Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/556

522 The funds that he left were allowed to accumulate for thirty years, when a free school was incorpo- rated. Theinstitution was afterward converted into a college, the first commencement of which was held on 2 Sept., 1795, when seventy-seven students were present, four of whom graduated. Col. Will- iams never married. In 1854 the alumni of Will- iams erected a monument (consisting of a huge boulder) to him near Lake George, on the spot where he fell. See illustration on preceding page. — Ephraim's brother, Thomas, physician, b. in Newton, Mass., 1 April, 1718 ; d. in Deerfield, Mass., 28 Sept., 1775, studied medicine in Boston, and settled in Deerfield, Mass., in 1739. In 1743 he was appointed surgeon in the army in the pro- jected expedition into Canada, which failed to set out. He was afterward surgeon of the chain of forts that extended from Fort Drummer, Vt., to Fort Massachusetts at Hoosac or Adams, suffering much hardship and danger in visiting these posts, which were exposed to the onslaughts of the In- dians. He was a surgeon in the army under Sir William Johnson at Lake George in 1755, and pres- ent at the skirmish on 8 Sept. of that year in which his brother, Col. Ephraim, was killed. Dr. Will- iams became lieutenant-colonel in 1756, serving on Lake George. His letters during that campaign are interesting and faithful histories of its events, and furnish many medical and military facts. When he resumed practice he was the only surgeon in his neighborhood, and was frequently called to Vermont and New Hampshire. He was a justice of the peace, judge of the court of common pleas and of probate, town-clerk for many years, and held many minor civil offices. He educated several students in the profession of medicine, and left a large and valuable library.

WILLIAMS, George Henry, jurist, b. in New Lebanon, Columbia co., N. Y., 23 March, 1823. He was educated at an academy in Onondaga county, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1844, and, removing to Iowa, began practice there. He was elected judge of the first judicial district of that state, serving from 1847 till 1852, and was a presi- dential elector in 1852. In 1853-'7 he was chief justice of Oregon territory, and he was reappointed to that office by President Buchanan, but declined. He was a member of the convention that framed the constitution of Oregon in 1858, and, having been' elected U. S. senator from the state as a Union Republican, served from 4 Dec, 1865, till 3 March, 1871. He was a member of the joint high commission that in 1871 arranged the treaty of Wash- ington for the ad- justment of dif- ferences between Great Britain and the United States growing out of the Alabama claims, and was appointed by President Grant at torney -general of the United States, serving from 10 Jan.. 1872, till 15 May, 1875. On 1 Dec, 1873, he was nominated by President Grant chief justice of the U. S. supreme court ; but his nomination was not confirmed by the senate, and his name was withdrawn. He afterward practised law in Wash- ington, D. C.

WILLIAMS, George Washington, author, b. in Bedford Springs, Pa., 16 Oct., 1849. He is a mulatto. He served in the civil war, was a lieu- tenant-colonel of artillery in the Republican army of Mexico in 1865-'7, and attended school at New- ton Centre, Mass., until 1874. For a year he preached in Boston, but in 1875 he became a jour- nalist. He was graduated at Cincinnati law col- lege in 1877, spent two years in the office of Al- phonso Taft, and in 1879-'81 was a member of the Ohio legislature. In 1880-'2 he was judge-advo- cate-general of the Grand army of the republic, and in 1885-'6 he was U. S. minister to Hayti. In 1888 he was a delegate to the world's conference of foreign missions at London, England, where his speech on " The Drink Traffic in the Congo " attracted much attention. He has edited "The Southwestern Review " at Cincinnati and " The Commoner " at Washington, and is the author of " History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 till 1880 " (2 vols., New York, 1883) ; " History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion" (1887) ; and " History of the Reconstruction of the Insurgent States " (2 vols., 1889).

WILLIAMS, Henry Shaler, geologist, b. in Ithaca, N. Y., 6 March, 1847. He was graduated at the Sheffield scientific school of Yale in 1868, and received the degree of Ph. D. in 1871 from that university for advanced studies. Subsequent- ly he became professor of palaeontology in Cor- nell university, which chair he still holds, and he is also engaged in palaeontological researches for the U. S. geological survey. Prof. Williams is a member of various scientific societies, and since 1882 has been a fellow of the American association for the advancement of science. His contributions to scientific literature include papers that have appeared in the " American Journal of Science," " The American Naturalist," the " Bulletins of the U. S. Geological Survey," and in the proceedings of the societies of which he is a member, and he is also the author of " Bones, Ligaments, and Muscles of the Domestic Cat " (New York, 1875).

WILLIAMS, Henry Willard, physician, b. in Boston, Mass., 11 Dec, 1821. He was educated in the schools of Boston and Salem, and from his seventeenth till his twenty-fourth year was en- gaged in mercantile business. He was graduated in medicine at Harvard in 1849, engaged in prac- tice in Boston, Mass., and became distinguished as an oculist. He has been for twenty-five vears ophthalmic surgeon to the Boston city hospital, was a lecturer in Harvard medical school in 1869-'71, and from that time has filled the chair of ophthal- mology. Dr. Williams is connected with many medical societies, American and European, was for some years president of the American ophthalmo- logical society, and at the International congress at London in 1872 was a vice-president. The de- gree of A. M. was conferred on him by Harvard in 1868. Pie published a " Practical Guide to the Study of the Diseases of the Eye " (Boston, 1862) ; " Recent Advances in Ophthalmic Science " (1866) ; "Optical Defects in School-Children " (1868); a Boylston prize essay; "Our Eyes and how to take Cafe of Them "(1871); and "The Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Eye" (1886).

WILLIAMS, James, soldier, b. in Hanover county, Ya., in 1740; d. on King's Mountain, Gaston co., N. C, 8 Oct., 1780. He emigrated first to Granville county, N. C, and then to Little River, Laurens district, S. C, in 1773, and was a member of the Provincial congress of South Carolina in January, 1775. He was appointed a lieutenant-colonel of militia in 1776, commanded a detachment