The Williams name has been in use since the Norman Conquest and it is believed that Morgan Williams was the first to use the name in Wales, England about 1086.
In the 1600's and 1700's many Williams families came to America,
settling in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas.
Later in the 1840's Eliphalet Williams, son of a large land owner
named Obediah Williams of N.C., moved his family of four boys and four
girls to the banks of Beech River just north of Lexington, Tenn. His
son traded a skillet, lid, rifle and three quilts to the Indians for
1,102 acres of land on the east bank of the Beech River which is now
Beech Lake at Lexington.
Eliphalet's great grandson was Andrew Leroy Williams, father of
Hubert H. Williams. Andrew Leroy Williams, son of Timothy Cornelius
Williams and Nancy Jane Harris Williams, was born and raised in the
Madison Hall community of Madison Co., Tenn. Timothy, born and
raised in Henderson Co., in early life worked for and helped build the
railroad from Tennessee to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Later he
settled in Malesus to cut wood for the trains that took on fuel at that
station. Timothy then left the railroad company to farm and run a cotton
gin for two old maid sisters in the Madison Hall Community. They
provided schooling at Malesus and Jackson for their only son Andrew
Leroy. Andrew attended Union University one term in Jackson during 1917.
Andrew Leroy's mother's parents, born and raised in the
Huntersville Community of Madison Co., were farmers, hunters and
fishermen. Andrew, his parents and sisters, were charter members of
the Madison Baptist Church in the Madison Hall Community.
Hubert's mother Claribel Robinson's great grandfather, William
Robinson, moved from Kentucky to Smith County, Tenn. In 1822 he
arrived at Jackson Port by the way of a flat boat up the Forked Deer River
and staked out a claim near Golden Station, south of the river. He
filed for and received a land grant of one hundred and twenty-five acres
from Governor Sam Houston of Tennessee for his service in the War of 1812.
It is still owned by a member of the fifth generation.
Claribel's father, Orrin Easton Robinson, was a leader in his
community. He served as Justice of the Peace for many years and fourteen
years on the County Court. Her mother, Mary Lou Boone, was a descendent of
the Boone and Lacy families of Madison County. Grandmother Boone was a
descendent of a brother to the famous Daniel Boone. Claribel received
her education and graduated from the Jackson High School. She and
Andrew were married in 1920 and raised four boys and three girls.
They met their goal when all seven graduated from High School.
However, encouragement was given to the seven in helping them get
their college degrees. Four of the seven received Masters degrees.
It was a labor of love and prayer was their secret in managing a
family throughout the year on laborer wages and what little they could
get out of part-time garden and farming.
There were twenty grandchildren born and, as of this date (Jan. 1995),
twenty-seven great grandchildren are alive and well
-- Hubert H. Williams, Feb. 1995