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Cunningham Ewing McCulloch Price Shelby Weems Williams

Obituary of Lewis M. Williams, Springfield, Missouri.

Lewis M. Williams was born in Greenville, Tenn., June 26, 1835, and died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Charles V. Cunningham, in Springfield, Mo., on February 14, 1915. He is survived by his widow and three children, two sons and a daughter.

Mr. Williams spent his boyhood days in Dixie Land. He went to Southwest Missouri at the age of eighteen years and located in Newton County, near Newtonia, where he lived until the spring of 1861. At this time, when the excitement was running high, he had to choose whom he would serve. True to the land of his birth, he enlisted in the Confederate cause. He served in Gen. Joe Shelby's brigade and was personally acquainted with Gen. Sterling Price, familiarly known as "Pap" Price, whom he loved as a brother. He often spoke of Gen. Ben McCulloch and of his many heroic deeds of valor. He participated in the battles of Wilson's Creek, Springfield, Pilot Knob, Mo., Pea Ridge and Pine Bluff, Ark., and took part in many skirmishes in Southwest Missouri. He was once captured in Springfield, Mo., by the Federals and held as a spy. He was then on his way to St. Louis to purchase medicines for his command and had about his person some papers that would havebetrayed his mission had the Federals found them. He was put in a covered wagon, when he crawled under an old wagon sheet and ate the papers, leaving no trace to tell the tale. How long he was held a prisoner is not known, but through the friendship of a brother Mason it was made possible for him to escape, and he was never put in prison.

At the close of the war Mr. Williams removed to Denver, Colo., probably because of the order issued by Gen. Hugh Boyl Ewing, the Federal commander of Missouri, known as "Order No. 11," in which it was stated that all Confederates caught in the State after a certain date would be shot. In 1868 or 1869 he removed to Manhattan, Kans., and there purchased a large farm on the Big Blue River, In January, 1870, he was married to Nancy Catherine Weems, a Southern woman in the truest sense. After several years in Kansas, when peace and quietude once more reigned in Southwest Missouri, he sold his farm for quite a large sum and returned to Newton County, Mo., and lived near Newtonia for many years.

"Uncle Lew," as he was generally known, was a man who loved his friends and neighbors as himself, and his home was the home of his friends, Especially was this true in regard to the ministers of the gospel; hishouse was the circuit rider's home. True to the traditions of the Southland, the latchstring hung on the outside of the door, and the invitation was: "Come in and sup with me." He was a pillar in the Methodist Church, South, of which he was a member for many years. He loved the sons of the South, and among his heroes were Henry W. Grady, Bob Taylor, and the late editor of the Veteran, S. A. Cunningham. * * * He lived his allotted threescore and ten and now rests from his labors.


SOURCE: Confederate Veteran Magazine, June, 1915.


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