William Houston Williams, merchant, was born December 5, 1834, in Blount County, and is the son of W. B. and Elizabeth (Hubbell) Williams, natives of Smyth County, Va., the former born in 1796, being the son of Major Samuel Williams, a native of Rye Valley, Va., and a soldier of the Continental war. He was also an extensive iron works owner in his native state. He settled in Blount County in 1822, and was a farmer, a captain in the militia, and also a deputy sheriff, and died in 1852. The mother was born in 1806, being the daughter of Joel Hubbell, a farmer of Smyth County, Va. She died in 1826, when our subject was a child. Both parents were Baptists. Our subject was educated at Maryville College, Blount County, and Mossy Creek (now Carson) College, and taught for one year, when he joined Company K, Fifth Tennessee Cavalry (Confederate), as orderly sergeant. In December, 1868, he was captured at Knoxville, but escaped near Richmond, while en route for Camp Chase, Ohio. He taught then two years in Kentucky, one in Alabama and three in Tennessee. In 1871 he began extensive wheat dealing in Greeneville for the Kenesaw (Ga.) mills, continuing up to 1882, gaining the title by which he is generally known, of “Wheat William.” Since that date he has been a successful merchant. He is a stockholder in the public schools, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is also a Knight of Honor. In 1874 he married Mary J., a daughter of Lemuel White, a Methodist divine of Hawkins County, where she was born in 1844. She taught several years in Greene and Washington Counties, and at Weaverville, N. C. Two of their four children are deceased. His wife is a Methodist.
