Untitled From the Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 642

JOHN P. WILLIAMS, miner and farmer in the town of Hazel Green, Grant county, was born in Devon, England, March 30, 1821, a son of Thomas and Ann WILLIAMS, both of whom lived and died in their native land. John P. and his brother Thomas, who settled and died in Pennsylvania, were the only members of the family who came to this country.

John P. WILLIAMS came through New York on his way to Wisconsin in 1848, and following his arrival in Grant county was engaged in lead mining for a number of years. While in England he married Miss Jane THOMAS, who died in Hazel Green in 1879, leaving him with two children: (1) John, the eldest, was born in England in 1845, and acquired his education in the academy at Platteville. Miss Alice COOPER became his wife, and they live in Plainfield, Wis., where he is a hotel-keeper. They have a family of eleven children, Ida, Emil, John, Frank, Lute, Alice, Antes, Thomas, Robert, Una and Florence. (2) Thomas, born in Grant county in 1851, married, and is now a hardware merchant in Necedah, Wis. He has three children, Irene, John M., and Jennie.

In 1850 John P. WILLIAMS made the journey to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. His labors in the gold fields were attended with very good results, and he spent three years there, at the end of that time returning to Wisconsin, and working in the lead mines of this State until 1856. That year he went back to California, and was gone some ten years, engaged in business in that State. In 1864 Thomas STEPHENS sold him a fine farm in Hazel Green township, on which he made many improvements, and thereon made his home. In 1880 he married Miss Hannah PEDELTY, of Hazel Green, a daughter of John and Hannah PEDELTY, natives of Yorkshire, England, who came to this country in 1894, and settled in the town of Hazel Green, where Mr. PEDELTY followed smelting on his homestead in that town. In the spring of 1864 he and his family moved to Platteville. In the fall his wife died, and in the spring of 1865 Mr. PEDELTY moved back to Hazel Green; he died in 1879. Mrs. WILLIAMS was born in England in 1849, and received her education in the Grant county schools. She is one of four daughters: Mary A., wife of Anthony SHEPERD; Hanna, Mrs. WILLIAMS; Jane, wife of Simon NICHOLAS, of South Dakota; and Ruth, widow of Henry INGRAHAM, of Lafayette county.

After his second marriage Mr. WILLIAMS settled on his farm where he is now living retired. To this union came one child, Avis, who was born in 1882, and is now a student in the Hazel Green school. In politics Mr. WILLIAMS is a Republican, and in religion he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They are highly respected people, and he has been very successful in his life work.



This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck