George W. Williams.—In point of years of residence in Seneca. George Williams is, without doubt, the oldest living- pioneer settler, living in Seneca today. A review of the life of Mr. Williams takes one back to the old stage coach days, to the time of the emigrant freighting trains; to an account of the first house built in Seneca, in which he lived when a boy of twelve years of. age; the review covers the gradual settlement and development of Nemaha county, the ups and downs of a struggling community and the growth of Seneca from being merely a wide place in the great overland highway to the West into becoming one of the thriftiest and most beautiful cities of northern Kansas. Mr. Williams has seen all of this great development, and has taken an active and substantial part in the work of creating a great county from a wilderness of prairie and wild land.

George W. Williams, capitalist and farmer, Seneca, Kans., was born in a small New Jersey village, March 18, 1848, and is a son of Henry and Mary (Getty) Williams, natives of Vermont and descendants of old New England families. The home of Mr. Williams' parents was in Burlington, Vt., but his father's work as a railroad contractor required that he make his residence in the vicinity of his employment. Henry Williams died in 1848, and his wife departed this life not long afterward. The boy, George, thus left an orphan, was given over to the care of a maiden aunt, who became his guardian and who had gone to live in New Hampshire. However, he varied his early life between the homes of a married aunt (Mrs. John K. Smith) and the maiden aunt who was his rightful guardian. He accompanied the Smith family to Seneca in 1858 and resided with them in the first house built in Seneca. his first work in the village was as "devil boy" on the first newspaper published in Nemaha county by J. P. Cone; his duties on this sheet being to ink the "molasses" rollers, and to assist in operating the old Washington hand press, with which the editions were printed. He remained a member of the staff of Mr. Cone's newspaper until his place was taken by a stronger person, and one whom the editor thought more able and competent to handle the lever of the unwieldy press. About the time his newspaper experience came to an end, his maiden aunt, and guardian came west and located at Trying, Marshall county, Kansas, and he joined his aunt's family there. He remained with his guardian until he completed a course in Illinois College in 1864, and after clerking in a store at Irving for a time, he returned to Seneca and purchased an interest in a hardware store. This was in 1870, and his business venture was a success from the start. His interests have become diversified during the past forty-six years, and he has become one of the largest land owners in northern Kansas, owning thousands of acres of land in the county. Mr. Williams has erected several business buildings in Seneca, and is owner of considerable real estate in the city. He is financially interested in several banking concerns, among them being the First National Bank of Seneca, of which he has been president for over thirty years; State Bank of Belvedere, Neb., and the State Bank of Axtell, Kans., of which he is president. He is a director in .several banks.

Mr. Williams has been a stockholder and director of the St. Joseph and Grand Island Railroad Company, for the past three years. He is president of the Brown County Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Morrill, Kans.

Mr. Williams was married, in 1876, to Miss Mary Moss Bryan of Kentucky, a daughter of Milton Bryan, a relative of William Jennings Bryan. To Mr. and Mrs. Williams have been born six children, as follows: Raymond, third child born, killed in a railway accident in 1906 ); Clara, eldest child, wife of Frank Stuppy, St. Joseph, Mo.:     Mrs. Helen Short, living near Chehalis, Wash.; Edith, wife of Art L. Collins, president of the National Bank of Sabetha, Kans.; Rachel, at home with her parents; Milton B., at home and assisting in looking after his father's interests, a graduate of Wisconsin University, Madison, Wis., and filling the post of assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Seneca.

Mr. Williams is allied with the Democratic party, but has never sought political preferment of any kind, although he has taken pleasure in assisting deserving friends to office and has been generally loyal to democratic principles. He is a member of the Congregational church. Despite his great success in business, agriculture and finance, Mr. Williams is the most modest of men who has devoted his entire life lo hard work, kept at his tasks long hours, and even of late years, has assiduously devoted his time and energies to looking after his many interests. This modest and brief review is in keeping with the inherent modesty of the man himself

From the History of Nemaha county, by Ralph Tennal, 1916