Josiah Butler Williams (December 16, 1810 – September 26, 1883) was an American businessman, banker and senator from New York.

Life

He was the son of Josiah Williams (1768–1842) and Charity (Shaler) Williams (1775–1865). He married Mary Huggeford Hardy (1824–1911), and they had 12 children, among them geologist

Henry Shaler Williams Henry Shaler Williams (6 March 1847 – July 31, 1918) was an American geologist. He was the son of State Senator Josiah B. Williams (1810–1883). He graduated from Yale College and studied with Louis Agassiz at Cornell University. In 1871, he t ...

(1847–1918). He was a Whig member of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan com ...

(25th D.) from 1852 to 1855, sitting in the 75th, 76th, 77th and

78th New York State Legislature The 78th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 2 to April 14, 1855, during the first year of Myron H. Clark's governorship, in Albany. Background Under the prov ...

s. Williams was nominated on the

Know Nothing The Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was officially known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and thereafter, it was simply known as the "American Party". ...

ticket for

Canal Commissioner The Commission to Explore a Route for a Canal to Lake Erie and Report, known as the Erie Canal Commission, was a body created by the New York State Legislature in 1810 to plan the Erie Canal. In 1817 a ''Canal Fund'' led by ''Commissioners of the C ...

at the

1854 New York state election The 1854 New York state election was held on November 7, 1854, to elect the governor, the lieutenant governor, a Canal Commissioner and an Inspector of State Prisons, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly. History The National ...

, but two weeks before the election declined to run. The party managers then substituted Hard Democrat

Clark Burnham Clark Burnham (May 22, 1802 Windham, Windham County, Connecticut – December 30, 1871 Utica, Oneida County, New York) was an American politician from New York. Life He lived in Sherburne, Chenango County, New York, and was a contractor on the ...

on the ticket but, due to slow communications, Williams still polled almost 60,000 votes. He was a

presidential elector The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of appointing the president and vice president. Each state and the District of Columbia appo ...

1856 Events January–March * January 8 – Borax deposits are discovered in large quantities by John Veatch in California. * January 23 – American paddle steamer SS ''Pacific'' leaves Liverpool (England) for a transatlantic voyag ...

, voting for

John C. Frémont John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...

and

William L. Dayton William Lewis Dayton (February 17, 1807 – December 1, 1864) was an American politician, active first in the Whig Party and later in the Republican Party. In the 1856 presidential election, he became the first Republican vice-presidential ...

. He was buried at the Ithaca City Cemetery. State Senator Timothy S. Williams (1800–1849) was his brother; lumber magnate

Henry W. Sage Henry Williams Sage (January 31, 1814 – September 18, 1897) was a wealthy New York State businessman, philanthropist, and early benefactor and trustee of Cornell University.Murray Edward PoolA story historical of Cornell University with biograp ...

(1814–1897) was his nephew.

Sources

''The New York Civil List''
compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 137, 147, 323 and 332; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
Short bio
at Ancestry.com

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Josiah B 1810 births 1883 deaths New York (state) state senators Politicians from Ithaca, New York New York (state) Whigs 19th-century American legislators Politicians from Middletown, Connecticut 1856 United States presidential electors New York (state) Republicans New York (state) Know Nothings