Williams, Lemuel Hardin (1820–1882)
Lemuel Hardin Williams, merchant, son of Pleasant Hart and Sarah (Drumghoule) Williams, was born in Albany, Clifton County, Kentucky, on January 23, 1820. He attended local schools and later, for a better education, was sent to relatives in Alabama. He lived for a time in Cumberland County, Kentucky, and had a plantation near Burkesville. He married Emily Irwin in Kentucky in 1839 and the couple had seven children. The family moved to Lamar County, Texas, in company with several families of relatives in the fall of 1857. In Paris Williams engaged in merchandising and represented the county in the Secession Convention. In spite of the fact that he was a slaveholder he was one of the three members from Lamar County and seven in that convention who voted against secession. Nevertheless, when he returned from Austin, he organized and financed a company of 125 men, who saw service in Indian Territory. After the war Williams was one of the organizers of the first bank in Lamar County, chartered by the Texas legislature as Paris Exchange Bank, in 1873. He also formed a partnership in a dry goods business with James D. Wortham, which continued until Williams's death on May 1, 1882. He was buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in Paris, Texas.
