery near Dickens, which is the county seat of Dickens County.  At the time of his death, all of his children were grown except for the baby of the family, Nell who was 14 years old at the time of Edd's death. He had served as school superintendent for several years in the 1920’s and 1930's. He was a also Baptist Deacon in the county's Missionary Baptist Church and was asked to lead Sunday services whenever a Preacher was absent.

His sons were said to have inherited his fine singing voice as he was the President of the Dickens’s County Singing Association and was a favorite among the local ministers for conducting the singing portion of the various churches revivals.

Rosa Lee Williams as a widow continued to live in Dickens County for sometime to eventually she gave up her own household and lived with her various children and their families.

The 1940 Census of Ector County, Texas showed that Rosie Williams had moved there to be with her daughters who had found work in Odessa which was an oil boom town. On the 3^rd of April she was listed as “Rosa L Williams, 63 years old, a widow head of her household which was the 17 family visited by the census taker.  She was renting a house at 1006 Jackson Rue Street for 25 dollars a month. The census stated that in 1935 she was living in Dickens County, Texas.  In this census Rosie Williams stated the highest level of education was the 2^nd year of high school. She also had not worked at all outside of the home in all of 1939 and had zero income. Others listed in her household were Jerrie Williams age 24, Hazel Beard age 26, Nell Howell age 19 and Darlene Howell age 3 months. Another woman listed as a lodger was Iva Wallace age 27.  All of the daughters and Iva Wallace were working as waitresses with Jerrie saying she worked at a “cold lunch stand.” The girls worked long hours without much pay.  Jerry Williams had worked 24 weeks in 1939 and made only $168 for working a 63 hour week. Hazel must have just started work in 1940 as she had no income in 1939. Nell Williams who was the youngest was making the most having worked 24 weeks and made $360 for a 48 hour week.

Both Hazel and Nell were listed as married women but without any husbands in the household so they probably were separated. Hazel was living in Hobart, Oklahoma in 1935 but the other daughters were living in Dickens County at the time.  Nell’s husband was a man named Wayne Howell who was the father of her daughter. It is unclear who Hazel’s first husband was except for the name Mr. Beard.

In 1940 Clarence Williams was living in Corsicana, Texas where he was a foreman for a Soil Conservation Crew working for the Civilian Conservation Corp or CCC, a FDR New Deal Program.   Onie Colberg has not been located on the 1940 Census and the family may have been on the move.   Austin Williams is living in Cheyenne, Roger Mills County, Oklahoma as a divorced man working as a vocal singing instructor.  Joe Williams remained in Dickens County where he was listed as a farmer.  Louis Williams was living in Lamb County, Texas and listed as a waiter in a café. Tab Williams also remained in Dickens County and was a farmer in 1940 as was his younger brother Bunch Williams.

During World War II, Austin Williams joined the United States Army on 8 September 1942 and served until he was released on 18 January 1943. At least five of Edd Williams grandsons, Edgar L Williams, Virgil Colberg, Raymond Williams, Edgar H Williams and Wallace Williams served in the armed forces. Both Edgars and Virgil served in the navy in the South Pacific. Raymond Williams was stationed in Hawaii guarding Diamond Head and Wallace served in Italy transporting prisoners of war. 

World War II had many of the children of Edd and Rosie Williams move from Texas to better opportunities in California.  In 1942 Louis Williams sold his café in Littlefield and moved to Downey in Los Angeles County where his in laws had recently moved. Soon others moved to California also, including Joe Williams who moved his family from Dickens, Texas to Empire in Stanislaus County. Winnie Walker moved with her husband and two children to Norwalk in Los Angeles.  Nell Howell moved to Downey also where she met and married Arthur Czarapata.  

Onie Belle Colberg,being the oldest girl and taking after her mother Rosie,  thought anything a man could do she could do.  The Colbergs moved to the Bay Area of Northern California where she went to work in 1942 during WWII. She worked up until she retired at 67.  In her old age Onie was always falling because evidently she had weak ankles but it seemed to have never slowed her down any.

Both Tab and Bunch Williams continued to farm in Dickens County while the rest of their siblings moved to either California or Nebraska. Clarence continued working for the CCC in Texas while Austin had joined the service and later moved to Ohio. Tommie Ruth Williams was born 9 Dec 1944 in Dickens County the daughter of Bunch Williams.

Hazel Clyde Williams Beard and her sister Jerrie Williams found themselves in the town of Ashland, Saunders County, Nebraska during the war where they found work and eventually married. Elizabeth Lorrene Williams, known as “Jerrie”, married Gail Smith in June 1946 at Ashland, Nebraska where they lived for several years before moving back to Texas where they settled in Plainview, Hale,Texas. Here they made their home and had their mother Rosie live with them. They were the proprietors of the Arrowhead Drive-In which was a popular eating establishment and hamburger joint. They also operated a chicken ranch in Dickens County, Texas.

Hazel had a son very late in life, named Michael Clyde Maynor born 8 April 1952 who was born in Ashland, Nebraska. Hazel was 39 years old when she had her son. She died at the age of 44 on 10 September 1956 at Ashland, Nebraska.  Hazel  was said to have been talking to someone at her work when in the middle of a sentence she had a stroke and she was dead before she hit the floor.  Her son’s father Jack Maynor allowed Hazel's sister Jerrie Smith to raise Hazel’s son Mike who goes by the name Smith now. He operated Gail and Jerrie’s chicken farm in Dickens after they retired.  Jerrie Smith’s big hearted generosity endeared her to all of her nephews and nieces.  Jerrie and Gail were the primary support of Rosa Lee Williams in her last years.

Austin Williams had moved to Dayton Ohio where he found work as a vocal teacher. While there he met Lorene Junkin originally from Pickens County, Alabama. Lorene was nearly 26 years younger than Austin and had been married to a Mr. McKenistry in 1942. Austin and Lorene were married about 1950 most likely in Dayton, Ohio. As that Austin lived so far from most of his relatives the family knew little about him and his second family he had by Lorene. Austin had a son and a daughter with Lorene when he was 52 and 53 years old.  A son named Edgar Clyde “Eddy” Williams was born possibly 4 March 1951 in Dayton, Ohio and a daughter named Rebecca Louise “Becky” Williams was born 17 August 1952 in Matador, Motley County,Texas. Motley County is located between Dickens and Hale Counties. The 1959 city Directory of Dayton Ohio listed Austin and “Loreen” Williams as living at 2308 South Dixie Ave in Apartment 3. His occupation was given as Music Director for the Church of God. The following year Austin died of a heart attack on 18th March 1960 at the age of 61 in Dayton,Ohio.  His widow had Austin buried in a family cemetery in Columbus, Lowndes County, Mississippi.  He is buried in the Mount Zion Baptist Church Cemetery.  Lorene Williams remained in Dayton, Ohio and married a widower named Donald William Haller of Dayton. They may have been members of the same church. He became the step father of Austin’s children.  When Lorene died in 1981 she was buried next to Austin in the Mount Zion Baptist Cemetery while Donald Haller was buried in Dayton next to his first wife. Nothing more is known of Austin’s children, Eddie and Becky.

I remember visiting my great grandmother Rosa Lee Perser Williams on two occasions as a child. She lived most of the time in Plainview, Texas with her daughter Jerrie Smith and occasionally with her daughters Winnie Walker and Nell Czarapata when they both lived in Downey or Norwalk. Once while she was visiting her son Louis Williams in Downey, my folks came to see her. I remember she was always complaining how cold her hands were so family members bought her a hand warmer. However, she broke it soon there after because she would rather sit with her hands in her family’s hands. As a small boy I would sit with her and hold her frail thin hands. On another occasion I went to church with her at my grandparents’ Church of Christ in Paramount and she remarked on what a good singing voice I had. I don’t think she quite knew which great grandchild I was but she always commented on her great grandson’s singing in church with her.  When I was much older about 16 years old in 1967, I heard that “Granny Rose” as we all called her was out visiting Winnie Walker. I wanted to see her so I rode my bicycle from Garden Grove California to Norwalk so I could visit with her. I had her tell me stories of her youth and her folks and she told me the story of the panther on her wedding night and other stories. I hung on to her words and when I came back home I wrote it all down lest I forgot.

I never knew much about my Great Grandfather Edd Williams’ family as we never were around them much and I think my Grandmother Anne Williams kind of disapproved of them as she was raised in the Church of Christ and the Williamses were for the most part Baptists. I also think she was scandalized by the amount of divorces and children born out of wedlock to my Grandfather’s siblings. In either case I only gleaned information after much of that family had passed away.  My uncle Milton Williams grew up with his Walker cousins when they all lived in Norwalk and Downey. They were all similar in age even though my grandmother disapproved because she thought they were too “wild” as teenagers.

I remember my great Aunt Nell as being a fun happy person who was really tall for a woman. She towered over the rest of them but she probably was only about 5’ 10 inches or 11 inches. I never met her daughter Darlene Howell and only knew her 3^rd husband who I thought had a funny name, Toy Dial.  Of all my grandfather’s brothers and sisters I got to know Aunt Jerrie the most. Like almost all the Williamses she had the gift of gab and she would talk your ear off if you’d sit and listen.  I had her write a memoir before she died where she talked about growing up in my great grandparent’s home in Dickens County, Texas.  She and I had a genetic link as we both had baby teeth that had no permanent teeth behind them. I lost my last baby tooth at the age of 64.

I was a way in college when I heard that Granny Rose had died in the Heritage Nursing Home in Plainview Texas. Until January 8^th, she had been living with her daughter Jerrie Smith at 104 Thomas Street in Plainview.  She died on 14 November 1973 at 5:45 pm from a stroke brought on by hardening of the arteries. She died on her 79^th wedding anniversary. Her son Bunch Williams was the informant on the death certificate and he was mistaken on her birth year. He put down she was born in 1875 when she was born in 1876.  She was buried on 16 January 1973 in the Dickens Cemetery. I don’t’ recall that any of the California relatives made it to her funeral.

Granny Rose outlived a husband and seven of her children who were all grown. My Grandmother Anne Williams’ sister in law Beulah Danforth lived in Earth, Texas and was fond of  Anne’s mother in law, so much so that she used the handle “Granny Rose” as her CB name.

Edgar Lewis Williams was born July 12, 1873, South Union, Titus, Texas and died July 16, 1935 near Afton, Dickens, Texas. He married Rosa Lee Perser (Percer) on 14 January 1894 in Carterville, Cass Texas. She was November 14, 1876 at Carterville, Cass, Texas and died January 14, 1973 Plainview, Hale, Texas 

Clarence George Williams was born May 22, 1895 near Carterville, Cass, Texas and died on 30 Apr 1972, age 76, at Linden, Cass, Texas. He married on November 13, 1915 Lillie “Pearl” Callaway the daughter of William A. Callaway and Margaret Frances “Fannie” Hall. Her father was a charter member of Hughes Springs First Baptist Church. It was first a two-story log building. She was born April 9, 1893 and she died 4 April 1990 at Lufton Texas

A. Theresa LaJuan Williams was born 4 May 1917 at Hughes Springs, Texas and died at the age of 91 years on  22 January 2009 at Midwest City, Oklahoma.  She married George Edward “Eddie” Kouri of Syrian ancestry and had two sons, George Edward Kouri Jr and Donald Jack Kouri.
B. George Callaway Williams was born 5 August 1917 and died at the age of 75 years 20 Sep 1993 Linden, Cass, Texas.  He joined the Army Air force during WWII and married a woman who turned out to be marrying lots of service men for their insurance. He divorced his wife on grounds of bigamy. He later lived in Florida for many years before retiring in Lawton Oklahoma.  He had a son named George Thomas Williams by a wife named Mary Jeff Bridges.
C. Edgar Lyon Williams born circa 1924  called “Skee” was born 8 August 1923 at Afton, Dickens County, Texas abd died 27 January 2012 at Seguin, Guadalupe County, Texas at the age of 88. He married Margaret Roose. They had one daughter Janet Elaine Williams born 10 October 1949 in Corsicana, Texas.  Skee served in the navy during World War II in the South Pacific Battle for the Solomon Islands.  
D. Billy Gene Williams born March 9 1931 Linden, Cass County, Texas. No further information.

Onie Belle Williams Colberg was born February 5, 1897 near Carterville, Cass, Texas and died Feb 7, 1988 in Benecia, Solano County, California at the age of 91. She  married John Oberlin Colberg on 5 February 1917 in Dickens County and had two children as well as adopting Hattie Williams’ baby Raymon Chesney. John Colberg and Onie divorced and Onie remarried Edward Clarence Hiskett 24 December 1959 in Vallejo, California at the age of 62.  Mr. Hiskett died 22 February 1963 in Vallejo, California at the age of 66 and John O. Colberg died 3 October 1964 in Lincoln County, Nebraska at the age of 79. Onie was using the name Colberg when she died.

A. Doris Roze Colberg was born 26 April 1918 in Spur, Dickens County, Texas and died 16 May 2004 in Hobart, Kiowa, Oklahoma at the age of 62. She married Harley Butler in August 1938 who died 16 March 1998 in Hobart. They had one daughter Sharon Annette Butler born 8 August 1941 who married Tilford J. Barton Jr on 16 March 1967in Willbarger, Texas. 

B. Virgil Orin Colberg was born 10 May 1920 in Spur, Dickens, Texas and died 19 Aug 1980 in Vallejo, Calfornia at the age of 60 years. He married Dorothy Lee “Sissy” Thurman and had one son John “Johnny” Thurman Colberg. Johnny Colberg was born 15 June 1947 in Clifton, Bosque, Texas and died 3 June 2012 in Weatherford, Custer, Oklahoma. He married Mary Elizabeth Kight the 5 June 1969 in Tarrent County, Texas.

Edgar “Austin” Williams was born January 30, 1899 Carterville, Cass, Texas and died March 18, 1960 in Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio at the age of 61.  He was buried in Columbus, Mississippi. Austin was married first to Mattie “Ione” Robertson whom he later divorced. They were married 15 July 1925 in Morris County, Texas and had two sons. They were separated by 1930 and divorced by 1940 when Ione Williams remarried Raymond Attlee Morse. Austin Williams remarried in circa 1950 most likely in Dayton, Ohio. His second wife was Nota “Lorene” Junkin the daughter of Kurtis Claudie Junkin and Eula L Hannah of Columbus, Mississippi. She was born 10 November 1925 and died 1 June 1981. She had been previously married but whether she was divorced or widowed is not known.  She was an organist who accompanied Austin in teaching singing. Austin and Lorene has two children a boy and a girl. After the death of Austin Williams Lorene remarried a widower named Donald Haller.

A. Glynton Williams son of Ione Roberson was born March 9 1926 in Linden, Texas and died  22 June 1936 in Linden, when he was hit by an automobile.
B. Billye Ware Williams son of Ione Roberson was born 15 May 1928 in Linden Texas and was raised by his stepfather. He died 15 August 1999 at the age of 71 in Jefferson, Texas. Nothing more is known of him.
C. Edgar “Eddie” Clyde Williams was born 4 March 1951 in Dayton, Ohio

D. Rebecca Louise “Becky” Williams was born 17 August 1952 in Motley County, Texas

        
Thurston Lee “Joe” Williams was born November 8, 1900 in Carterville, Cass, Texas and died March 17, 1967 at the age of 66 in Empire, Stanislaus, California. He was married twice and had children by both wives. He married first December 21, 1922 Ruth Mimms, the daughter of Moses B Mimms and Nancy Ella Jones. In the 1900 census Ruth’s mother said she was the mother of 21 children by the time she was 41 years old although only 14 were living at the time. Ruth died in 1928, and Joe remarried Jane Viola Wylie daughter of Benjamin Delano Wiley and Annie Rosa Dobbs of Parker County Texas. Joe moved to California in the 1940’s
A. Joe Billy Williams son of Ruth Mimms was born 24 January 1924 in Afton, Dickens, Texas and died 28 August 2008 in Wenatchee, Washington. He married Mildred Doris Howard in Stanislaus County and had four children, Randy Williams of Brewerton, Washington, Gordon Williams of Sponkane, Washington, Mrs. Kathy Ling of East Wenatchee, Washington and Mrs. Linda Perkins of East Wenatchee, Washington.
B. Truman Lee Williams was born 3 August 1925 in Afton, Dickens, Texas and died 2 July 2014 at the age of 88 at Oakdale, Stanislaus County, California. He married Jaunema Fern Ring and had three children, Dale Ray Williams born 31 January 1950, Debra Ruth Williams born 24 June 1951, and Karen Sue Williams born 6 September 1952. All his children were born in Stanislaus County, California. His son Dale died 13 May 1971 at the age of 21 in an auto accident in Tuolumne County, California. “Dale married young and died young.  Had a beautiful baby girl at the age of 20.  He died at 21 of a auto accident.  His baby girl grew up with his loving Mother, Father and two sisters influence.  Her sense of humor mimics that of her father (Dale).  She is an only grandchild.  She brings sunshine to all that know or meet her.  She is my Daughter and I LOVE her dearly.  I am so blessed to have her in my life.  Thank you Dale for this most treasured gift.  I love and miss you.  Your wife........Linda”  Debra Ruth Williams married Mr. Christensen and Karen Sue Williams never married.
C. Bobbie Ruth Williams daughter of Ruth Mimms was born in  6 September 1928 in Afton, Dickens County, Texas. As an infant she was adopted by her Aunt Clara Maude Mimms and her husband Oliver Eugene Minix. She married Marvin Earl Blair in 1947 who was born 17 June 1926 in Spur, Texas and died 30 June 2009 at the age of 88 in Port Orchard, Kitsap County, Washington.  They had three sons Larry Charles Blair born 18 June 1948 in Crosby County, Texas, Daniel Eugene Blair born 27 October 1951 in Crosby County, Texas, and Timothy Earl Blair born 6 November 1958 in Dickens County, Texas. Bobbie Blair moved to Stockton, California in 1963 with her husband Marvin where she raised her sons. Marvin was an elder in the Church of Christ and his son Timothy Blair is an associate minister in the Church of Christ.
D. Freddy Wayne Williams  son  of Jane Wylie was born October 21, 1933 in Dickens County, Texas and died 1955 about 22 years old in Stanislaus County, California. No further information is known.        
E. Donald W “Don” Williams son of Jane Wylie was born 29 November 1939 in Dickens County, Texas and lived in Modesto, Stanislaus County, California. No further information is known.

Louis Milton “Boots” Williams    was born October 22, 1902 near Carterville, Cass, Texas and died January 20, 1978 at the age of 75 at Cherry Hills, Riverside, California. He married on 27 September 1921 in Dickens, Texas Anne Ruth Danforth the daughter of Oscar “Mabry” Danforth and Minnie Gertrude Peacock. She was born 31 March 1902 at Swenson, Stonewall, Texas and died 10 January 1979 at the age of 76 in Redlands, San Bernardino, California.

A. Oscar Louis Williams was born 10 June 1922 in Spur, Texas and died 3 days later on June 13. He is buried in the Spur Cemetery
B. Raymond Leonard “Ray” Williams was born 28 June 1923 in Plainview, Hale, Texas and died 2 July 2014 at the age of 91in Yucaipa, San Bernardino, California. He was married twice but had no children. His first wife was Justine “Jerrie” Rose Bernhardt Clark whom he married 15 March 1957 in South Gate, Los Angeles, California. She was a divorcee with grown children. Jerrie Williams died in 1978 and Ray Williams married again on 5 April 1980 a woman named Eleanor “Ellie” Fritze.  She died in 2011.  He lived much of his amrried life in Grass Valley, California and later in Calimesa, California.
C. Edgar Hugh Williams was born 19 January 1925 in Portales, Roosevelt, New Mexico and died 26 December 2003 in Palmdale, Los Angeles, California. He married Wilma June Johnson the daughter of James Wilburn Johnson and Tressie Margret McLeod on 20 March 1946 in Olton, Lamb, Texas. She was born 3 June 1929 at Shamrock, Wheeler, Texas and died 13 April 2011 in Maricopa County, Arizona. He was the father of three children whom he raised mainly in Garden Grove, Orange, California. His children are Charline Wachs born 9 June 1947 Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California wife of Dennis Wachs, Donna Fay Williams born 25 June 1949 Amherst, Lamb, Texas wife of Kenneth Jones, and Edgar Hugh “Ben” Williams Jr. born 10 April 1951 Amherst, Lamb, Texas.
D. Wallace Willard “Wad” Williams was born 17 January 1927 in Portales, Roosevelt, New Mexico and died 16 December 2012 age 85 years in Lubbock, Lubbock, Texas. Wad Williams married Mattie Lee Jarnigin 21 October 1944 at Muleshoe, Bailey, Texas.  They are the parents of 4 children whom they raised mainly in Yuciapa California before returning to Texas. Their children are Frances Anne Williams born 12 September 1945 in Amherst, Lamb, Texas wife of Claud Edward Griess, Marilyn Kay Williams born 8 May 1948 in Los Angeles, California wife of Danny Lee Stevens, Gary Wallace Williams born 17 August 1952 and died 25 May 2013 age 60 years and Terrie Lynn Williams born 19 May 1954 in Lynnwood, Los Angeles, California.
E. Minnie Lee Williams was born 24 December 1929 in Muleshoe, Bailey, Texas and died 7 June 1999 in Riverside, Riverside, California. She never married.
F. Bonnie Ruth Williams was born 31 October 1931 in Portales, Roosevelt, New Mexico and died 31 August 1996 at Loma Linda, San Bernardino, California. She married Billie Wayne Fagan 17 July 1953 in Yuma, Arizona. She had one son Larry Paul Fagan bor 23 January 1954 in Lynwood, Los Angeles, California and died 6 July 1999 in Guam age 45. He was married twice. First wife was Pamela Bullington and 2^nd wife was Betty Bonen.
G. Milton Bradford Williams was born 5 November 1934 in Earth, Lamb, Texas and died 28 October 1995 at the age of 60 in Sedona, Arizona. Milton died 10 years to the day after his son Gregory was murdered. He was married to Marie Buehlman on 1 December 1956 in Norwalk, Los Angeles, California. He had two children Stephanie Irene Williams born 29 November 1957 in Lynwood, Los Angeles, California and Gregory Lynn Williams born 2 February 1962 in Lynwood, Los Angeles, California and died 28 October 1985 in Santa Ana, Orange, California.

William Russell “Tab” Williams was born December 9, 1904 near Carterville, Cass, Texas and died September 22, 1958 age 53 years old in Matador, Motley County, Texas. He was farming in Shallowater, Texas when he suffered a heart attack. He was taken to the Stanley Hospital where he died after 2 weeks.  He was married to Pearl “Irene” Putnam. She was born 17 January 1906 in Linden, Cass, Texas and died 21 July 1968 in Lubbock, Texas. Irene was the daughter of Lewis Simuel Putnam and Betha Jarrett

A. Mildred Williams was born 17 December 1927 in Dickens, Texas and died 8 April 2015 in Lockney, Floyd County, Texas.  She married on 20 April 1946 in Spur, Texas to Claude Charles Keaton. He was born June 6, 1926 son of Ruth Gentry  and C. C. Keaton.  Claude Keaton died  3 march 2007 in Slaton, Texas. He was a nephew of Edna Anne Gentry and Mildred was the niece of Bunch Williams who was married to Anne Gentry. Claude’s mother Ruth divorced his father and married T.C. Cooley. Claude Keeton served in the Lubbock Police Force for many years and helped my father Edgar Hugh Williams, Mildred’s cousin in joining the force in 1952.  Mildred and Claude Keaton had a son named Charles Russell Keaton born 18 October 1955 in Lubbock, the husband of Donna Chesshir. 

B. Francell Williams was born Apr 5, 1934 in Afton, Dickens, Texas and died January 27, 1998 in Plainview, Texas. She was married 9 January 1954 in Lubbock to Willie Herbert Young. He was born 11 July 1928 in Spur, Texas and died 13 March 1983 in Plainview, Hale, Texas. He was the son of Garner Young and Tressie Henze. They were the parents of twin sons, Marlin Glenn Young and Marvin Scott Young both born 24 May 1957. Marlin married  Betsy K Mickey on 7 Jul 1978 in Plainview Hale County, TX and he died 16 September 2005.  

Hattie Lillian Williams was born August 22, 1906near Carterville, Cass, Texas and died December 11, 1923 in Upland, San Bernardino California.

A. Raymond Thomas Chesney (Colberg) son of Tom Chesney born December 11, 1923 Upland, San Bernardino California married Marjorie Pearsol. He was raised by Onie Colberg and adopted Colberg as his surname.

Horace Vernon “Bunch” Williams was born March 9, 1910 near Carterville, Cass, Texas 

And died November 6, 1987, Afton, Dickens, Texas. He married 30 November 1933 in Spur,  Texas Edna “Anne” Gentry the daughter of Albert Claude Gentry and Maline Ernestine Law.  She was born 24 November 1913 in Dickens County and died 29 August 1972 in Spur, Texas of a stroke. Bunch was a farmer for most of his life. After the death of Anne he married a 61 year old woman named Willie B Owens on 4 April 1973.

A. Jerrie Ann Williams was born Oct 22, 1939 in Dickens County and died 4 January 2004 in Matador, Texas. She married Jimmy Watson July 21, 1961 in Afton, Texas. She was the mother of two sons Christopher J  Watson born 28 June 1962 now of Casper, Wyoming and Darren P. Watson born 4 May 1965 now of Casper, Wyoming
B. Tommye Ruth Williams was born Dec 9 1944 in Dickens County, Texas and married David Bledsoe Keith. They  lived on the old Gentry Place in Dickens County.  She is the mother of three sons David Bryan Keith born 10 May 1965 in Crosby County, Texas, Michael Dee Keith born 19 September 1967 in Potter County, Texas, and Tye Chisum Keith born 6 August 1979 in Lubbock, Texas.

Hazel Clyde Williams was born July 22, 1912 near Carterville, Cass, Texas and died September 10, 1956 in Ashland, Nebraska. She was married to a Mr. Beard in Texas whom she divorced. It is not known whether she married John "Jack" F Maynor Jr, 1903–1968, but she had a son by him named Michael Clyde Maynor who was raised by his Aunt Jerrie Smith. He took the name Smith as his last.
A. Michael Clyde Smith was born 8 April 1952 in Ashland Nebraska and owned a chicken ranch in Dickens County, Texas.  He was married three times but only had two children by his wife Clydia Snow White.

Elizabeth Lorrene “Jerrie” Williams was born April 13, 1915 in Midway, Dickens, Texas And died May 26, 2003 in Dickens, Texas. She married inJune 1956 Gail A. Smith of Ashland, Nebraska. He was born 21 Oct 1913 in Nebraska and died 22 Jul 2002 in Plainview, Hale, Texas. She had no children but raised her nephew Michael Smith.

Winnie Marlene Williams was born February 14, 1917 Midway, Dickens, Texas and died April 17, 2004 in San Dimas, California. She is buried in Earth, Lamb, Texas. She married in1933 John Walker who raised her son by Lawrence Cooper.

A. Jerry “Gene” Cooper-Walker, son of Lawrence Cooper, was born 16 Nov 1933 In Hobart, Oklahoma and died 2 Apr 2003  in Lubbock, Texas. He married 1 March 1952 Carolyn Jeanette London in Downey, California. She was born 7 Oct 1935 in St. Clair County, Michigan and died 30 June 2015 in Lubbock, Texas. They and had three children Randy Gene Walker born 9 February 1953 in Los Angeles County, California, Andy Dean Walker born 27 Jul 1955 in Artesia, California and died 27 May 2002 Lubbock, Texas, and Luxie Louise Walker born 12 August 1960 in Artesia, California
B. Kenneth Carroll Walker was born 21 December 1935 in Earth, Lamb, Texas but was raised in the Downey-Norwalk area of Los Angeles County, California. He married Betty and lived in Apple Valley, California and Ojai, California. Nothing else is known.

Nellie “Nell” Juanita Williams was born December 12, 1920 in Afton, Dickens, Texas and died 11 April 2006 at the age 85 in Grants Pass, Josephine, Oregon. She was married three times. Her first huband was Wayne Howell who was an oil field worker in Saudia Arabia. He was born 3 January 1914 in Eastland, Texas and died 11 February 1995 in Hobbs, New Mexico. It is not certain that Nell was married to to Wayne Howell as there’s no marriage record nor divorce records and he had married another woman in 1940. Her second husband was Arthur Czarapota. Art Czarapota was born 15 October 1913 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and died 2 September 1964 while he and Nell were living in Downey California. He was divorced from his 1^st wife by whom he had a son. Nell and he had no offspring. Nell’s third husband was James Toy Dial.  He was born 30 May 1919 in Delta County, Texas and died 25 June 1995 in Grants Pass, Josephine County, Oregon. Records show that Nell and “Toy” filed for divorce twice in the 1970’s but evidently reconciled as they had both relocated to Oregon together.  Nell had just one child by Wayne Howell, a daughter named Darlene Howell or Darlyn Howell.
A. Darlyn Howell birth date was given as 9 December 1941 but the 1940 census of Odessa, Texas showed that she was 3 months old in March of 1940 so she was certainly born in December 1939 most likely in Odessa. Nothing further is known of her.

MEMOIRS of AUNT JERRIE SMITH As told to Edgar H. (Ben) Williams Jr. 16 July 1984 Anaheim Hills, California.

Dad was raised a Missionary Baptist In East Texas where his daddy was a Baptist preacher, but he had a very open mind about his religion.  Dad would go and hear other ministers preach which was what a whole lot of people wouldn't do. He would go to the Church of Christ If they were having a revival because Dad said, "Well we're basically the same except for what we call ourselves."  Dad would even go to the Methodist Church. When ever the minister would give a wonder­ful service Dad was the first to say so.  But Dad did believe that with all that water, the Lord did intend us to be baptized.  Not that he believed water saved you but he did believe that Jesus was baptized and we should follow suit.  He also said, "I never read in that Bible where God gave us any particular name and I think we just added that."

Dad didn’t become a minister because of Granddad Williams' big family kept him from having the time to study the Bible like Granddad did.  Granddad had those nine girls and three boys and Dad was the oldest.  Back in that day girls didn't work and with Granddad being a minister somebody had to help him make a living.  So it fell to dad to more or less fund that outfit.

In Dickens County Dad was a Baptist Deacon in our Church and when ever the minister didn't make it out to our church, Dad would lead the congregation in reading the Bible and discussing all that.  I got more out of him talking then I ever did a Minister.  Matter of fact when Dad taught anything he could teach so you could understand it.  He was far above them ministers in knowledge because Dad would read every book he could pick up.

  And could he sing!  Dad sang at all the revivals and a matter of fact all the ministers in the county wanted Dad to sing at their revivals because of his beautiful voice.  Dad also was the music leader of the congregation and if they didn't know the song he wanted them to sing he would keep it up until they got it. The one song I can almost see him singing la "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" and also that song "I come to the Garden" or some thing like that.

Dad was less strict with the boys than us girls about dating and dancing.  The Baptist Church which I had joined when I was small, sure didn't like dancing but Dad knew we all liked to dance and evidently so did he because if there was a dance that wasn't too far away Dad wouldn't say nothing against us going to it. But this one time the Baptist Church there were all up to turn us out because our family danced.

The Baptist Church were going to have what they called a Conference and everybody in Church was going to be there to hear us confess our dancing and say how we wasn't going to do it again.  But I said to Dad, "I'm not going to do it because I like to dance!  I would much rather be on a dance floor then to be at a party where you had to fight the old boy off or shove him over a rose bush!" 

Dad tried to keep a straight face after that because he knew that although I had an open mouth I always said it the way it was.  So Dad said, "You Just go down there to Church and you tell them your not going to stop dancing because there is a lot of things a lot worse than dancing!" Now Mama, she thought we ought to give up this dancing and do what the Church wanted us to do but she did say, By the way, how come this old gal to tell this about you kids dancing anyways?"

I said, "Oh she's always a ranting but come to think of it she's always laying around on a blanket with some old boy and I sure wouldn't get around and lay on a blanket!"

"Well you can just keep your mouth shut about that." said Mama.  But Dad thought it was all right so I told the Conference what I had told Mama and that was the last turning out I ever heard from anybody in that Church and especially from that family that was always creating trouble.

Once I heard Truman say when I was down there, "I didn't know Granddad was so religious."  His brother Bill then said, "He sure was.  If there was anybody around that needed helping Granddad was there to rectify it."  So Truman said, " Was he that re­ligious?" and Bill said, "Granddad had more religion in his little finger then most people in the ministry!" And that's the truth.  Dad never knew what a lie was. He never lied about nothing.

My Dad had dark, dark brown eyes, almost black they were so dark.  You could just see yourself in them.  He had a long straight nose, high cheek bones, and almost raven black hair.  I think Dad said he was six feet tall but he had two sons who were even taller.  Bunch was six feet two inches and tab was six feet three inches.  Now Joe wasn't but about five feet seven inches and was the short­est of all dad's boys*

Like I already mentioned Dad read every book he could pick up and if we brought anything home from the library. Dad would read it.  He really was a smart man and if he would have gotten an education he would have been very brilliant.  When I was in the fourth grade we were suppose to learn these Roman Numerals and they gave us a group to learn.  Well this one Sunday afternoon I said, "Dad I don't think I want to go to school tomorrow." Now this really surprised him because he knew I never liked to miss school.  So Dad asked, "What's this all about?" "Its these Roman Numerals.  I just can't see them."  I said. He said, "Oh there's nothing to them.  Come here and I'll show you," and by the time we was through I didn't just learn the little group of numbers they gave us but all the Roman Numerals!  Dad. told me how easy it was and after he taught me it sure enough was.  He had a way of explaining things so you could just pick it right up.  Dad would have been a good teacher.

As far as I'm concern we couldn't have had a better dad.  You could talk to Dad and he would be interested in what you had to say.  Also Dad would get money someway, oh maybe he would have to take a whole wagon load of watermelons to the fair, so us kids could have money to spend at the fair or to have money for the circus. 

Dad would always make sure we all got to go see all that sort of thing. I think Dad really enjoyed us kids because he would be at every basketball game we played, hollering, cheering us on.  I don't remember some of my brothers even going to see their kids play ball but our Dad sure did.  Also we would be in plays and Dad was always there for the whole bit of it.

In East Texas Dad ran a couple of saw mills at one time before we came to Dickens.  The way it was told to me there was this lady who I guess was a little bit off because she really didn't know what she was doing when she set them saw mills on fire and burned them down.  Dad didn't have insurance so he had to start from scratch and he heard that land was going real cheap out here so  he moved to West Texas.  Dad managed to buy a farm in 1919 for $30,000 but he lost it a few years later when the crops were bad and Joe's debts began to pile up.

All us kids worked in Dad's fields and I hated that.  I could only work two or three days and that was it because I would work bare footed and that hot sand would nearly blister my feet.  I couldn't stand them shoes and I can still hear Mama hollering, "Get a bonnet on!" and I couldn't stand a bonnet anymore than I could stand to wear shoes.

We all had our chores on Dad's farms.  Mama did the milking and the cooking and Dad always fed the horses and livestock.  Dad farmed with mules and when they first came to West Texas Dad had quite a few head of cattle.  But one year all our cattle died of black plague and Dad never built the herd back up.  Mama always had a bunch of chickens in the yard and we had chicken for dinner just about any time.  Mama would gather a fat little dude out of the yard and cook it for dinner. And for desert Mama would make a cobbler mostly out of plums that we would go pick around Roaring Springs.

We always had enough food and that kind of stuff and the other kids all had good appetites and ate real well.  But Mama had to chase me around the table just to get me to drink a glass of milk.  I didn't want this ham and eggs and all that kind of country food.  I wanted to live in the city and eat Post Toasties.  I had a sweet tooth and was always craving plums and biscuits.

My other brothers and sisters all grew up liking meat but Mama made sure I didn't by telling me when ever we had a roast that it was horse meat.  But she only had to tell me that one time and since then I won't touch one bite of it.  I always could see that cow looking at me eyeball to eyeball.  I like chicken fair enough and I do like pork ribs but that’s about the only meat besides fish I will eat. Mama's family she said didn't eat a lot of meat either except for fish and goat meat.  I don't know why but that was real strange to me that the Persers were goat eaters.

Now Dad did his own curing, making his own ham and Mama making up that good country sausage which we would can for the winter.  Mama would cook the meat until it was just nearly done then she would pour the grease over it and seal it to keep through the winter.  From that Mama made sausage for breakfast and it would keep through the winter with no problems.  Now that is a lost art. She didn’t go by recipes just by years of experience and I could never fix anything like Mama did,  Louis come more to cooking like Mama then any of us kids because he was always in the kitchen with her helping Mama cook.

We always had a few fruit trees too at most of the places we lived so we had fresh fruit and canned fruit most the year round.  Of course we kids didn't care to can anything because it would heat up the kitchen until we would just about die in the summer time it being so hot and nothing air conditioned in them days. But to keep from going to the fields I would usually make the syrup and while I never learned to cook I sure did learn to can.

Mama had a green thumb and she had all kinds of gardens to keep us in vegetables. She could grow any kind of vegetable-tomatoes, onions, potatoes, black-eye peas, butter beans, and just all kinds.  To keep us in stuff for the winter we would dry them peas and dad always raised sweet potatoes which would keep through the winter by keeping them dry under the shucks.  We would have I don't know how many bushels of sweet potatoes but I never cared for them.  I liked those white ones better.

Dad also kept us supplied with groceries in the winter tine by working in the oil fields.  He would be away from home for two or three weeks at a time but when Dad came home he brought lots and lots of groceries, especially this cheese which Mama kept with the milk in a cool place in the kitchen.  We didn't have an ice box but we always had eggs, milk, cheese and stuff like that.  Dad and Mama were good providers because a lot of people didn't eat as well as we did.

I always thought Dad could have done better with his milk cows however.  There I don't think Dad did so well because he would get only Jersey Cows because he liked the cream and butter they could give.  Jerseys don't give as much milk as Holsteins.  We always had plenty of milk but I thought we could have had more milk if Dad would have gotten us a Holsteln.

But Dad wasn't interested in that milk.  He wanted that cream for his coffee. He got that from his Dad's family because Grandad's family was like that.  They didn't drink milk but just had a cow for cream.  Dad's Mama would run out and milk that cow just enough to get that cream for the coffee.  Dad said when he was living at home with his folks they lived mostly on coffee and biscuits.  Mama said when she lived with Dad's folks she was so sick of that family because they ate just biscuits and coffee while Mama was use to eating all kinds of vegetable when growing up. 

Now Dad he would drink that coffee so black It would boil.  He said that if he didn't have it that strong he would get a terrific headache. Dad dranked it that strong all of his life from the time he was little.  His whole family did back in East Texas.

The only time I remember Mama and Dad arguing was at election time and about Mama not making Dad's coffee strong enough.  None of us kids dranked coffee and we wondered why mama wouldn't let Dad have his coffee like he liked it.  I think she wanted to punish him for moving to West Texas.  She never wanted to leave East Texas and when later Dad wanted to move back she would not let him.  I think that was her way of punishing him for leaving East Texas.

Anyways all we had to drink in those days was water, milk, coffee and tea. We had to carry that water from the windmill to the house everyday.  All our water was pumped by a well ran by a windmill outside the house.  I never liked sweet milk but I liked the clabber milk and oh that tea was delicious.  None of us kids dranked coffee til we left home and Mama never did.

Mama and Dad were never really affectionate in front of us kids but what they were before I was big enough to remember I really don't know.  They did have us twelve kids but to me it seemed that they just took each other for granted. They didn't fuss a lot at each other just at election time and over the Carters. Dad sure did not like the Carters and Mama's Mama was a Carter.

When Mama and Dad first moved to West Texas I believed they lived in some pretty big houses at each of the places daddy would buy because I remember them talking about the fire places the houses had.  But when I was big enough to remember we lived in a half-dug out more Indian like you know.  It was a huge long thing with a kitchen down in the dugout and upstairs was the bedrooms, but Mama also had beds down there in the half-dug out where the grandkids slept.  In the winter it was so cold that we would all gather around that stove to keep warm. 

Mama and Dad had their own room for privacy but us kids didn't have any.  Oh some times someone would be up stairs playing cards but usually we huddled together.  We went to bed in them days as soon as the sun went down and it got dark.  We got up early in the morning so mostly us kids were too tired to feel like we had to have entertainment.  Oh we would play ball or something after we got our chores done but usually by the time we finished our chores it was time to go to bed. We didn't have electricity, no electric lights, no radio, no t.v. 

We never had a radio for most of the time I was a kid.  I never will forget the first radio I ever heard. It was the strangest thing you ever saw.  This guy got London on his set and you could listen by putting it up to your ear. That really was a strange thing.

The morning that dad died Mama went to wake him up because he always got up early to fed the horses.  Mama had cooked him breakfast and she was worried when Dad didn't get up because she never saw him sleep so late.  My nephew Raymond was sleeping with Dad and he said to Mama, "Granny why don't you let him sleep a little longer?"

"No he'd want to get up." Mama said and when she couldn't get him up she touched him and he was ice cold.  Dad had died in his sleep.  At the time they said he probably died of a heart attack but I don't think so.  It was the middle of July and Dad had been out all day long in that horrible horrible heat.  It was hot and I think he just had a heat stroke because he didn't complain about feeling bad that night, just that he was hot.  Dad asked for a glass of ice tea and said that he was hot after being out there in that heat all day long about ten hours.  There was a government man there with him that day and they were stepping all over the land to see what they were going to put in this soil bank.  So I think he just over exhausted himself and died during the night.

There were so many stories Dad told us about his youth and I guess he was every­thing but a Saint.  I'm sure Grandad must have had a time with that boy from the stories Dad would tell about him being a P.K. [Preacher kid] kid.  Of course Dad would laugh and think it was funny, some of those stories he would tell, but Mama would just get mad and say "Edd you shouldn't be telling these kids them stories!" But he would anyways and we would just about die from laughing.

One time he said there was a special dance there in Cass County but he didn't get invited and this made him mad.  I think Mama went with a whole bunch of her brothers and sisters to the party so Dad decided to go to this party anyways with a bunch of boys who all ran around together.  Eventually these boys became some of my uncles but at the time they were all just a bunch of boys who ran around together. Dad said Tom Williams who married my Aunt Margaret, Tom Glover who married my Aunt Betty, and Uncle Pierce Gates who married Mama's sister. and some other boys all rode up to this party on their horses and this old man came out and ran them off saying that they weren't invited and they could leave.  It was just this picked little group that had been invited so Dad and these boys decided how funny it would be to shoot out the lights at this party and see those girls run.  I guess they thought they were real good shots so Dad said they did and it was so funny to him that he would just about die laughing when ever he would tell this story.  He said , "You could hear them silk petticoats just a rustling going Swoosh! Swoosh!"

Now Mama would always get mad at this story and would say, "Edd Williams you shouldn't be telling them kids that!"  Then Dad said that the same night they shot out the party lights they went over to this richy-rich place down there and got a whole bunch of their chickens.  They had to eat then chickens on the run so they didn't get them quite done and they all got deathly sick.  Dad said, "We just fairly died we got the belly ache so bad."

Mama said, "It should have just about killed them all!"  Mama didn't think stealing them chickens was funny at all but Dad thought it was real funny but then he had such a good sense of humor.  

Mama said, "Your Dad should have known what you done and you wouldn't have thought it so funny when he got done with you." But this was just some of the things that the P.K. kids done down there and now I nearly die laughing when I hear someone tell me, "I was a P.K. Kid." because I think back to what a rascal Dad said he was.

Them people in East Texas loved to tell panther stories and I guess they could be pretty wild stories.  I've heard that my Grandad Williams was a fiddle player and he would play at what they called musicals back in them days.   Well one time he was out in the woods walking along this little road until he reached this little log he had to cross to get over to where he was wanting to go.  So here he was carrying his fiddle and in the middle of crossing this log he saw this big black panther ready to charge.  Grandad wouldn't carry a gun or a knife or any kind of a weapon so he was in a tight spot.  All he had was this fiddle so thinking quick-like he took that fiddle and took a couple of strikes at the bow and that cat screamed, jumped twenty feet into the air and took off running. I guess that cat thought that awful sound was another critter.  So anyways Grandad then got a cross that little foot log and went on to the party.

My Grandad Perser had his panther story too.  He said that he one time dreamed that this panther was going to attack this widow lady who was a neighbor of his. The dream woke him up but he went back to sleep.  Then he dreamed it a second time and it woke him up again.  Grandad Perser just shook it off again and went back to sleep until he dreamed the same thing a third time.  This time he got dressed and went over to this neighbor's and sure enough there was a panther crouched by this widow lady's bed.  Grandad Perser shot the panther as it was ready to charge and it nearly scared this poor lady to death.

The story that Dad would tell me about back there in East Texas that really got me the most was about old Stonewall Carter.  Stonewall Carter who is no kin to us that I know of, lived down in Cass County and at the time we didn't live too far from him.  Mama said he would get out on the porch and sing, "Good Old Ham and Sausage." to anybody who'd pass him by.  He had a wife named Minnie and they say that the old lady was actually meaner then old Stonewall was.  Everyone was scared to death of Minnie Carter because she was suppose to have been meaner than even Stonewall!  Now Stonewall was one of the out-laws of the county and when he wasn't out robbing people openly he was killing drifters secretly on his place. What he would do was hire drifters who would never make it off his farm at the end of the season.  When it became time to pay them off he would kill them and bury them on his farm.

Dad said one time he was taking the payroll from his lumber mill through the woods when Stonewall Carter held him up.  Now Dad said he was the only one that wasn't afraid of him in that part of the country .and he was going through them woods with the payroll at night. Dad said it was just as black as mid­night when this old Stonewall stuck a gun in Dad's ribs and said, "Hold 'em up!"

"Stonewall if you don't want to eat that gun, you better never put it in my ribs again!" said Dad. "Because you'll eat that gun if you do!"

"Oh Uncle Edd," said Stonewall. (Everybody in the county called Dad Uncle Edd.) "Oh Uncle Edd, I was just trying to scare you."'

"Well you don't scare me Stonewall. I don't run from you like the other people. Now I'm just going to tell you this just once so you better listen Stonewall. Don't take any of my cattle, don't take any of my geese, or anything else of mine because I'll come and get you! And when I do, you'll wish you'd never have seen me!"

"Oh Uncle Edd, I wouldn't take nothing from you." said Stonewall and he never tried anything funny with Dad again after that.

Now one time old Minnie Carter did come down to our place and pinched one of Mama's geese and Onie B. saw her and went after her.  Sister was quite a scrapper like Dad so that old lady turned the goose loose and she never tried to take Mama's geese again.  Nobody messed with sister either.

On another occasion Dad said the Sheriff was called out to Stonewall's place to arrest him for something and Stonewall ended up taking the Sheriff's boots and his mule.  The Sheriff came running back down to our house in his stockings and he told Dad he was going to deputize Dad to go back with him to arrest Stonewall.  But Dad said, "I'll go up and get him but I don't need to be deputized".  So Dad went on his own up there and old Stonewall came on in with Dad and turned himself in.

Stonewall Carter finally left his place when at the end of the season this one fellow that was working for him asked Stonewall for his money.  Well when this fellow went to sleep Stonewall came in and knocked him in the head and knocked him out of bed.  However this time I guess the guy didn't quite die right there so Stonewall came over to our house and told Dad that this man was evidently having an epileptic fit because he was laying on the floor kicking. 

Stonewall said to Dad, "Uncle Edd I want you to come over with me to the house." But Dad was suspicious and said, "No I'll just call the sheriff to send the doctor out but I'm not going over there with you.  There's nothing I can do anyhow but I might be able to help the doctor when he gets there." But Stonewall didn't want no doctor to find this man up at his place so Stonewall went back to his house and of course the guy was dead by the time the doctor got there.  

People were pretty suspicious about what was going on at Stonewall's place so after that Stonewall moved into Texarkana where he harbored gangsters and out~laws.  When they found them bodies buried on his place they could never prove who those people were.  Those people buried out there on that farm I guess were drifters with no family so no one pursued It.  They say they found seven or eight bodies out there.  I think Stonewall did get sent up to the pen for a few years but later he got out.  He wasn't in the pen very long for sure.

I don't know much about them people that stayed in East Texas after Dad and Mama left but I know Mama just loved Grandad Williams [G.K. Williams].  However she didn't care too much for Grandma Williams [Shelomith Rushton].  She didn't care anything about her at all.  She said she was a Rushton and "She Bossed! Bossed! Bossed!  She was real bossy!" and Mama did not like to be bossed by anybody.  I also think that Grandma Williams did not think that Mama was good enough for Dad.  

Mama said the only time she ever got a long with Grandma was when Mama had her first kid.  Dad was with Mama and Grandma told Dad, "Edd go get the doctor! and Dad said, "Oh make Pa go!" and Grandma said, "Pa went for me and you married this woman so you get going!"  Mama said Dad did not dare cross Grandma so he took off and got the quacky doctor.  Mama said he wasn't no good and that the mid-wives were much better. 

I think most of us kids were delivered by midwives. I know Mama really liked the old Grandma Williams, Dad's Grandma, [Harriett Kearse] She lived with Dad and Mama for awhile when they first got married and Mama said she was as nice as you could be.  Just a little itty bitty thing with black eyes like Dad.  She was a Kearse.

It seems to me that Dad was closer to his sisters than he was his brothers. He didn't seem to be close to Uncle George but whether he resented the fact that Uncle George didn't help out with supplying riches for Grandad's family I don't know.  Dad never did say.  But Dad sure did have all that to do and I never heard him complain about it.  I never heard him say that it was somebody else's respons­ibility.  Dad always took it on himself to support them kids like they was his own. Dad always made good money all through his life and was making a come back that year he died.

Now Aunt Margaret was the oldest of them kids and she died when she was in her thirties real young.  She was married to Tom Williams but they didn't have no kids.  Mama liked Aunt Margaret very well and I remember them talking about her. She had some type of a migraine and just like that she died of a brain hemorrhage. 

Next came Aunt Betty and all I ever knew about her was through her kids because I never got to see her either.  I heard Dad speak real well of Aunt Betty and it seems that he was real fond of her.  She married Tom Glover and I met some of her kids.  Now if you want to see the darkies the Glovers are the darkies.  They are the darkest of all us Williamses and they put our side to shame even as dark as we are.  Theirs is a yellow dark not a dark dark complexion like our group. Every Glover I ever seen was that way.

Aunt Sarah was the third, girl and she died young too with that typhoid fever. That whole family did.  Mama must have liked Mr. Collins pretty good because that is who Hazel was named after.

Dad was next and the first boy and after him came Uncle George.  I believe that one of the reasons Uncle George and Dad weren't close was that Dad. did not like Aunt Nora, the woman he married.  I don't know anything about the lady but they didn't care anything at all about her.  None of Dad's family did either or at least the ones I met when I went down to East Texas.  There was some pretty hard feelings when Uncle George did not come to Dad's funeral and I asked Clarence's wife Pearl about that because I wanted, to know what the deal was.  I had only heard one side of the deal.  Now Pearl said that Uncle George couldn't have come because he was very sick when Dad, died.  I guess that is right because not too long after Dad died Uncle George died.  He died just a few months after Dad did. Uncle George had a son named George Miles Junior but everybody called him Boots. Louis was also called Boots when we lived in East Texas.  Uncle George also had a daughter named Georgia Edna and her husband runs the bank there at Hughes Springs.

Next came the twins Aunt Anna and Aunt Hattie.  Aunt Anna died when she was little and Mama liked Aunt Hattie real well and said she had quite a story. Un­til I heard this story I did not know that people hanky-panked around in them olden days and I guess this one time Aunt Hattie came home and caught Uncle Riley with this old drummer lady.  I guess she was some circus lady of some type and Aunt Hattie caught them together in Uncle Riley's garage. Now Aunt Hattie was a little bitty thing and that drummer lady would have made two of her but she was so riled up that she took this buggy whip and whipped them both with it.  I guess she just nearly beat the fire out of out of them and tore this old gal's clothes nearly off her before she could get away from Aunt Hattie.  Then that old drummer lady took off through the woods nearly with out any clothes on.  It must have been a sight!  I guess she was lucky to get out of there a live because Aunt Hattie was a little Wild Cat Tiger!  They all said that even though Aunt Hattie was small she was really a little tiger.  Well anyways I can just see Grandad Williams trying to calm Aunt Hattie down.  He always had that little twinkle in his eye. Anyways Aunt Hattie wanted to leave Uncle Riley but Grandad said, "Well you got all them kids and you can't very well divorce him."

"Well," she said. He can't come in the house!"

Grandad said, "Well then put his bed out on the screened in back porch but don't just kick him out."

"Well he isn't eating at my table!"

"Couldn't he eat after the kids are through?" asked Grandad and so that is how Grandad talked Aunt Hattie out of leaving Uncle Riley.  They didn't get a divorce but they lived separate almost the rest of their married life.

I've heard then talk about Aunt Rush who married Uncle Fite but I don't know too much about her.  The same with Aunt Mary.  She married Mr. Harris but I don't know much about her either.  I met Aunt Katie Belle and she was the poorest of all then kids but she was my favorite Aunt.

I knew Uncle George Neville but I never knew Aunt Lula but I heard Dad talk about her so much.  One time some of them Neville kids came out West to see us.  Aunt Lula had a son named G.K. Neville Jr. and a daughter Lorraine who was a school teacher down there in Texarkana where she taught for years and years.

Uncle Leonard was Dad's youngest brother and he died with that typhoid fever, him and his daughter Gwendolyn.  Then Aunt Vera moved with Merdys, the other daughter to Plainview where they lived for years before moving back to East Texas. They left Plainview before Gail and I settled there so I never knew her when Aunt Vera lived in Plainview.

Mama and Dad had six boys and six girls and Clarence was the oldest.  I tell you Clarence just about got everything he wanted from Dad and it caused hard feelings among the rest of us kids.  I remember him coming back in 1928 while he was a border Patrol officer in Arizona.  Pearl and his kids were staying with Dad at the time and Clarence had his own money to keep but he came back that time to have Dad help him out some more.

  Dad had just gotten himself a new car and we was just getting back on our feet trying to help Dad get himself another farm. Us kids were out in the field working like slaves picking cotton.  We got out about six bales of cotton and here we were pulling late in the evening when Clarence came up with a black suit on with a nice shirt and tie.  I don't remember where he had been so dressed up but he said to me, "Why don't you take two rows?" I guess he was hinting at wanting another bale of cotton to take back to Arizona. Well I had this big mouth and I said, "If you want two rows picked, you better get your cotton picking suit off and take it yourself!" Boy did that make him furious and he said, "I'll get you Don't you sass me like that!  I'll just give you a whipping!" and I said, "No you won't!"

Now Bunch heard me and,  boy,  he came undone and said to Clarence, "Don't you lay a hand on her or you'll never get out of this field!  You better get to going and get out of here right now!"  So Clarence left and Bunch was pretty furious too.  So Bunch came home that night and this was the only time I ever heard Bunch say anything to Dad when he was mad.  Bunch said, "Dad we have worked like dogs, everyone of us, and we've ate egg sandwiches the whole year, farming three farms just trying to get you back on your feet.  Because you've been out for this kid and that kid and we've tried to get you started again.  But if you let Clarence have our car or another bale of cotton, I am through! I'll never try to help you get started again." But you know Clarence got the car and six bales of cotton and he went back to Arizona.  I always thought Clarence got the main stuff of everything and there was pretty hard feelings over that for years until Bunch made up with Clarence.  But at the time he was pretty disgusted there for a while. 

My brother Austin left home pretty early so I never really got to know him. He was about 18 when he left home and I think he married lone [Roberson] when he was about 19.  Austin and lone did not live together for too long.  She was pregnant with Billy Ware when they separated.  Later they divorced but not until years and years later when Billy Ware was about 20 years old.

Austin was in the Music Business and lone did not go for that.  She wanted him to settle down and be a farmer so that is why they broke up.  Austin said he was not cut out to be a fanner.  He said he was out there grubbing when he realized that he liked music too well to stay out in West Texas and grub ground.  He liked to sing too well so he went to Dallas where he went to school and was taught music by J.R. Baxter.  Austin then went to teaching music and singing with Frank Stamp and his two brothers there at Dallas.  Later they formed the Stamps, a Gospel Quartet that sang all over the South.

After Austin left home he never came back except to visit.  He would just come back to see us but I never really knew him.  Austin's oldest boy Glynton was killed when he got hit by a car in East Texas.  Glynton and Billy Ware were out by the road when Glynton just jumped in front of a car driven by this colored guy. It was very hot and I guess it was hot on his feet and he just jumped with out looking and was killed.  Some of them in East Texas got awfully mad at Austin over that because he wouldn't pursue punishing this colored guy.  Austin said it wasn't this fellow's fault and that he knew him and he would not have deliberately come up and hit Glynton.  There just wasn't a thing this colored man could do.  But everybody down there said because he was Colored he should have been punished.  There was some pretty ill feelings towards Austin over that deal for sometime.

Austin made a living singing and teaching singing.  In fact he taught Tennessee Ernie Ford and quite a few of them Southern singers went to him for lessons.  When I was working at the arsenal at Benicia in California during World War II, there was a blond headed girl from Birmingham Alabama with whom I worked.  I had a picture of Austin and it fell out of my purse and she saw it and said, "Where did you get that picture of that man?**

"Do you know him?" I asked.

"Why yes! He is one of the biggest Gospel Singers in the South!  He has wrote more good songs!"  she said. "Well he's my brother!" I said.

Austin died in Columbus, Ohio in the Veteran Hospital there while he was directing some Church choir.  He died of a heart attack*

Billy Ware was Austin and Ione's second son and he married a native California. He's a retired school principle and has retired near Jefferson at the Lake of the Pines.  I think he retired after having open heart surgery.

Austin married as his second wife Lonaine Junkins and I believe they were  a German family.  Austin had two more children by Lorraine, Edgar Clyde and his only daughter Becky.  Eddie must have a lot of the songs that Austin wrote because I haven't seen any that have been published.

Now my brother Joe was really the one that kept Dad broke all the time because Dad was always having to bail Joe out of something.  But that was Joe.  What ever Joe done was all right by the rest of us kids.  All the kids knew all what Dad did for Joe but there wasn't a grudge because of it.  I never heard anybody bad mouthing Joe.  Rather they would laugh about the things he done.  I know Louis talked about Joe more then any of his other brothers.  They all did.  Joe had such a fun personality.  He could sing and dance and was such a good story teller. He could keep you entertained the whole evening by sitting around and telling stories by the hours.  People would just come around to hear Joe tell a story and they would crack up and sit by the hour listening to Joe's stories about people down in Dickens county and different things.

I don't know why Joe would write them checks.  He never had a dime on him but daddy had to take care of,  then  Joe would get in a poker game and write checks for $100 and sometimes as much as $1000.  Dad would go pay them off to keep Joe out of disgrace.  Joe was such a poor player too.  I don't think he would know he had won a hand unless no body picked up the money.  I don't know why he played unless he was a compulsive gambler.  You know none of the kids held that against him.  He said he couldn't help himself.

Mama said Joe had gotten hurt when he was little and he never had to do any work until he moved to California after Dad died.  I guess really that was the only time he did any heavy work because he had two youngin' and no one else was there to help him.

Louis was Dad's fourth son and if he resented Dad bailing out his brothers he kept it to himself.  If he had been able to talk about it he might have gotten over it because he knew how much Dad favored them older boys over him.  Louis was bound to have seen it when they were home and I know he felt bad because of it. Louis left home too when he was pretty young.  He ran around with this boy and they both decided to leave at the same time.  They rode off on a couple of burros and it was the funniest thing to see them ride out of there.  This one kid went to Dallas and Louis went to Spur where he went to work.  I never knew the details on why Louis left and Mama would never tell me.  Maybe school was a little hard for him I don't know.  He was good at other things however but he did not like school at all.  I really didn't know Louis that well because he was so strange and quiet.  You couldn't get near Louis to get close to him.  Maybe Anne under­stood him, I don't know, but she would be the only one.

Now if Mama had a boy she was partial to it was Louis.  Louis not only learned how to cook better then the rest of us kids from Mama, but when ever Mama was sewing he would be there helping her out with that too.  Mama and Louis was real close and Mama said that anything she would go to cook, Louis would come in and learn how to cook it too.  Some of the other kids thought Louis was a sissy because all he wanted to do was all women's chores but Louis was anything but a sissy.  But Louis was different in his own way.  For some reason it seems that all he wanted to do was work, work, work.  All the time.

Louis was called Boots in Cass County and all the people down there, the older ones that knew him, remembered him as Boots.  I have heard a couple of folks talk about how much they liked him and evidently he had quite a few friends down there.  When we would go back East people would say to us, "What ever happened to Boots?"  People asked more about him then they did all the rest of us*

I don't think Louis and Dad were very close at all.  Mama and Louis was much closer than Dad and him.  I don't think Dad ever said anything to Louis but I think he was jealous of Louis and Mama because it seemed like where ever Mama was Louis was.  His preferring Mama over Dad may have been why Dad favored some of the other boys.  I really don't know.

The nearest I ever heard Louis joking with anyone was with Mike [Smith] when he was little before Hazel died.  Louis was down one summer sitting out there on the porch and he said to Mike, "Mike what did you do down in East Texas?"  Then Mike came up with a wild snake story.  It was just way out and he couldn't have been more then three year-sold at the time. Mike said to Louis, "Oh Uncle Louis down there you wouldn't believe it!  Gail and I were driving down through them woods and we met a mother snake who must have had 10 or 12 of them little things and they were just jitter-bugging all over that road!" Louis got so tickled over them jitter-bugging baby snakes.

Louis then told Mike how one time when he was a kid in East Texas, him Onie B., Austin, Joe, and Tab were all coining down this road when they passed this old colored man's barn which they knew was filled with peanuts.  So they decided to get some of this old man's peanuts and so Joe climbed up into the loft first because he was kind of the onery one.  After him each of the boys climbed up and right off Joe jumps out of that loft followed by his three brothers.  They took off down the road and didn't say a word so OnieB. had to go up and see what they were all running from and when she got to the top she saw this man's retarded colored boy with a pitch fork just fixing to poke the next one up the ladder.  Louis said she jumped down and took off running with the rest of them kids and Mike asked, "Uncle Louis did you run too?" and Louis said, "Yes I was flying down that road."

Now Mama thought you was one of the best grandkids there was.  I would hear how she use to come home and say, I'll tell you, that Edgar Hugh needs to keep that little boy in Church.  He is the most polite kid I've ever seen. He is the gentleman and such a nice boy." 

I heard so much about you that I went to Annie because Mama didn't think but she had one grandkid and that was you.  She was so proud of you and your fine singing voice so I said to Anne, "Is he that good of a boy Anne?" and Anne would laugh and say, "Yes he is a good boy." But of course Anne could see good in everybody but you were Mama's favorite.

I know Tab was not Dad's favorite because he married into the Putnam family not that he had anything against Mr. Putnam.  He rather liked him.  But Mrs. Putnam was a Jarrett and they had married in with the Carters.  I don't know why Dad did not like the Carters or the Jarretts but Mama liked to skin him and jump through him like a window everytime Dad would say something bad about the Carters.  Mama's mama was a Carter and Dad sure didn't care nothing about Grandma Perser. 

Dad was real crazy about Grandpa Perser but he sure did not care nothing about Grandma.  There proably was a reason why Dad was stuck up about the Carters but I'm not sure what it was.  Maybe they were not high up enough on the totem pole as Dad thought they should be.  Dad thought the Vllllamses were high up on the list and was particular about who we could marry.  I never thought that way myself.  I never thought anybody was better than me and I never thought I was better then any body else,  I thought I was as good as anybody else.  You should have seen some of my friends.  Some were derelicts and some were up and up.  It didn't matter to me.  People were people.

Tab said he almost got killed one time because of Joe.  When we first moved to West Texas Tab said how he was in Church and sitting with Mama when Joe came in and tapped me on the shoulder, motioning me to come outside. "I thought something was wrong," he said," So I went outside and when I got outside the door this one boy punched me in the head and another kicked me in the stomach!"

Now Tab was skinny but he was strong just like iron and he said,"About the second or third lick I had enough of that so I calf roped one of them boys to the ground and when I got him down I roped the other.  Then he came a third boy so I bit him and got my finger in one of them eyes and nearly gouged it out!  I didn't even know these guys but I wanted to see what this was all about.  Well it seemed that Joe said something about these guys and when they first jumped him he got out of it by sayings 'No I didn't say anything but my brother Tab did!Here I'm almost getting killed over that dude!" I said to Tab, "Did Joe help you out?" and Tab just grinned and said, "No he ran like a turkey!  I had to fight all three by myself!"

Bunch and Tab weren't as close as they could have been and I guess it was because they were always picking on each other and taking little digs at each other*  I always thought that was so useless.  I could never understand why it was that they would fuss if someone got something the other didn't.  I always thought it was the greatest thing if one of my brothers got something or one of my sisters got something.  I still don't understand why people do these things.

Onie B. was the talented one in our family.  Had she lived in another generation she would have been a brilliant, brilliant woman because she would have had the opportunity to go to college.  I think her frustration came from the fact that she knew the things she could have done had she had the education.  She resented Clarence for having an education all these years because she said she was smarter than he was.  She should have been allowed to go but Clarence being the oldest boy he got to go and she didn't.  She didn't like that at all.  Because of this there was always a clash between the two of them for years and years and years.

Now Pearl [sister in law] and Onie B. had their troubles too.  Pearl resented and almost hated Onie because when Pearl was engaged to Wright Patman, Onie B. came along batted an eyeball at him and he dropped Pearl for Onie B.  She was so beautiful and back then all she had to do was bat an eyeball and all the boys would just drop for her.  She was the Belle of the county and Dad seen to it that sister had nice clothes.  Sister was the boy Dad would have liked to have had not that he was not fond of Clarence because he was but Dad was much closer to sister.

Onie Belle was the oldest girl and she thought anything a man could do she could do.  She went to work in 1922 and worked until she retired at 65.  In her old age Onie was always falling because evidently she had weak ankles but it never slowed her down any.  She is still living in Benicia which is in Northern California near Vallejo.  She moved there during the War.

I had never heard of Benicia and in 1942 I wanted to go to San Diego but she said, "Well I'm going to Benicia.  I have some friends out there and they asked us to come out because we can get a pretty good job there."

"Well," I said. "I'm going out there to work in San Diego.  I like California but I want to go down south." "Why don't you stay a week or so with me and then you can go on down South. " she said.  Well that week lasted until the war was over because Onie had me go to work right a way.  Onie believed that after two days you vacation was over and it was time to go to work.  Everybody should have a job of some kind so I went down to the arsenal and Onie made sure I put in my application and I was hired right a way.

I didn't know I was going to be froze but sure enough I was as soon as I was hired.  When you were froze they wouldn't give you a release to work any where else and no one else would hire you.  This was war time and I had to stay at this job until the war was over.  I would never have gone to Benicia if I would have known that.

I had stayed with Onie B. all through my high school and I stayed with her in Benicia. I finished 8th grade at Midway in Dickens County then went and lived with Onie B because she was ill and Dad thought Hazel and I should go up there and help her.  Hazel had stayed with Onie since she was in Junior High and she stayed until her Senior year when she came back to Dickens to play basket­ball.  She was really a good player and they coaxed her back to Dickens to play Basketball and that is where she graduated from High School.

Onie wasn't well when we went up there but we didn't realize how sick she was. She had a nervous break down from working too hard.  The doctors said she had over worked herself. John [Colberg] had traded for a house sight unseen and they went up there not knowing what to expect.  They took all of the furniture, with Onie driving the one car pulling a load of furniture and John drove a truck.  Onie was carrying the kids and the dogs and they got in around midnight. 

Indians had lived in that house and it had just gone to pot.  The house had a bathroom but it had not been used in years and the plaster was off the wall.  It had been a big big home but them Indians had just tore it to pieces.  The weeds was higher then your head she said and she sat down and cried the rest of the night.  Then the next day she went to work on the place and by the time I got there it was the show place of the town.  If Onie stuck a flower in the ground it grew.  I don't a care what it was.  There was never nothing that once she made her mind up to do that she couldn't do.

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