Person:Jehial Williams (1)

Jehiel Williams, son of the Pioneers John and Mary Williams, was born near Orange, southeast of Richmond in Wayne county, IN. He was only four and a half years old when his father was killed in a "barn raising". His mother remarried, and he was raised by his mother and stepfather, Absolem Williams.

    We do not know just when he went to Hamilton county, but probably with his cousins, the Cook family. In 1842 he married Sarah Harvey, daughter of William Harvey and Rachel Townsend, at the Friends Meeting at Aroma. He took her to live in a one-room cabin in the woods. They began housekeeping with a three-legged skillet, which their grandson remembers still being used many years later.
    Surviving grandchildren (there are four) have supplied these recollections. In one story about those pioneer days, Jehiel was lost in the woods. He wandered around in circles, realizing he was lost! Finally he saw a cabin, approached, and knocked on the door. A woman opened it -- his own wife. Imagine how dumfounded he was!
    He had a smokehouse where he kept his ham and bacon. One night he heard a racket, and went out to inspect. A thief after his meat supply was caught in a trap. Crawling under the sill which Jehiel had propped up on blocks, he had sprung the trap and was pinned down. Jehiel went back to bed and let him stay. The next morning he gave the man a good lecture on honesty and Quaker doctrine, presented him with a ham, and sent him home rejoicing and repentant!
    Jehiel and Sarah raised their five children there. When the oldest daughter, Lousia, died leaving four small children, they took the baby, Owen Haworth, to raise. Mariette, the third child, became paralyzed at the age of three, and was cared for in the home for many years. Their youngest daughter Olive was married on their Golden Anniversary, Dec. 15, 1892. They then moved into Noblesville, the County Seat, and lived in her home until their passing.
    Jehiel Williams was born Oct. 5, 1821 in Wayne county; and died March 27, 1906. He married Sarah Harvey at Aroma, Ind. Dec. 15, 1842. She was born in Wayne county Dec. 12, 1823, and died July 25, 1911, on a farm near Aroma.

From "John & Mary Williams- Wayne County Pioneers," page 42.

1. ↑ A. Donovan Faust (Foust). A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust. (1997).
2. ↑ Harvey History "Book", by N. E. Almond, 12/99..
3. ↑ Carolyn (Haworth) Johnson Interview, September, 2000..