Williams Family

Biography / Administrative History

The documents that make up The Williams Family Papers pertain, for the most part, to the life and business dealings of Alfred Leonzo ("A.L.") Williams, although other Williams family members are also prominently represented in the collection.

A.L. Williams was born on July 18, 1808 in Concord, Massachusetts. By the early 1830s, he had moved to Michigan. He and his brother Benjamin O. ("B.O.") Williams set up a fur trading post (called "The Shiawassee Exchange") in the Indian village of Ketshewaudagoning in Shiawassee County, Michigan in 1831. The trading post was used as housing and as a place to store furs that A.L. and B.O. acquired from neighboring Indian communities. They first worked for the American Fur Company from 1832-1836, but began trading independently in 1837. Late in 1837, they founded Owosso, Michigan.

By the early 1850s, the Williams brothers (now including Alpheus Fuller ("A.F.") and James Monroe ("J.M.") had begun mining operations in northern California. A.L. was also deeply invested in the railroad industry in Michigan. He, and several partners, owned and operated the Amboy, Lansing and Traverse Bay railroad; he also owned stock in numerous other railroad companies in Ohio, Michigan and Virginia. He trained as a lawyer, and eventually served as a judge.

A.L. was married to Sarah Ann Birdsley in 1835. They had two children, Amos Lee (birthdate unclear) and Sarah (August 1839). Sarah Birdsley died in 1839 (perhaps in childbirth). A.L. married his second wife, Harriet Newell Mattoon, in 1841. They had eight more children together, some which eventually became involved in their father's business ventures.

A.L. Williams sailed from New York in February 1850, arrived in Panama in April that year, and landed in San Francisco on April 30, 1850. He was in mining camps near Nevada City, Nevada County, until January 1851 including Deer Creek and Pontiac Hill. From February to October 1851 he was in Rough and Ready, Nevada County. On November 14,1851, he sailed to New York from San Francisco.

In 1852, A.L. again sailed for California going across Panama in May 1852 and settling in Pine Grove, Sierra County, in August of that year. By April 1853, he was involved in a venture called the Sears' Union Water Company located at the Sears' Diggings, Pine Grove Creek. He returned to Michigan in 1854.

The first appearance of J.M. Williams is in a letter to his brother A.L. dated August 29, 1853 from Sucker Flat, Yuba County. A.F. Williams wrote letters to his brothers, A.L. and B.O. beginning on October 13, 1854 from Sucker Flat, Sierra County. A.L.'s brothers continued to run the mining operations in California until at least the late 1880s.

From the guide to the The Williams Family Papers, 1837-1916, 1850-1890, (Autry National Center. Institute for the Study of the American West)