Born 7/06/1774, in Concord, Mass. Son of Benjamin and Anna (Fuller) Williams. Died 1834 Waterford, Oakland Co., Mi.
Wife, Mary Lee. Married in 1796 in Concord, Mass.
Children: Daniel, born 11/02/1797. Died an infant; Daniel, born 12/05/1798. Died an infant; George Sumner, born 2/05/1801; Ephraim Smith, born 2/07/1802; Mary Ann, born 9/20/1803; Gardner D., born 9/09/1804. Died 12/11/1858 in Saginaw, Mi.; Carolina Lee, born 2/10/1806. Died 1/05/1847 in Flint, Mi.; Mary Ann (Mrs. Hodges), born 5/09/1807; Alfred Leonzo, born 7/18/1808; Oliver Benjamin, born 11/18/1810; Alpheus Fuller, born 11/12/1812; Harriet Locada, born 2/10/1814; James Monroe, born 8/14/1817; Samuel Lee, born 10/10/1818. Died in Detroit, Mi.
Williams built the first school in Oakland Co. A merchant/trader, Williams built a ship the "Friends Goodwill" which during the War of 1812 was chartered to the U.S. government to carry supplies from Chicago to Fort Mackinaw. There Williams was taken prisoners by the British. After release he was commissioned as a war hero. He brought his wife & 8 children to Detroit in 1815. He was marshal for a parade for President Monroe in Detroit in 1817. In 1818 with his brother-in-law, Alpheus Williams & a small group, Williams traveled north to the outpost of Pontiac & beyond becoming the first pioneers to investigate what was reported to be the uninhabitable Michigan Territory. Williams & his wife selected a site for a home on the shore of lake they named, "Silver", returning in 1819 to build a log home & a 40' x 40' barn. He was befriended by the Indians, Chief Sashabaw in particular. Frenchmen Alexis De Tocqueville & Gustave De Beaumont corresponded with Williams before they visited him.
See the family genealogy of Major Oliver Williams; Pioneer Collections, Report of the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan together with Reports of County, Town, and District Societies. Vol. lll. W. S George & Co., Printers and Binders, 1881; De la Democratie en Amerique by Alexis de Tocqueville and Tocqueville in America byGeorge Wilson Pierson, published in 1938 by Oxford University Press, New York, Inc., (paperback edition published in 1996 by Johns Hopkins Paperbacks), pages 252 and 783.
