Williams, Gustave Hermann b. 14 Dec 1841 Szczecin, Zachodniopomorskie, Poland d. 1 Jan 1940 Sanborn, Niagara, New York, United States: Haseley Family Pages

1841 - 1940 (98 years)

Name	Williams, Gustave Hermann
Birth	14 Dec 1841	Szczecin, Zachodniopomorskie, Poland [1, 2]
	Address: (Stettin, Prussia)
Gender	Male
Emigration	12 Jun 1857	Bremen, Germany [3]
	Address: aboard the SS Arago
Military	Between 1861 and 1865
	Union Army, Civil War
Census	1870	Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States
Census	1880	Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States
Census	1930	Town of Cambria, Niagara, New York, United States
Death	1 Jan 1940	Sanborn, Niagara, New York, United States [2, 4]
Burial	3 Jan 1940	Walmore, Niagara, New York, United States [4]
	Address: Saint Peter's Lutheran Cemetery (43° 7' 17.00" N, 78° 55' 53.00"
Notes	At age 23, Gustav Williams enlisted in the 26th New York Cavalry on February 13, 1865 at Buffalo, New York. He mustered into Company K as a Private on February 24, 1865. Private Williams served throughout the war without injury and he mustered out June 29, 1865 at Fort Porter, Buffalo, New York. Gustav applied for an invalid pension, #1322843 on August 13, 1904 from the State of New York. In 1910, Gustav was residing with his wife Christine and their daughter Emma in Cambria, New York (1910 Cambria, N.Y. census). -- Buffalo Courier Express FUNERAL TODAY FOR PIONEER, G. H. WILLIAMS Sanborn man long had been associated with development of this 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-Bergholz 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. -- The Niagara Gazette Gustave Williams' Death Recalls Pioneer Days in Niagara County His life Closely Associated with Walmore and Bergholz 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-Bergholz 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-Bergholz district, near the Municipal airport, from Bergholz, 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 Bergholz, 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 Bergholz in America shared with Milwaukee, Wis., the distinction of being a haven for two major migrations from Germany, the Germany of earldoms, dukedoms, and duchy's, 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-Wallmow 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 of Niagara history from the local scene.
Person ID	I355	haseley
Last Modified	20 May 2022

Father	William, Jean (Johann) VII, b. 4 Jan 1818, Bergholz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany d. 10 Sep 1883, Bergholz, Niagara, New York, United States (Age 65 years)
Mother	Schultz, Friedericke Wilhelmine, b. 1 Apr 1813, Bergholz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany d. 15 Nov 1898, Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States (Age 85 years)
Marriage	1 Apr 1841	Rossow, Brandenburg, Germany
	Frederike was the first German to marry into the French Huguenot William family
Residence	5 Jul 1857	Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States
	Address: Ward Rd. farm
Family ID	F113	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family Walk, Christine, b. 11 May 1846, Walmore, Niagara, New York, United States d. 22 Apr 1920, Walmore, Niagara, New York, United States (Age 73 years)

Marriage 8 Nov 1866 Walmore, Niagara, New York, United States [5]

Address:
Saint Peter's Lutheran Church

Children

	1. Williams, Emma Helene Auguste, b. 18 Aug 1867, Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States d. 17 Aug 1928, Niagara, New York, United States (Age 60 years)
	2. Williams, William Ferdinand Gustav, b. 8 Jan 1869, Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States d. 31 Mar 1943, Lockport, Niagara, New York, United States (Age 74 years)
	3. Williams, Martha Emilie Rebecka, b. 28 Mar 1871, Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States d. 30 Apr 1871, Walmore, Niagara, New York, United States (Age 0 years)
	4. Williams, Edward Heinrich Rudolph, b. 2 Mar 1872, Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States d. 17 Oct 1945, Buffalo, Erie, New York, United States (Age 73 years)
	5. Williams, Albert Hermann Philipp, b. 31 Aug 1874, Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States d. 13 Jul 1962, Lockport, Niagara, New York, United States (Age 87 years)
	6. Williams, Ella Cordelia Christina, b. 17 Jun 1878, Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States d. 12 Feb 1936, Niagara Falls, Niagara, New York, United States (Age 57 years)
	7. Williams, Hugo Johannes Friedrich, b. 4 Jan 1881, Sanborn, Niagara, New York, United States d. 6 Jan 1971, Lockport, Niagara, New York, United States (Age 90 years)
	8. Williams, Robert Arthur Bernhard, b. 11 Sep 1886, Sanborn, Niagara, New York, United States d. 23 Jan 1972, Lockport, Niagara, New York, United States (Age 85 years)

Family ID F116 Group Sheet | Family Chart

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	Birth - Address: (Stettin, Prussia) - 14 Dec 1841 - Szczecin, Zachodniopomorskie, Poland
	Emigration - Address: aboard the SS Arago - 12 Jun 1857 - Bremen, Germany
	Marriage - Address: Saint Peter's Lutheran Church - 8 Nov 1866 - Walmore, Niagara, New York, United States
	Census - 1870 - Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States
	Census - 1880 - Town of Wheatfield, Niagara, New York, United States
	Census - 1930 - Town of Cambria, Niagara, New York, United States
	Death - 1 Jan 1940 - Sanborn, Niagara, New York, United States
	Burial - Address: Saint Peter's Lutheran Cemetery (43° 7' 17.00" N, 78° 55' 53.00" - 3 Jan 1940 - Walmore, Niagara, New York, United States

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Photos » Slide Show		Gustav & Christine Williams 50th Wedding Anniversary
		Gustav Williams Family
		Gustav Williams Family 3 generations BR - Robert, Albert, Hugo, William, Edward, Arthur, Edward H. 4R - Alice, Emma, Martha Weber, Lizzie, Auguste, Martha, Ervin, Ella 3R - Christine H., Christine W., Gus, Esther 2R - Elizabeth H., Josephine FR - Ernst, Karl, Freddie, Elizabeth, Melvin, Walter

Headstones

Gustav & Christine Williams

Sources

[S195] Headstone Inscription.
[S143] Genewich Tree.
[S17] Niagara Falls Gazette.
[S21] St Peter's Lutheran Church records, Vol 2, Ref # D205.
[S20] St Peter's Lutheran Church records, Vol 1, Ref # M45.