By Jeremy Hulshof
One of the most treasured attractions in Hickory
County is the Hickory County Museum, owned
and operated by the Hickory County Historical
Society. The John S. Williams Home is a pre-Civil
War antebellum dwelling that served the county's
listed on the National Register of Historic Places,
an authentic blacksmith shop. A one-room school
museum and grounds offered by appointment.
John Siddle Williams was one of the early settlers
of Hickory County, migrating with his wife Charity
Davis Williams and two small sons from Wilson
County, Tenn. in about 1840. His brother, James
Dee Williams, as well as his brother-in-law,
Thomas Davis, accompanied them, and in 1856,
his younger brothers Robert Nathaniel Williams
and Stephen Marion Williams arrived. A family
history states that another brother, William
T. Williams, came to Missouri, but went
back to Tennessee.
The Williams families settled in
Hermitage, where they built
their homes and established
themselves. They had a
tanning yard set up where
they produced leather,
which was used to make
shoes for the people of the
area. Tom Davis operated
the log home he built. When
Hickory County incorporated in
1845, John S. Williams was elected
county circuit clerk meeting was held.
John Siddle Williams was the son of Nathaniel
Williams, born in 1786 in Virginia, and Elizabeth
the daughter of Stephen Siddle and Mary Head.
They were married in South Carolina about
in 1808, after which they migrated to Wilson
County, Tenn. There, John Siddle Williams was
suddenly in 1844, and the mother died in 1865.
Members of the Williams family were
and cities of Providence, Newport, and
Portsmouth. Roger Williams was educated at
Cambridge, England and was an evangelist who
befriended and preached the Gospel to the
Editor of The Index and
President of the Hickory
County Historical Society
The following historical information was submitted by Betty Hendricksen
and is credited to the Hickory County Historical Society.
Natives of Colonial America. He authored several
books in his lifetime. One he wrote about the
Indian language was published in Europe and
led to him becoming the foremost authority on
the Native American people of his day. To some,
perhaps his greatest contribution to America is
considered to be his promoting the separation
of church and state and advocating for freedom
of religion in the New World. It was because of
religious persecution that he and his family had
moved to America. Roger Williams University in
Rhode Island is named in his honor.
In the 1850's, John Siddle Williams built a large
two story home in Hermitage. It was so
substantial that it survives today as home to the
Hickory County Museum and Historical Society
and was placed on the National Register of
Historic Places.
John S. Williams and Charity Davis Williams had
two sons born in Wilson County, Tenn. They were
more children were born in Hermitage: Mary Ellen
Thomas James Holland, younger brother of
in Hermitage. Less than a year later, on Aug. 30,
1854, John S. Williams married a second time
to Caroline Isabelle Holland, born on New Year's
Eve 1830 in Kentucky. She was the daughter of
Thomas Holland and Nancy Shemwell. To this
union, two children were born: Paralel Eliza
John S. Williams was elected to the lower house
of the Missouri General Assembly and served
nine terms up to the onset of the Civil War. At
that time, both the Union and the Confederates
claimed Missouri. The Governor of Missouri at
Southern cause. The State was divided almost
tensions. Williams, being from the South, argued
and voted for withdrawal from the Union.
However, when it was voted down, he
as a Captain in the 12th Regiment of the Missouri
th
During the Civil War, his family took
refuge in Monroe County, Missouri, and when
the war was over, Williams met them in
Boonville, where they lived until
1867. They then moved
permanently to Washington
County, Ark.
Williams farmed land in
Arkansas, but it was not
long before his abilities
as a legislator again found
him being voted into public
service. In 1874, he was
overwhelmingly elected to
represent his district in the lower
house of the Arkansas General
more terms, until elected in 1880 to a
four-year term in the Arkansas State Senate.
funeral and buried at Mt. Holly Cemetery in Little
Rock, resting among many other dignitaries.
Caroline I. Williams remarried in Arkansas in
1886 to Josiah Smith Thompson, a widower. He
Phillips County, Colo. to live with her daughter,
buried in the Holyoke Colorado Cemetery.
After the Williams abandoned their home, it sat
dormant for a while. A new family soon moved
in, and the home provided shelter to them and
The John S. Williams House in Hermitage operates as
the Hickory County Museum. This two-story Civil War
sheriff/nine-time state legislator/Confederate Army
Captain. It is owned and operated by the Hickory
County Historical Society and listed on the register of
National Historic Places. Tours are available.