Williams Family Cemetery Found

Photo: Milton Booth near what is left of the Williams Family Cemetery

Since I first began researching my ancestry, I have tried to find the graves of my second great-grandparents, George D. Williams (1846-1919) and Martha Jane Watridge Williams (1852-1888). For years, family stories pointed me toward one place. Now, thanks to a Haywood County death certificates I found on Ancestry.com, I finally have the confirmation I needed.

I had been told that their graves lay in a patch of trees in the middle of a field behind the farm of my dad’s childhood friend, Milton Booth. Numerous members of the Williams family had lived in small houses nearby.

Williams Family Cemetery

My father remembered riding horses in that area with his father, Jesse Lloyd “Bo” Williams (1910-2008), who pointed toward that spot and told him his grandfather, George D. Williams, was buried there.

Last year, Milton took me back to the site. We found no headstones, but we did find pieces of an old iron fence. The fence looked exactly like something that once surrounded a small family cemetery.

A few months later, when the vines and bushes had died back enough to make the area easier to search, my father and I returned with my brother-in-law and nephew. We looked carefully for any sign of headstones, but found nothing.

I had a location, but it was nice to be able to find one more clue and a name.

Maggie Williams Sullivan

A new batch of death certificates was recently uploaded to Ancestry.com. Last week, my cousin Betsy emailed me the death certificate of her ancestor Maggie Williams Sullivan (1881-1921). Betsy’s mother, Betty Brantley Sullivan (1926-1996), was a sister of my grandmother, Virginia Brantley Lovelace (1917-2007).

Maggie came into the Williams line through George’s brother, Edward W. Williams (1853-1893). Her death certificate lists her place of burial as “Williams Cemetery.” It also lists the undertakers as “Castellaw and Watridge.”

I immediately checked and found George’s death certificate. It records his burial place as “family burial ground.” It names “Castellaw and Watridge” as undertakers. It also showed he died of “Uremic poisoning due to diseased & enlarged prostate gland.”

In plain English, that means he likely died from uremia, a buildup of waste products in the blood because the kidneys could no longer clear them properly. The doctor blamed it on a diseased and enlarged prostate, which may have blocked urination and damaged kidney function.

Late last week, Betsy checked with a senior family member who confirmed what we had suspected. That patch of trees once had a name: the Williams Family Cemetery.

About George Williams

Of course, George’s friends, family and neighbors knew where he was buried, but they are long gone. Time and the passing of generations nearly erased that knowledge. That makes the death certificates especially valuable. They do more than record deaths. They help restore a cemetery to the family story.

George came from one of the early families that helped shape this part of Haywood County.

His grandfather, George S. Williams (1797-1852), served as pastor of Holly Grove Baptist Church in Bertie County, North Carolina, before moving to Haywood County in the 1830s. He became the first pastor of Zion Baptist Church.

George S. Williams had a son named George Solomon “Sol” Williams (1820-1864). Sol married Catherion Arthur Nowell Williams (1828-1895). In 1860, Sol and Catherion lived in Haywood County with their children, Mary Elizabeth Williams Thomas (1845-1924), George Dempsey Williams (1846-1919), John Nowell Williams (1851-1928), James Edward Williams (1853-1893), William Edgar Williams (1856-1909), Catherine E. Williams (1860-1917) and Lavera Williams (1864-unknown).

Sol died in 1864 at age 44. I have not found proof that he died because of the Civil War, but the timing keeps that possibility on the list.

I found a Civil War record for a George S. Williams who served in Company A of the 49th Tennessee Infantry, a Confederate regiment organized at Fort Donelson in December 1861. The name and timing fit, but I have not yet found any evidence to prove he was my George Solomon “Sol” Williams of Haywood County. Company A drew many of its men from Montgomery County, so this is a lead I will follow up on later.

Sol’s son George Dempsey Williams came into the world in the 1840s, though the records do not agree on the exact date. Some records give Nov. 27, 1846 as the date, while his Zion Baptist Church obituary says he was November 6, 1847. It also notes he was baptized in 1864 when he was a teenager.

At 22, George married Martha Jane Watridge, whose family was also in the group of Bertie County settlers in Haywood County. Martha died Dec. 22, 1888, at age 36. Her youngest son, my great-grandfather, William Lafayette “Will” Williams (1888-1962), had not yet reached his first birthday when his mother died.

Martha Jane Watridge Williams Obituary Martha J. Williams died 22 Dec 1888 wife of G.D. Williams and daughter of James Watridge and granddaughter of Bro. Deacon W. Watridge. Married George D. Williams 17 Dec 1868. She was born 27 Aug 1852. Leaves husband and 4 children, one an infant babe. Source: Zion Baptist Church Book of Obituaries, pg. 5.

I have not yet determined the location of Martha’s grave. She does not appear in the Cobb Family Cemetery, Zion Cemetery or Holly Grove Cemetery records I have checked. That absence, combined with George’s death certificate and family memory, makes the Williams Family Cemetery the most likely place for her burial.

Around 1890, George D. Williams began writing obituaries for members of Zion Baptist Church. He helped record the deaths of many neighbors and relatives, preserving pieces of community history that might otherwise have disappeared.

On March 4, 1900, George married Virginia Estelle “Essie” Cobb Williams (1861-1919). Essie was the daughter of John Charles Warren Cobb (1830-1914) and Penelope Trottman White Cobb (1831-1880), members of another early Haywood County family from Bertie County. George and Essie had one daughter, Mary Lorane Williams (1901-1936). Mary married Henry Earl Brantley (1901-1975). Mary died in 1936, a few days shy of her 35th birthday, of an acute appendicitis and was buried in the Holly Grove Baptist Church Cemetery.

The 1910 census places George and Essie on a farm near Williams, Castellaw and Watridge relatives. George’s death certificate lists “Castellaw and Watridge” as the undertakers. I suspect relatives or close neighbors from those families handled that duty when George died April 2, 1919.

While George wrote many obituaries for other people, his own obituary was only a few lines.

George D. Williams Obituary G.D. Williams died 2 April 1919, born 6 Nov 1847. Professed religion 1862 at Zion Church. Baptized by Rev. G.E. Thomas. Source: Zion Baptist Church Obituary Book, pg. 88.

Children of George and Martha Willims

The known children of George and Martha Williams were E. L. Williams (1869-before 1880), James Solomon “Sol” Williams (1874-1938), George T. Williams (1879-unknown), Emily Alberta “Bertie” Williams (1885-1975) and William “Will’ Lafayette Williams, my great-grandfather (1888-1962).

My great-grandfather Will Williams and his second wife, Eva Iris Overton (1896-1970).

E.L. likely died young because he does not appear with the family in the 1880 census.

Emily Alberta “Bertie” is the only sibling of my great-grandfather about which I have found solid information.

Photo: Kimberly Gould / Emily Alberta “Bertie” Williams

Bertie Williams married Washington Whitfied Simpson (1823-1926). Together they had seven children: Lloyd Lavern, Teresa Aurella, Eldidge Whitfield “Sambo,” Winnie Survlia, Burnice Laudell, Ruth Hazel and ary Maurine. When Bertie died at age 90 in 1975, she was buried in Holly Grove Cemetery next to her husband. Her pallbearers were E. L. Watridge, W. E. Taylor, Jesse Lloyd Williams (my grandfather), Raymond Sullivan, J. B. Simpson and Porter Williams.

I am glad to have found this much information, but I plan to search for more documentation of who all was buried in that cemetery. I would like to put at lease a marker there on their graves one day.