JAMES T. WILLIAMS,
Born in Lynchburg, on April 28, 1829, is the son of Jehu and Susan
S. (Thompkins) Williams, long honored residents of Lynchburg, where
the father was many years engaged in the jewelry trade and in his
day the oldest business man of the town. He died in 1859, and his
wife died in 1843. On December 17, 1850, James T. Williams married
Martha J. Row, and their children were nine. Of these four are now
deceased, Susan S., Annie E., Bryant, and James T., jr. The living
children are: Jehu R., Mary J., Martha I., Amanda W. and S. Duncan.
Mr. Williams married secondly Mary E. Hanvey, Rev. Thomas H.
Early joining them in wedlock on July 20, 1887. Her father and
brother were in the Confederate States Army during the late war, as
was the brother of the first Mrs. Williams, Geo. W. Row. In 1848 Mr.
Williams began business in Lynchburg as a merchant. In 1851 he
removed to Richmond, where he was in business until 1867, and then
returned to Lynchburg. He established a wholesale grocery business,
in which he later associated with himself his eldest living son, and in
January, 1883, the gentlemen who now with himself and son form the
present house of James T. Williams, Son & Co., and carry on an extensive
business extending throughout the State. Mr. Williams has been
a member of the city council, a justice of the peace and chairman of the
board of Fire Commissioners, which originated the present Efficient
Department.
