Information taken from Williams of North Carolina and Tennessee, by Blake Williams. 

The Williams Family 

     The 1800 census of Randolph County, NC lists Obediah Williams in the southern part of the county.  It also lists a wife between 26 and 45 years of age, a son between 10 and 16 years of age, two sons between 0 and 10 years of age, and a daughter between 0 and 16 years of age. 

     On November 23, 1803, Obediah purchased 200 acres of land on Panther Creek about ten miles south of Asheboro.  By 1822 he owned 1249 acres on both Panther Creek and nearby Bachelor Creek. 

     Obediah died in 1837 leaving John Williams the land on Bachelor Creek, Eliphalet the land on Panther Creek, and Mary Williams Morris the land on the mountain side of his holdings.  He is buried in Panther Creek Cemetery. 

     Eliphalet Williams, son of Obediah, was born in 1795.  On October 10, 1817 he married Anna Wilson.  In 1844 he moved his family, including four boys and four girls, to Henderson County, Tennessee.  They traveled by way of ox wagon and horseback, crossing a gap in the mountains north of the Great Smokies, and came through Mount Grainger, Crab Orchard, Nashville, Reynoldsburg, and they crossed the Tennessee River at Trotters Landing. 

     Eliphalet and Anna settled near the Beech River in the Center Ridge community, about seven miles north of Lexington, Tennessee.  It was here they planned to raise their family, but Eliphalet died in 1846 not long after they settled.  Anna died September 9, 1869 and they are both buried in Antioch Cemetery in the old part nearest the Tennessee River. 

     Poe Alexander Williams, the oldest son of Eliphalet and Anna, was born on June 27, 1820.  He married Deborah Gilmore on March 28, 1847.  The couple traded a skillet, lid, rifle, and three quilts to the Indians for 1102 acres of land located on the east side of Beech River.

Three children, Hartwell Taylor, Margaret Ann “Mag”, and Eliphalet Tidwell “Bob”, were born to the couple before Deborah’s death on September 2, 1854.  Deborah was buried at old Moresville Cemetery about eight miles from Tupelo, Mississippi so the couple must have been near this location when she died.

     After Deborah’s death, Poe returned to Henderson County where he was married on July 29, 1856 to Rebecca Ann Taylor.  The newly married couple moved to Carlisle, Arkansas with their family.  Poe died Feb 2, 1912 and he and his second wife are buried in Carlisle, Arkansas.  

      Hartwell Taylor Williams, Poe’s oldest son, was born December 7, 1848.  He was living in Henderson County, Tennessee when he met and married Martha Ann Fesmire.  The couple married January 9, 1871.  In 1895, Harwell Taylor and Martha Ann lost all their holdings to secure, as bondsman, a very large money default of a county official in Henderson County.  Taylor died in 1944, Martha in 1946, and both are buried in McLemoresville, Tennessee.