WILLIAMS, John
Date of death: 21 Nov 1890 – Edinburg, Johnson County, Indiana
Franklin Daily Journal, November 28, 1890
OBITUARY.
John Williams departed this life at his late home in Edinburg, on the morning of the 21st inst, after a lingering illness of two months. He was one of the earliest settlers of Bartholomew county and died at the advanced age of over eighty-three years.
The deceased was born in Overten [sic] county, Tennessee, October 16, 1807, and came to Wayne county, Indiana, in the fall of 1816. From there he moved to Bartholomew county in the year 1820. In 1831 he moved to Washington township, in Shelby county, where he continuously resided until he moved to Edinburg, in October 1875. He left the care of his father in the year of 1827 and worked for thirty-seven and a half cents per day, or $5.00 per month, for three years to get money to enter land with. He then took sick at Indianapolis, and remained sick for about one year which necessitated the expenditure of all his earnings, board and doctor bill absorbing the entire amount. His father then gave him eighty acres of land in Washington township, Shelby county.
In October, 1831, deceased was married to Lucinda Depue, and then moved onto the land given him by his father.
He was an honest, industrious and quiet man, his integrity being beyond question. During his entire life he never intentionally wronged or harmed any man. He never failed to pay a debt promptly when due or before and his taxes were never delinquent. He honestly earned 440 acres of good land in Shelby and Bartholomew counties, which he divided among his children in 1887, paying the full installment of taxes thereon.
He attended school in Bartholomew county, Ind., in 1826 for a period of about one month. Other learning acquired was from study at home. He was a member of no church but believed in the christian religion and talked freely of his hope for the future, in his very last days. He contributed liberally to the building of a number of the churches and was loved and respected by all who knew him.
—M. L. HERBERT
The Franklin Democrat, Friday, November 28, 1890,
Volume XXXI Number 23, page 1 column 6
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John Williams, Sr., of Edinburg, died at his home on Saturday morning after a lingering illness. Mr. Williams was one of the pioneers of the county, having settled near Edinburg in 1820.
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Link to John Williams, Sr.’s grave
Note: The Johnson County Indiana WPA Death Index, 1882–1920, page 231, referencing Book H-16, page 30, records that Jno. Williams, an eighty-three-year-year old white male, died 21 Nov 1890 in Edinburg.
Submitted by Mark McCrady, Cathea Curry and Lois Johnson