THOMAS SCOTT WILLIAMS. 543 "Hon. T. S. Williams responded briefly to these addresses. He regarded it as a noble spectacle to see so many expatriating themselves, not for gold, but to do good. The world may call you enthusiastic, and sneer at you, but I give my testimony to the wisdom of your choice. And we will remember you! . . . God grant you prosperous voyages and great success among the heathen. In the name of the Board I bid you farewell, and I pledge you their sympathy and their prayers." Of Mr. Williams, Mrs. L. H. Sigourney wrote: "Of charities that knew No stint or boundary, save the woes of man, ""Tis not for pen and ink, Or the weak measures of the muse, to give Fit transcript of his virtues." CHARLES KILBOURNE WILLIAMS. GOVERNOR OF VERMONT, 1850-1852.* JOHN WILLIAMS, great-grandfather of Charles K., graduated at Harvard College in 1683, and was ordained to the Gospel ministry at Deerfield in 1688. The Indians came upon his home at Deerfield, murdered his wife and two children, and carried captive to Canada others of the family. Mr. Williams wrote a book giving an account of his captivity, which passed through several editions. Warham Williams, grandfather of Charles K., was carried captive with his father to Canada when but four years old; graduated at Harvard College 1719; studied theology under Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, was ordained minister of Watertown, West Precinct (now Waltham), in 1723. Samuel Williams, father of the subject of this sketch, graduated at Harvard College in 1761; was ordained to the Gospel ministry at Bradford, 1765; served as Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard College from 1780 to 1786; afterwards removed to Vermont. In 1794, he published his "History of Vermont," in one volume, a second edition of which, in two volumes, was published in 1809. Charles Kilbourne Williams was born at Cambridge, Mass., January 24, 1782; died at Rutland, Vt., March 9, 1853. He graduated at Williams College in 1800, studied law at Rutland, Vt., in the office of Cephas Smith, Jr., and was admitted to the Bar in 1803. He was elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont in 1822; became Chief-Justice in 1833, holding the office eleven years, and was Governor of the State from 1850 to 1852. *Sprague's "Annals"; "Memorial Biographies," New England Historical Society, vol. II. CHARLES Kilbourne WILLIAMS. 545 "Mr. Williams was a member of the Episcopal Church in Rutland. In his family he always had daily morning and evening prayers, together with reading a chapter of the Bible-the Old Testament in the morning, and the New Testament in the evening. No secular paper was read on Sunday, which with him commenced at the going down of the sun on Saturday. Fast days with him were strictly days of abstinence, fasting and prayer." A full length portrait of Mr. Williams is in the Executive Chamber of the State Capitol, at Montpelier. He was married April 24, 1817, at Castleton, Vt., to Lucy Green, daughter of Hon. Chauncy Langdon. They had nine children. 35 SAMUEL WILLISTON. SENATOR IN MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE, 1842-1843.* REV. NOAH WILLISTON, grandfather of Samuel, resided at West Haven, Conn. He had four children, two sons, both of whom were ministers, and two daughters, both of whom became the wives of ministers. He lived to the age of seventy-seven. acres. Rev. Payson Williston, father of Samuel, graduated at Yale College, was installed the first minister of Easthampton, Mass., in 1789, resigned in 1833, and lived to the age of ninety-three. "His salary never amounted to $300. He had, however, a settlement of £70, with which he bought a small farm of thirty-three Here he worked in haying time, and a few hours a day at other seasons. His wife was Sarah, daughter of Rev. Nathan Birdseye, of Stratford, Conn., who lived to the age of one hundred and three. She was industrious and economical, a very Martha for household care, though not without Mary's part also in the one thing needful. A family of six children were born in that parsonage, and all but one, who died in childhood, were brought up and educated on that salary, with the help which they were taught to render to themselves and their parents." Samuel Williston, third child of Payson and Sarah Williston, was born in Easthampton, June 17, 1795; died there, July 18, 1874. His early years were spent in attendance at the district school, and in the occupations of the farm. The summer that he was fifteen, he worked at Westhampton at seven dollars a month. He studied Latin, first with his father, then with Rev. Mr. Gould, of Southampton, and attended for a time at Phillips Acad * "Discourse," by W. S. Tyler. SAMUEL WILLISTON. 547 emy at Andover. In making the journey to Andover, his father carried him one day's ride to Brookfield; where, according to the ministerial usages of the times, they lodged at the house of the pastor; and the remainder of the way he traveled partly on foot and partly by stage, with his effects tied up in a bundle. After leaving Andover he served as clerk, first in West Springfield, then in New York City, and in the spring of 1817 returned to his father's farm, where for four years he divided his time between agriculture and school teaching. In the spring of 1822 he was married to Emily, daughter of Elnathan Graves, a farmer in Williamsburg, to whom he had been engaged three years. He brought his wife home to the house of his father, and the two families lived in harmony under the same roof for twenty-one years. The mother of Mrs. Williston had been in the habit of making covered buttons for her own family, and a small surplus, which she sold. She herself took up the business on a somewhat larger scale. The first package which she made, she took to David Whitney, of Northampton, treasurer of the Hampshire County Missionary Society, as a contribution to the cause of missions; and President Humphrey, happening in about that time, became the purchaser. The second package was sent to Arthur Tappan, of New York, who immediately contracted for twenty-five gross at two dollars a gross. Mr. Williston perceived the value of the enterprise, established agencies in the principal cities, and in time employed more than a thousand families in the business of making buttons. Subsequently, with other parties, he commenced the manufacture of buttons by machinery. Success attended him, and his prosperity continued for a long course of years. After he had passed the age of seventy, he entered upon an adventure which caused him the direct loss of half a million of money. Writing to a friend, he said: "My experience leads me to think that a man of seventy years should draw his business into a smaller compass rather than enlarge it." He established in 1841 Williston Seminary, and founded in 1845 the Williston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory in Amherst College. It was estimated that the aggregate of his |