| Notes |
- BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
There is conflicting information about John's place of birth. Sherwood, Ohio and Wyandot County, Ohio are both mentioned as birth places. Sherwood, Ohio is in Defiance County. Research of censuses is continuing at this time.
John's occupation was that of cooper as was the occupation of his father, Andrew J. Williams. In his later life of retirement in Portland, he had a passion for gardening and fishing. He raised a large garden, and had a rowboat that he used fo r fishing on Grand River, not far from his home in what was then called Culver Town, but is part of Portland. He worked as a cooper in Portland until the cooperage closed. He continued to work part time at his trade in the Knox Farm apple ware house, near the old mill on U.S. 16, and sold apples at roadside during apple season. He was still doing this in the early 1930's.
In December of 1977 Dorothy Aker sent, to Clela Williams Van Amburg, a letter which contained a clipping of an advertisement about a dinner theatre called "True Grist Ltd." which is located in the old mill at Homer, Michigan. She thinks this ma y have been where John worked when he and his family lived in Homer.
Original clippings from the Portland paper include one on their Golden Wedding celebration in 1925 as well as obituaries of John Henry and his wife, Samantha Harriet. These also are held by Pamela Reddin Luttig. Others in the family have copie s of them.
John's paternal grandmother was Mary Coy and his grandfather John Williams. In a letter re-printed in the research notes for John's wife, Samantha Harriet, she refers to an "Ivine Coy" whom she visited somewhere enroute to or from Lawton, Michi gan in 1886. Research is still going on for more information about the Coy family. Andrew J. Williams' death certificate merely states that his parents were John Williams of Ohio and Mary Coy of Pennsylvania.
Near the grave site of Andrew J. Williams and wife, Harriet Hannah Huggins, in the cemetery at Hillsdale, Michigan, there are two old grave markers for Henry and William Shoemaker who are half brothers of Andrew J.. Dorothy Aker remembers he r mother, Addie, referring to them as Uncle Billy and Uncle Henry. They lived at 17 Champaign St. (now Willow) in Hillsdale according to the 1900 census.
In a letter to Clela from Harry Williams, Jr., he mentions the Shoemakers as half brothers to somone on the Williams side of the family and mentions that they were both carpenters, and that Henry was exceptional.
The grave markers show that Henry was born in 1841 with no death date engraved, and William was born in 1849 and died in 1914. Henry's grave has a Civil War marker beside it.
Dorothy also noted in one of her letters that she had pictures that belonged to her mother, Addie. There are some of Andrew and his wife, Harriet, as well as some of their two children, John Henry and Agnes.
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The Back Rhodes of Our Genealogy
1855 - 1937 (81 years)
