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- CHARLES G. WILLIAMS was born at Royalton, Niagara Co.,
- N.Y., Oct. 18, 1929. He is of New England parentage, his
father being born at Hartford, Conn., and his mother at Shorcham,
Vt. He is the youngest of a family of ten children; his first
educational advantages were such as only a district school afforded,
and were much interrupted by ill-health. He early manifested
an aptitude for public speaking and the debating schools of the
neighborhood were places of special delight to him; here he met
the farmers in discussion, and soon placed himself on the best
of terms with them, and it has been a subject of remark with
him, in later years, that he found his truest friends among this
class of men. At the age of 14, he notified his father of his
desire to study law. This proposition was met with an incredulous
smile, but
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- the boy proved the better prophet of the two. His father
entered into full sympathy with his desires, and was planning
to give him a thorough education, but died when Charles was 16,
throwing him entirely upon his own resources for the future.
By the aid of his two brothers, E. W. and M. B. WILLIAMS, of
Lockport, N.Y., and by teaching and working at day-labor during
vacation, he completed a thorough academic course at Genesee
Wesleyan Seminary, Lima, N.Y. He always speaks with gratitude
of the timely aid of these two brothers, and gives some ludicrous
accounts of the economy he was compelled to practice during these
years. He commenced the study of law in the office of Judge L.
F. & George BOWEN, of Lockport, N.Y., teaching a portion
of the time in the high school at that place. in 1852, he removed
to Rochester, N.Y., where he completed his studies, and was admitted
to the bar in 1855. Here, the same year, he married Miss Harriet
GREGG, daughter of Benjamin GREGG, and entered at once into the
practice of his profession, which, with rigid economy, enabled
him to meet current expenses. He fully intended making Rochester
his permanent home, but, at the end of the first year, through
mutual acquaintances, the GREGGs being relatives of Mrs. NOGGLE,
he received a very liberal offer from the late Judge NOGGLE,
of Janesville, to come to that place and take charge of his legal
business, as he was desirous of retiring from practice. As the
Judge was soon after elevated to the bench, this afforded Mr.
WILLIAMS a rare opportunity for entering at once into a lucrative
practice. Two months after he reached Janesville, his wife, who
had long been in ill health, died. Afterward, he married Mary
A., eldest daughter of Judge NOGGLE. They have two children -
a daughter, Kate A., and a son, Ward D. The attachment which
grew up between Judge NOGGLE and Mr. WILLIAMS has often been
remarked upon. Both were positive, combative men, not at all
reserved in the expression of their opinions, yet, though associated
in the closest social and business relations for twenty years
and more, an unkind word of a personal nature was never known
to pass between them. They agreed almost by intuition on all
public questions, and where they disagreed, no personal feeling
was engendered. This attachment continued down to the death of
the Judge, which occurred at the house of Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. WILLIAMS
reached Janesville in 1856, and that year was prominently brought
before the public in connection with the Fremont campaign. As
an ardent Republican, he needed only an opportunity to express
his mind on political matters, and very soon attracted attention,
and took rank with the best speakers of the Northwest. He was
engaged to canvass the State, and spoke in every considerable
town in Wisconsin. During this campaign, he received many complimentary
notices from the press, both as an orator and a man of ability
in the legal profession. The prominence thus gained had its advantages
and disadvantages. While he entered actively upon the practice
of his profession, each political canvass took him away from
it for weeks, and sometimes months. Notwithstanding this, and
the fact of continued ill-health, he and his partner, up to the
time he entered upon official life, had one of the best law practices
in Southern Wisconsin. In 1868, Mr. WILLIAMS was a Republican
Presidential Elector, and the same year was elected a member
of the State Senate, over which body he presided as President
pro tem. He was re-elected to the Senate, in 1870, and
made President pro tem., and Chairman of the Judiciary
Committee of that body. He at once took a front rank among the
leaders of the Senate. He was nominated by acclamation by his
party, for Congressman, and elected to the XLIIId Congress. He
has been renominated and re-elected successively to the XLIVth,
XLVth and XLVIth Congresses, practically without much opposition,
and by majorities ranging from four to six thousand. At his last
election, a large Democratic vote was cast for him on the hard-money
issue. Though what would be called a stalwart Republican of the
strictest sect, and particularly outspoken in his feelings and
views, yet, some of his most intimate and life-long friends have
been Democrats of equally pronounced views. No man has ever pretended
to doubt or question Mr. WILLIAMS' sincerity or personal honor,
and probably no member of Congress ever enjoyed, in a greater
degree, the confidence and esteem of his constituents. Mr. WILLIAMS'
course in Congress has been been characterized by becoming reserve
and sound practical judgment. After careful study, he has spoken
upon nearly every important question which came before the house
during his term of service, among which may be mentioned Inter-State
Commerce, Chinese Emigration, Electoral Count, Arrearage of Pensions,
Election Laws, and Army and other appropriation bills of the
last session of Congress. Some of these speeches have been widely
circulated in the South, as in the North. His reputation in Congress
has been one of steady and healthy growth, and his course in
the session just closed has given him a marked distinction as
a faithful and fearless champion of the right, and a sagacious,
sound and safe legislator. He has been a member of the Committee
on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives for six consecutive
years, and was promoted to the Committee on Judiciary at the
beginning of the present Congress. Mr. WILLIAMS has spoken in
Maine, Ohio and other States, during political campaigns, and
taken high rank among the public speakers of the country. His
oration at Arlington Heights, on the 30th of May, 1878, was pronounced
by competent judges to be one of the best ever delivered there.
The two distinctive characteristics of his public life have been
sympathy for the soldier and the persecuted colored people of
the South. He has never let an opportunity slip for saying a
word or doing an act for either of these. His rooms at Washington
are frequented by exiles from the South, both white and black,
and he is thus afforded full opportunity for judging of the actual
condition of things in that section. Mr. WILLIAMS in emphatically
a man of the people, never hesitating to espouse their cause,
regardless of consequences to himself. He is of a most affable
disposition, and no person, either man or child, ever approached
him with a fear of a want of cordial welcome. While full of sympathy
and humor, he possesses a great decision of character, and the
consistency of his course, through twenty-five years of eventful
history, has been preserved without a blemish. He is now 49 years
of age, in robust health, of strictly temperate habits, in full
possession of his powers, and believed to have a useful and brilliant
future before him. His beautiful residence, at Janesville, is
the home of a loving, refined and happy family.
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- Taken from "The History of Rock County, Wis."
(c)1879, pp. 727-728, 731; lithograph from same book, p. 325.
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- Courtesy of Carol
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