JOHN A. McWILLIAMS

JOHN A. McWILLIAMS was born March 5, 1841, in Colbert County, Ala., and is a son of Hugh and Elizabeth (Quillen) McWilliams, natives of Tennessee.

The senior Mr. McWilliams was one of the early settlers of Alabama, and was an extensive planter. He was married in Franklin County, and had born to him six children, to-wit: James W., farmer, served in the Twenty-seventh Alabama, during the late war; William F., deceased; Mary C., deceased; John A., our subject; Elizabeth Ann, wife of Stephen Aycock; Virginia I., widow of Russell Askew. The elder McWilliams died in 1846, and his widow survived him until 1876. The McWilliams family came originally from Ireland, in the person of the great-grandfather of our subject. He settled in Tennessee, and later on removed to Alabama.

The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm and received a common-school education. In December, 1862, he enlisted in Company A, Twenty-seventh Alabama, and participated in the battle of Perryville and several skirmishes around Corinth. In the spring of 1864, he returned home, thence went to Tennessee, where he was engaged at farming one year. He returned to Alabama, where he resumed farming, and followed it until 1872, when he entered mercantile business near Tuscumbia. In 1880, he was elected sheriff of Colbert County, and located in the latter city, where he is still merchandizing, and has been very prosperous. In connection with his store he conducts a farm, cotton-gin and grist-mill.

In April, 1867, Mr. McWilliams was married to Lucinda B. Stockwell, of Colbert county, and has had born to him nine children, viz.: Hugh A., William E., Mary B., Mattie E., Adele B., Lucinda E., John W., James B., and Charlie A. The family are members of the Baptist Church, and Mr. McWilliams is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, Knights of Pythias, and Knights of Honor.

[SOURCE: Northern Alabama Historical and Biographical. Illustrated. Smith and De Land, Birmingham, Ala. 1888., p. 441] Typed for inclusion here by Linda Ledlow.

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