Walter and Anna Callin Williams

Anna Callin Williams's
family tree

Walter A. Williams (1860 – 1949) was the son of Joshua Williams (1811 – 1898) and Hannah Sowder (1832 – 1884).

Joshua was a farmer who was born in Licking county, Ohio, and married his first wife in 1838. Her name was Susanna, and we can be reasonably certain that she died between the 1850 Census and Joshua's second marriage to Hannah in 1852. Susanna and Joshua had at least five children between 1838 and 1848 (4 sons and 1 daughter); and Walter was one of six sons that Hannah and Joshua had between 1852 and 1872. There is some disagreement between the 1860 and 1870 Census records about the birth dates of three more daughters, who could have been born to either Susanna or Hannah. (If you go by the 1870 birth dates, they are all born after 1852, so they would be Hannah's daughters. I think that is the more likely case.)

Joshua was 49 years old when Walter was born in 1860, and 50 when the Civil War broke out the following year. Joshua's eldest son, William A. Williams, served in Co. G of the 24th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (one of more than 150 Ohioans of that name who served) and his second eldest, Hulbert, served in Co. M of the 1st Regiment, Ohio Heavy Artillery. The third brother, John, was likely one of the three John Williams who enlisted from Huron county (my guess would be the one who enlisted in New Haven, where the family lived in 1870); and Charles, the youngest of Susanna's sons, may have enlisted later in the war, being just barely old enough.

Walter grew up in this large family, with brothers who were soldiers in the War that shaped his entire childhood. He was a farmer in a time when rapid advances in science and technology were happening - from innovations in machinery to vaccines to telephones and photography. In his 20s, the Ohio oil boom was in full swing after the discovery of oil fields in nearby Wood county, which meant he was coming of age in a very exciting economic time.

Miss Anna Callin
about 1885

And in this time and place, on 17 November 1887, he married Anna Callin (1865 – 1908). (As of the date of this post, we are 4 days from their 128th wedding anniversary!) Anna was the second of the four Callin sisters; her parents, of course, were William and Ellen (Channing) Callin from our earlier posts.

Walter and Anna were married for 19 years, and raised four children of their own before Anna's death in 1908. While the older children were almost adults by then, the youngest, Eva, was only 7. Walter re-married, probably the following year, to his second wife, Clara, and moved his two younger children and his new wife to Kansas City, Missouri.

1. Mabel M Williams (1889 – 1964) was born in New Haven, and when her mother died, she was 19 years old. At some point she married the mysterious Mr. Weinbroer, who left her widowed by 1920. She lived in the Akron area working as a bookkeeper or in other clerical positions, and died two days before Christmas in 1964 at the age of 75.

2. Clare Corvin Williams (1891 – 1915) was 17 when his mother died. When his father moved to Missouri, he stayed with his uncle Burtes and aunt Minnie (Walter's youngest brother and his wife). According to the 1910 Census, Clare was a clerk for the railroad.

On 24 October 1915 at age 24 Clare took his own life, and was buried in New Haven.

3. Howard W Williams (1894 – 1941) was born in Willard (the former Chicago Junction), and at 16 found himself living in Kansas City with his father, sister, and step-mother. By the time Howard registered for the World War I draft in 1917, he was married to Hazel Soll and living in Chicago Junction (I imagine he listed it that way because he worked for the railroad). They already had their son, Robert. When Robert was 14, in 1930, the family lived in Cleveland, and his parents also had a daughter. That daughter is still living today - normally that means I have more information that I'm not sharing in order to protect her privacy, but beyond her name and approximate birth year, I really don't know any more about her.

In 1940 Hazel and the two children are listed in Shelby, with Hazel as the married head of the household; but it is not clear where Howard is at this time. Howard died in 1941, in Los Angeles, California, and was buried in New Haven cemetery, Ohio.

There is a Howard Williams listed in California in the 1940 Census, and his birthplace is listed as Ohio; but he is a prisoner in the Lincoln Heights jail, and his marital status is "single". The 1940 Census also lists where a person was in 1935, and this Howard was in this jail then, too. I would like to find more concrete evidence before suggesting that this is our Howard, though the facts do seem to fit.

a. Robert H Williams (1916 – 1991) grew up in Shelby, and married Betty Louise Nothacker (1918 – 2005). They had two children, one son and one daughter who are still living; in 2005, they had four grandchildren. Robert and Louise ran the L & K Motel in Willard for many years, according to her obituary.

4. Eva Williams (1901 – 1988) moved back to New Haven some time after 1910 with her father and step-mother, which is where they were in 1920. By 1922, she had married Charles Boone Tillery (1893 – 1985). Charles worked as a brakeman on the railroad. He was from Kentucky, but in 1917, when he registered for the WWI draft, he was living in Toledo.

Charles and Eva had four children, and lived out their lives in Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, where they died in 1985 and 1988, respectively.

a. Kathryn Jean Tillery (1922 – 1987), who preferred to be called "Jean", married William Marvin Pettit and they lived in Fairfield, Butler county. They had at least one daughter who is still living.

b. Charles B Tillery, Jr. (1923 – 1983) enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943, and served out the duration of World War II. He married Janette A Gabriel (1926 – 2010) around 1950, and they had one son (still living), two grand-daughters, and as of 2010, two great-granddaughters.

c. John Walter Tillery (1924 – 2009) enlisted in the Army Air Corps on January 6, 1943. He was a Tail Gunner on a B-24 bomber and discharged in April of 1946 with a rank of Buck Sergeant. He married Millie Lou Wolfe (1924-1999) on 13 October 1945, and they had four children - two sons and two daughters.

d. Dana Lee Tillery (1927 – 2011) married Arthur William Pfirrman, Jr. (1926 – 2011) in the 1950s. They had two sons, and by 2011, two grand-children.

Walter Williams survived until 1949, outliving both of his sons, but seeing all of his grand-children grow to adulthood. Clara lived another 20 years, dying in 1969 at the age of 85. She buried Walter with Anna in the Maple Grove Cemetery in New Haven, near where she herself was later buried.

And so the Williams and Tillery families continue on - I wonder how many of them know they can claim James Callin in their family tree?

Photos posted with permission of Ancestry user meganoneill10.