Tribute To A Pioneer ~ Alonzo Williams ~ brother of Mrs. Wm. Ramay
The Chariton Leader, Chariton, Iowa
Thursday, October 29, 1908
In the death of ALONZO WILLIAMS Lucas County loses one of its pioneer
citizens. He belonged to the sturdy class who emigrated from the east in
the early days to found a home and fight the battles of a new and untried
country. How well they succeeded we have only to look about us to judge.
Here they found a broad prairie, unfallowed by the husbandman, skirted here
and there by geneuous woodlands, penetrated by abundant streams, assuring a
fertility of the soil excelled nowhere. But it took courage to brave the
privations and dangers of a pioneer's life, yet they endured it all and laid
the foundation for a state -- one of the greatest in the Union. To men like
MR. WILLIAMS all Iowa pays homage. The subjugation of a kingdom with the
paraphernalia and prestige of armies are weak achievements beside grappling
with Old Nature and making the wilderness the abode of civilized society,
with a surplus of the things which make life more pleasant for those not so
fortunately situated. What an influence Iowa has on the world's affairs.
The development of its resources has given provision for life's sustenance
to peoples the world over. And the pioneer paved the way and others
followed to this land of fatness and promise.
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Same date, another column:
OBITUARY
ALONZO WILLIAMS was born Nov. 17, 1823, in Monongalia County, West
Virginia, near Morgantown. At the age of nine years, with his father and
uncle GABRIEL WILLIAMS, he came down the Ohio River in a flat boat to
Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1849 he came to Iowa, locating in Clarke County, near
the old Mormon trail.
He was united in marriage to RACHEL E. GLENN, in Shelby County, Indiana, Nov
8, 1848. To this union were born ten chidlren, two of whom are living, MRS
WRIGHT NEWSOME of Derby, and A.R. WILLIAMS, of Cody, Wyom., both being
present at his bedside when death came. His wife died July 11, 1870. He
was remarried in February, 1873, to MRS. REBECCA STANDHOPE, of Clarke County who died the following year. On Sept. 25, 1899, he was married to MRS. AMELIA DUNTLEY, who with the two children and two sisters, MRS. WM. RAMAY,of Indianola, and MRS. ADALINE GRAHAM, of Galesburg, Ill., are left to mourn his departure.
He died Friday morning, Oct. 23rd, after a short illness with dysentery. He
was a loyal Christian, uniting with the Methodist Church, when a young man,
and his life has been worthy of emulation. He was a good neighbor, a kind
husband and father, and his memory will be cherished by all who knew him.
Funeral services were held at the home Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock,
conducted by Rev. McCullagh, and the remains interred in the cemetery at
Last Chance, south of Chariton, on Monday.
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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
April 5, 2005
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