Samuel A. Williams was born in 1820 in Bourbon County, Kentucky and lived for some time in Polk County, Missouri. He squatted on a claim near Ft. Scott early in 1854, and in the autumn of that year brought his family over from Missouri, as a Bourbon County historian writes: "...driving an ox cart, containing his family, his chickens and two 'cheers.' He was no (mere) 'voter.' He had come to stay. He was a good man, a good citizen, and held many important positions."[Robley, Bourbon County, 36]
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James Montgomery (1814-1871) His raiders harrassed pro-slavery settlements in Kansas and Missouri. |
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During the Bogus Legislature session, Williams was able to have Bourbon County, Kansas named after his old home county in Kentucky. He was appointed as Colonel of the Third Regiment of the Kansas Militia, but is not mentioned in the battles the militia fought. He was appointed as the first Probate Judge, or principal official of Bourbon County, by the Legislature in 1855. [KHC3: 284] In 1859, he was among the Ft. Scott leaders who petitioned first the officers at the army post at Ft. Scott, and finally the governor, for assistance against the Jayhawker Montgomery and his "bandits infecting (this) section of the territory." [KHC5: 583,597] In 1860, he joined with his free-state fellow townsmen in organizing a bridge building company for a toll bridge across the Marmaton River. [Root, Ferries, Marmaton, 15]
Williams served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was mustered in as Captain of Company I, Second Kansas Cavalry, November 22, 1861, and resigned March 28, 1862. He died at his home in Fort Scott in August 1873. [Admire, Hand-Book, Bourbon County]
