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- Buffalo Courier Express
FUNERAL TODAY FOR PIONEER, G. H. WILLIAMS
Sanborn man long had been associated with development of his (sic) area
Courier-Express Niagara Falls Bureau.
Sanborn, Jan. 2 - For the last Civil War soldier of this area, Gustave Herman Williams, 98, funeral services will be held Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Williams, formerly an active farmer on the Lockport Road in the Walmore area, lived here in retirement several years. An immigrant from Stettin, Germany, Mr. Williams was active in work of the old Buffalo Synod, now a part of the American Lutheran Church. He came to Walmore in 1857, following the second migration from Prussia of a large number of dissenters from the religious program of King Frederick Wilhelm III. Mr. Williams' parents belonged to a group led by J. A. A. Grabau, militant pastor, who defied the king's attempt to consolidate two religious groups in the Prussian kingdom. He was the last of the immigrant group.
Niagara County was a comparative wilderness when he came to the Walmore-Bergholtz area, he was wont to recall. Two-wheeled carts, oxen, Indian trail roads were some of the factors he spoke of to his grandchildren, numbering eighteen, and to his 24 great-grandchildren. Pioneers made their livelihood by cutting cord wood piled in huge stacks along the rail way, which is now the Falls road of the New York Central. Joined Sixth Cavalry
Hardly had the newcomer cut himself a farm out of the hardwood district, when he was to heed the call of Lincoln for troops. Having fled religious persecution in which hordes of their kin were cast into dungeons. the German pioneers felt keen sympathy for the oppressed in the South. Mr. Williams entered Company K, Sixth Cavalry, early in the Civil War and was mustered out honorably in 1865. .He was the last of the Boys in Blue from this area.
The year afterward, he married Christine Walck. To them were born William F., Albert P., Hugo F., Robert G. Williams, proprietors of Williams Brothers' Lockport department store, all of the Lock City, Edward H., of the Ward, Road, and two daughters, both deceased, Emma A., and Mrs. Edward L. Haseley. Susan Elizabeth Milleville, arrived to become his 24th great grandchild on December 30th. Fond of children, the nonagenarian kept his interest in them despite loss of sight. Recollections of hardships in Niagara County always impressed his visitors. He was renowned for a remarkable memory, being able to describe scenes and locations in his native Prussia more accurately than recently returned travelers.
He was an elder of St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Walmore for eighteen years.
The Rev. Edward A. Grabau, pastor of St. Peter's, will preside at last rites in the family home in Franklin Street at 1 o'clock, and at St. Peter's at 2. Burial will be in the Walmore Cemetery.
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Niagara Falls Gazette
Gustave Williams' Death Recalls
Pioneer Days in Niagara County
His life Closely Associated with Walmore and Bergholtz Districts.
Tales that Father Gustave H. Williams, Sanborn nonagenarian, who died at his home in that village last week, told of early rural life in Niagara County were being pieced together in many a Walmore-Bergholtz home this week. Though a veil came over the eyes of the old resident, blotting the sight of several modern inventions from his eyes, nevertheless his kin and acquaintances found the pioneer farmer the source of many an engaging narrative on the development of the Niagara region.
The death on New Year's Day, 1940, of Mr. Williams, 98, reunited a pioneer couple who had seen and told of the changes in Niagara, county in the course of nearly a century. Born in Prussia on December 14. 1841, Mr. Williams came to the Walmore-Bergholtz district, near the Municipal airport, from Bergholtz, Germany, in June, 1857. He married Christine Walck on November 8, 1866, and together the pair saw the present suburban area emerge from a hardwood forest sparsely populated.
Lewiston Busy Place
When Father Williams first came to Niagara county in June, 1857, Lewiston, not Lockport, and Suspension Bridge, Manchester, or Niagara Falls, was the seat of activity - despite the earlier opening of the
Erie canal The river village with its wide streets was the main seat of learning. The famous old Union school in Lockport was yet to become famous as a Niagara Academy. Wind blown vessels still came to the docks at Lewiston, and Father Williams came thence from Bergholtz, Prussia, to locate on a farm near the Ward and Niagara road. Later he shifted his farming operations to what is now known as the old Williams farm on the Lockport road, near the Tuscarora road in the Walmore district. Walmore and Bergholtz in America shared with Milwaukee, Wis., the distinction of being a haven for two major migrations from Germany, the Germany of earldoms, dukedoms, and duchys (sic), the first in 1839, the second in 1845.
Comes to U. S.
King Frederick Wilhelm III of Prussia attempted to force the Reformed and the Lutheran churches into one body, but a militant body of the latter, led by the Rev. J. A. A. Grabau assisted by Pastor Van Rohr of the Bergholz-Walmow region in Prussia, stubbornly resisted. Pastor Grabau and many of his fellow leaders were imprisoned. This early Prussian treatment failed to quench the spirit of the dissenters, so the Rev. Grabau finally obtained permission for his people to emigrate to America.
For the fugitives, the trip across the Atlantic had its share of terrors and thrills. Lightning hit the main mast of one of the first barks loaded with Germans en route to the United Sates, and at times it seemed that the band would never see land again. It took the William family more than six weeks to cross.
What is now Suspension Bridge, Father Williams recalled, held only a handful of homes, modest Irish dwellings. At what is now the site of the Zion Lutheran church, at Tenth street and Michigan avenue, was a huge grove of hickory nut trees which provided quite a feast for the strangers.
Built Crude Homes
The homes on the Indian reservation were located more to the north of the present settlement, many being without stairs and some with only high slit open windows. The farm of Chief John Mt. Pleasant was one of the attractions of the Niagara area, being a huge affair where he grew corn in abundance. Numerous Indian workers and travelers-the stages stopped at the place, as one of the sights of Niagara-had their quarters there.
The Tuscarora road, winding trail from La Salle, was but on oxen trail leading from the Indian fishing grounds along Cayuga creek through a thick swamp to the reservation. Not far away, near the municipal airport, was an Indian pit-fall which early German settlers continued to use for bear while breaking home lands out of the woods.
News Spreads
Even in Prussia, word of Niagara County's famous hardwoods, hickory, oaks and elms, had spread. An old Prussian belief was that wheat would thrive in grounds where hard wood abounded.
The first plantings grew rapidly in what is now the Town of Wheatfield where Father Williams and his bride, Christine Walck, first made their home. The Williams family saw the Civil War break out right on the heels of their arrival. From that period till his retirement, decades ago, Father William noted the rural happenings and progress of Niagara county. His death last week removed a living encyclopedia (sic) of Niagara history from the local scene.
Niagara Gazette - 12/16/1936
SANBORN, Dec. 16.-Gust&ve H.
Williams, of Franklin street, celebrated
his ninety-fifth birthday at his
home on Dec. 14. Mr. Williams has
five'sons, Willam P., Albert P., Hugo
and Robert Williams, of Lockport,
and Edward Williams, of Lockport
road. A daughter, Miss Emma Williams,
died in 1928. Mrs.' Edward L.
Haseley, another daughter, died in
February of this year.-His wife, Christine
Walck, died in 1920. There are
also 18 grandchildren and 16 great
grandchildren. Ferdinand Williams,' a
brother, lives at Niagara Falls.
At the age of 15, Mr. Williams came
with his, parents from Germany and
lived to the Ward road until his marriage
when they moved to the present
homestead where he was a successful
farmer. Twenty five years ago he
moved to his present home in franklin
street, where his granddaughter,
Miss Martha Williams, cares for him.
He is in good health, except for
failing eyesight, and enjoys listening
to the radio. Mr. William's is'one of
the two veterans of the Civil War to
this community. His sons and families
and many friend's visited him during
the weekend and on his birthday
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1841 - 1940 (98 years)