Williams, Robert E.

Born: 1825-12-03 Greene County, Pennsylvania

Died: 1899-02-15 Bloomington, Illinois

Robert E. Williams was a lawyer and prosecuting attorney. He was educated at Bethany College in West Virginia and attended Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. He studied law in Kentucky and was admitted to the bar. For several years Williams practiced law and was a prosecuting attorney in De Witt County, Texas, where in 1851, he married Martha J. Smith. In 1856, they moved to Bloomington, Illinois, where Williams formed a partnership with Major W. Packard. He later practiced with Hudson Burr and Charles Capen. In 1860, Williams was a lawyer living in Bloomington's Second Ward with his wife and four children. Williams was a Democrat, and for several years, he served as an attorney for the Illinois Central Railroad and the Chicago & Alton Railroad. He was member of the Christian Church and the Masonic Lodge.

Jacob L. Hasbrouck, History of McLean County Illinois (Indianapolis: Historical, 1924), 1:529-30; Texas, County Marriage Index, 1837-1977, 10 December 1851, De Witt County (Salt Lake City, UT: FamilySearch, 2013); U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 2, Bloomington, McLean County, IL, 222; Gravestone, Evergreen Memorial Cemetery, Bloomington, IL.