CIVIL WAR UNION MAJOR MILITIA COLONEL SODUS NY SENATOR PAY DOCUMENT SIGNED 1864!

Description

ALEXANDER B. WILLIAMS
(1815 – 1874)
CIVIL WAR UNION MAJOR IN THE US VOLUNTEERS PAYMASTER’S DEPARTMENT 1861-1865,
ANTE-BELLUM SENATOR IN THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 1858-1861,
COUNTY CLERK OF WAYNE COUNTY, NEW YORK 1847-1851,
SUPERVISOR OF THE TOWN OF SODUS, NY IN 1845,
DEPUTY COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS AT SODUS BAY APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 1841-1845,
DELEGATE TO THE ANTI-NEBRASKA PARTY NEW YORK STATE CONVENTION IN 1854,
REAL ESTATE LAND SPECULATOR IN WESTERN NEW YORK 1851-1861
&
LT. COLONEL OF THE 242
nd
INFANTRY REGIMENT, NEW YORK STATE MILITIA 1830s
In 1866, Williams was a NY Delegate to the Republican National Convention, casting his vote for President Andrew Johnson.
It is interesting to note that Williams son, Alexander B Williams, 2
nd
, was with the 111
th
NY Infantry, Co. D. He was badly wounded at Bristow Station on Oct. 14, 1863, died a prisoner of war on Sept. 17, 1864 at Charleston, SC, and buried in the City.
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HERE’S A CIVIL WAR DATE DOCUMENT SIGNED BY WILLIAMS ON “PAY DEPARTMENT U. S. ARMY” LETTERHEAD, 1p., DATED AT WASHINGTON, D.C., JANY 23
rd
1864
–A RECEIPT OF ,000 FOR “
PAYING 2 & 3 YRS VOLUNTEERS
” “…Received of Major E. E. Paulding , Paymaster in Charge…” – boldly signed by ‘
A. B. Williams
,’ as Paymaster USA.
The document measures 8” x 10” and is in Very Good+ Condition, with some paper chips off the left margin that do not affect any text..
A FINE Piece of American Civil War Military and New York Political History to add to your Autograph, Manuscript & Ephemera Collection.
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Biography of the Honorable Alexander B. Williams
Senator Alexander B. Williams
was born on the 29th of October, 1815, in Alexandria, D.C., Virginia. His father, John Williams
(1780–1842)
was of German extraction, but was native born, as were also his mother, Elizabeth Williams (1789-1858) family. He was the second of six sons. His father immigrated to New York in the year 1825, and settled in the town of Sodus, Wayne County, on the southern borders of Lake Ontario. He was a successful practical mechanic and assisted in the construction of the first packet boat ever run on the Erie Canal. He died at that place in 1843 in a fit of apoplexy, at the advanced age of sixty seven. His wife, the mother of the hero of this sketch, was still living at her husband’s death, at the age of sixty nine.
Senator Williams had not the advantages of a classical education, having received all the schooling he has, before his parents removed to New York, when he was only ten years of age. About this time, his father placed him in a dry goods store in Sodus, as a clerk, and his employer, having no children of his own, adopted him. Here Williams remained until he was about eighteen years old, when falling out one day with his employer, he concluded to leave him, and accordingly did so by hiring himself out to another man, engaged in the same business, at nine dollars per month. He continued in this new position till 1835, when having become one of the most popular, efficient, and industrious clerks in that section of the country, his employer took him into his establishment as a partner, without any share in the capital, save his qualifications as a merchant. This partnership continued until 1837, when the firm sold out, and he engaged in the same business, with what little capital he had by that time acquired on his own responsibility. He then continued in the mercantile trade till 1841, when he again sold out.
In the summer of 1841, he was appointed, under President William Henry Harrison, to the post of Deputy Collector and Inspector at Big Sodus Bay, which he held until just previous to the advent of the Administration of President James Polk in March 1845, when he resigned.
Williams again embarked in the mercantile business, in which he continued till the fall of 1845, when he finally sold out for the last time.
In Nov. 1845, he was elected County Clerk, and was subsequently elected to the same place, holding the office in all about six years.
At the expiration of his clerkship he found his health greatly impaired by his too close application to the duties of his office, and has ever since been devoting most of his time to traveling in the Western States, where he has dealt pretty extensively in the buying and selling of land.
Senator Williams had considerable experience as a military man, having arisen from a Lieutenancy in a private company, to the position of Lieutenant Colonel in the 242
nd
Regiment, and has proved himself eminently qualified for every position to which he has been called.
In 1841 he was elected a Justice of the Peace in the town in which he resided by a handsome majority, although the town was strongly Democratic, and he was the Whig candidate. In 1845 he was again elected to the same office, and was also at the same time elected Supervisor by large majorities in both instances.
In 1855 he was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for State Treasurer, and in 1857, was nominated for the position which he now holds in the Senate, with great unanimity by the Republicans of his district, and was elected by a majority of over three thousand, against a combination of Democrats and Americans.
As Senate chairman of the Standing Committee on Roads and Bridges, and a member of the Committees on State Prisons and Public Printing, in the Senate during the last session, he discharged his duties faithfully, although confined to his room during most of the time by ill health. He was frequently tendered the nomination of the Republican Party for Congress, but always peremptorily declined.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Williams enlisted in the Union Army as a Major in the US Volunteers Paymaster Department, serving throughout the war from Sept. 5, 1861 till he was mustered out on July 31, 1865. His son, Alexander B. Williams, Jr., was wounded
at Bristow Station on Oct. 14, 1863, died a prisoner of war on Sept. 17, 1864 at Charleston, SC, and buried there.
In 1832, Senator Williams was married to Miss Sarah M., daughter of John McCarty, a successful farmer, who died in Wayne County, New York in 1831. She was a modest, unassuming, sociable woman, and every way calculated for a good wife, a kind mother, and a generous and hospitable friend and neighbor.
Senator Williams early espoused the Anti-Masonic cause, and was Secretary of an Anti-Masonic meeting at the age of twelve years. He was a member of the first Whig organization in Wayne County, in 1834, and continued to act with the Whig Party, until it lost its organization, in 1854, when he embarked in the Republican cause.
He was a delegate to the first Anti-Nebraska State Convention at Saratoga in 1854, and was at Auburn when the Republican Party was christened at that place. He was always an active, decided party man, and was perfectly booked up in the politics of the State, and the Union. Owing to impaired health, he was able to spend but very little time in his seat in the Senate, though he was not by any means been negligent of the interests of his immediate constituents, or the State.
He was a man of strong intellectual powers, was clear and concise reasoned, and in legislation, as in everything else, combined theory with practicability, adopting the former only so far as it conforms to the latter.
Williams died on April 2, 1874, and is buried in Charleston, SC.
Sources:
·
Life Sketches of Government Officers and Members of the Legislature of the State of New York in 1859.
·
Civil War Database
·
Wikipedia
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