Sister C. A. Williams Is Gone

Photo: D. G. Beers Co. of Philadelphia 1877 map of Haywood County, Tennessee showing the location of Catherine A. Williams home
Source /

“Sister C. A. Williams is Gone.” That was the first sentence of my third great-grandmother’s obituary, written by John Charles Warren Cobb (1830-1914) and W.T. Morris (1842-1924) as it appeared in the Zion Baptist Church Book of Obituaries.

They began with the ending. So here is a little about the beginning and some of the in-between. Her name is spelled a variety of ways in written records, so I am going to use the more common spelling in this blog post.

Catherine Arthur Nowell Williams (1828-1895) was born Feb. 6, 1828, in Bertie County, North Carolina, to Dempsey Nowell III (1802-1852) and Elizabeth Rawls Nowell (c. 1796-1844).

Both the Nowell and Rawls families go back in America long before the revolution.

Catherine migrated with her parents, along with many other families in their community, from Bertie County to Haywood County, Tennessee, around 1833.

Their move fits into a much larger story. Cotton was replacing tobacco in parts of eastern North Carolina, and many farmers were looking west for fresh land. In West Tennessee, land had recently opened to white settlement after the Jackson Purchase and the creation of Haywood County from former Native American hunting ground.

Historian Arwin D. Smallwood, in “Bertie County: An Eastern Carolina History,” wrote that cotton came to dominate Bertie County during the antebellum period. He also noted that slaveholders cleared and moved into Tuscarora land and that, between 1800 and 1840, cotton and the lack of fresh farmland pushed more families from Virginia and the Carolinas farther west.

That is the world Catherine was born into and the one she left behind as a little girl.

At age 13 in Haywood County, Catherine “professed faith in Christ,” was baptized by Elder Hugh Coffen and joined Zion Baptist Church. She remained an active member there for the rest of her life.

On Feb. 6, 1844, her 16th birthday, she married 24-year-old George Solomon “Sol” Williams (1820-1864).

Sol had also come to Haywood County from Bertie County as a young boy. His father, the Rev. George S. Williams (1797-1852), had been recruited from Bertie County to serve as an early minister at Zion Baptist Church. Sol and Catherion went on to have 11 children together.

That same year she was married, Catherine’s mother died shortly after giving birth to a daughter.

In the 1850 U.S. Census, Sol and Catherine were living in District 11 of Madison County, Tennessee, with their two young children, Mary Elizabeth Williams Thomas (1844-1924), who was 6, and my second great-grandfather, George D. Williams (1846-1919), who was 4.

They lived next door to Sol’s parents, the Rev. George S. Williams and Nancy F. Hampton Williams (1795-1850), and their 17-year-old daughter, Harriet Ann Williams Outlaw (1833-1878).

Both families seem to be prospering.

By the 1860 U.S. Census, Sol was 39 and Catherine was 33. They had moved to District 5 in Haywood County. Elizabeth was 15, George was 13 and the family had added three more children: John Nowell Williams (1851-1928), Edward W. Williams (1853-1893) and William Edgar Williams (1858-1909). The 1850 Slave Schedule shows Sol enslaved two females, ages 23 and 4.

His father George Williams was listed as enslaving three males, ages 30, 19 and 1.

By 1860, the family was farming a large amount of land. Sol’s real estate was valued at $12,500 and his personal estate at $12,185.

No modern dollar figure fully captures what those numbers meant in an agricultural economy built on land, cotton and slavery. But the census makes one thing clear: Sol and Catherine were among the more prosperous families in their community.

They lived one farm away from Joseph W. Rawls (1809-1887) and Emily Nowell Rawls (1822-1869), along with their large family. Joseph was listed as a physician and farmer. Emily was Catherine’s sister, and Joseph may also connect to Catherion’s Rawls line.

Sol died in 1864 at the early age of 44. Was he killed in the Civil War? I still do not know.

The strongest lead I have found is a Solomon Williams in Company E of Newsom’s Tennessee Cavalry, a West Tennessee unit sworn into service at Jackson in 1863 and broken up in 1864. That fits the geography and timing of Sol Williams’ life and death, but I have not proved they are the same man. Until I find a service record that gives a Haywood or Madison County connection, an age, a death note or a family tie, I am leaving his Civil War service as an open question.

What is clear is that Catherine was a strong woman. She entered the final year of the Civil War as a 36-year-old widow with a house full of young children and a farm almost certainly battered by war, debt and emancipation.

In the post-Civil War 1870 U.S. Census, Catherine was 42. She was still farming, but the value of her land had dropped to $4,000 and her personal estate to $1,000. Living with her were John, 19; Edward, 16; William E., 11; Catherine E. “Katie” Williams Booth (1860-death unknown), 10; and Rebecca Manie Williams (1863-1890), 6.

Her oldest son, George D. Williams, and his wife, Martha Jane Watridge Williams (1852-1888), my second great-grandparents, lived on the farm next door with their 9-month-old baby, E. L. Williams (1869-before 1880), who died before the next census.

In the 1880 U.S. Census, Catherine was still going strong at 52. She, not one of her sons, was listed as head of household. The family was still in District 5.

Living with her were John N., 28; William E., 22; Katherine, 20; Rebecca, 17; and Richard Traylor (c. 1830-death unknown), a 50-year-old Black man listed as a servant.

I wish I knew more about Richard Traylor. His name sitting there in the middle of this family story feels like a reminder that every census page has more stories than we can usually recover.

The 1890 federal census would have helped fill in the next chapter, but most of those records were destroyed after a fire at the Commerce Department in Washington on Jan. 10, 1921. So, I do not know exactly where Catherine was living in 1890.

She was 62, and all her surviving children were adults. Her son George had recently become a widower when Martha Jane Watridge Williams died, leaving him with a house full of children. Their youngest, William Lafayette “Will” Williams (1888-1962), my great-grandfather, was still a baby.

It is certainly possible Catherine moved in with George or helped him run his home. I do not have proof, but it would make sense.

Catherine died Aug. 3, 1895, at 67. She is most likely buried at Zion Baptist Church, although it is also possible she was buried beside Sol in the Williams Family Cemetery. Either way, her grave is unmarked.

Obituary of Catherion Arthur Nowell Williams

Sister C.A. Williams is gone. She was born in North Carolina, Bertie County, Feb. 6, 1828. Her parents moved to Tennessee, Haywood County, when she was quite young. She professed faith in Christ and was baptized into the fellowship of Zion Church by Elder Hugh Coffen at the age of 13 years, where she lived a consistent member until her death.

She was married Feb. 6, 1844, and was the mother of 11 children, of whom five are living and members of the Baptist church. She departed this life the third day of August 1895, being 67 years, 5 months old.

Our loss is her gain, and we say to her relations and friends to strive to meet her in heaven, where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.

Sept. 14, 1895

Written by J.C.W. Cobb and W.T. Morris
Zion Baptist Church Book of Obituaries

Children of Sol and Catherine Nowell Williams

In case you are researching your own ancestry and searched your way here, you may want more details about Sol and Catherine Nowell Williams’ children.

According to Catherine’s obituary, she was the mother of 11 children, but only five were still living when she died in 1895. I have found the following children in my research.

Mary Elizabeth Williams Thomas

Mary Elizabeth Williams Thomas (1846-1924) married John Ambrose Thomas (1844-1922). They had several children, including Larena, George, Albert Edgar, Frances “Fanny” Marian, Victoria and Grover Cleveland.

John and Elizabeth Williams Thomas were founding members of Holly Grove Baptist Church. Elizabeth died May 17, 1924, at 81 and was buried at Holly Grove Baptist Church Cemetery.

George D. Williams

George D. Williams, my second great-grandfather, was born Nov. 27, 1846. His middle name was most likely Dempsey, after his mother’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

George married Martha Jane Watridge and fathered six children: E.L. (1869-1880), James Solomon (1874-1938), John Nowell (1851-1928), George T. Williams (1879-death unknown), Elberta Williams (1885-death unknown) and William Lafayette “Will” (1888-1962), my great-grandfather.

Martha Jane died when Will was born. George later married Mollie Collier Williams (dates unknown) and then Virginia Estelle “Essie” Cobb Williams (1861-1919). George and Essie had a daughter, Mary Lorene (1901-1936). She married Henry Brantley. She is buried at Holly Grove Baptist Church.

George died at 72 and was buried in the Williams Family Cemetery. You can read more about him and my search for the cemetery in a previous blog entry.

Will Williams was the father of Lloyd “Bo” Williams, who was the father of Bob Williams, who is my father.

John Nowell Williams

John Nowell Williams (1861-1928) married Mary Katherine “Molly” Cobb Williams (1867-1938) on Dec. 14, 1881. Molly was the daughter of Leonard Decatur Cobb (1825-1906) and Mary Amanda Rooks Cobb (1830-1907).

John and Molly had a daughter, Zelma Aurene Williams Simpson (1895-1991), who married Roy Earl Simpson (1894-1978). John died in 1928, and Molly died Nov. 13, 1938. They are buried at Holly Grove Baptist Church Cemetery.

In the 1900 census, John and Molly Williams were living next door to his brother (my second great-grandfather) George D. Williams and George’s third wife, Virginia Estelle “Essie” Cobb Williams, and their 15-year-old daughter Elberta. Essie was a daughter of John Charles Warren Cobb and Penelope Trottman White.

Also living close by was George’s son (and my great-grandfather) Will who was 12 years old and living with his maternal aunt and uncle, George W. Castellaw and Mary E. Watridge Castellaw (his mother and Mary E. Watridge Castellaw were sisters).

It’s certainly possibly they helped raise Will. When he was a baby, his mother died at the age of 36 leaving her husband a widower with five children to raise. George and Mary Castellaw had no other children.

Edward W. Williams

Edward W. Williams was born in January 1853. He married Martha Amanda Crowder Williams (1853-1921) on Dec. 23, 1873.

Edward and Amanda had six children: Mary K. Williams (1875-unknown), Edward Williams (1877-unknown), Henry Foster Williams (1878-1911), Maggie S. Williams Sullivan (1881-1921), Nellie Margaret Williams Thomas (1884-1929) Bertha D. Williams (1884-1932) and Lemuel Edward Williams (1887-1974).

Their daughter Maggie shot her husband, Ellis B. Sullivan on July 4, 1917. You can read more about that drama in this previous blog entry.

Edward died in 1893. Amanda died June 5, 1921.

William E. Williams

William E. Williams was born in 1856. He married Eliza A. Chandler (1866- unknown) on Jan. 9, 1889.

Their children included Nellie Kate Williams (1890-unknown), Blakely Brantley (1892-unknown) Lizzie W. Williams (1892-unknown), Mable L. Williams (1900- unknown) and Dan B. Williams (1903-unknown).

Like his sister Elizabeth, William was among the men and women who petitioned for a letter of dismission from Zion Baptist Church so they could form Holly Grove Baptist Church.

Catherine E. “Katie” Williams Booth

Catherine E. “Katie” Williams Booth (1860-1917). She married William L. Booth (c. 1857-1888) on Oct. 28, 1885.

William was a brother of my second great-grandmother, Lena Booth.

Katie and Wiliam were buried at Zion Baptist Church Cemetery.

Rebecca Mamie Williams

Rebecca Mamie Williams (1863-1890) married Albert Cicero Booth (1859-1924) and they had one daughter, Blanche Irene Booth Williamson (1889-1968). Mamie died at just 27 years old when her daughter was only one.

Her daughter, Blanche, married William Mays Williamson (1885-1973) in 1913.

After Mamie’s death, Albert married Sarah Francis “Salie” Watridge (1869-1910) and they had four more children. Salie was a sister of my great-grandmother, Zula Zara Watridge Castellaw (1875-1940).

Laverna Williams

Laverna Williams (1864-unknown), most likely died as a baby.

For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.