Williams, Miller
Miller Williams (1886-1945)
Chesterfield, NH
Miller Williams was born in 1886 in Taylorsville County, Kentucky, where he spent much of his life prior to living in New England. During World War I, he served as a private in the 16th Company, 4th Battalion. By age 35, Williams had worked as a laborer on the Railroad and as a farmer on his father’s farm. He moved to Cheshire County, NH, sometime in the 1920s. He was divorced from his wife and estranged from his teenage son at the time.
Much of the documentation on William’s time in Vermont and New Hampshire can be found in newspaper reports related to criminal activity. In 1920, as a newcomer to the area, Williams threatened a Brattleboro police officer. In 1923, he was found guilty of assaulting a man while living in Richmond, NH, and was sentenced to three months in jail in Manchester, NH. In 1927, he was discovered to be the illegitimate father of a baby in Brattleboro, VT; the mother, white, was married at the time. Williams was arrested a few times for drunk and disorderly conduct over the years.
Working as a laborer doing odd jobs in the 1920s and 1930s, Miller Williams rented a home in Brattleboro while working on jobs on both sides of the Connecticut River. In 1935, he was employed as a laborer on Chickering’s chicken farm in West Chesterfield, NH. By October 1937, Williams had earned enough money to purchase a ½ acre of land in Chesterfield. Unfortunately, within a few years of the purchase, the state of New Hampshire took over 70% of his property by eminent domain in order to construct a state highway, Route 9.
Throughout his life, Williams suffered from alcoholism. On 16 February 1945, he was discovered dead in his cabin by police, who determined it was due to intoxication. He was given a military funeral by the Gordon-Bissell Post of the American Legion and is buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Keene, NH.
Williams’ property remained abandoned. In 1971, someone submitted a petition to quit title against Miller Williams and Linnie WIlliams and unknown heirs of Miller Williams. This most likely meant that someone, perhaps a neighbor, had been paying the taxes on the property once owned by Williams and eventually petitioned to transfer title of the land to them. The property is listed as 718 Route 9, West Chesterfield, NH, in the Cheshire County Registry of Deeds, Vol 834, p238.
SOURCE MATERIALS
Brattleboro Daily Reformer, “Threatens Officer & Pays $10 Fine,” November 23, 1920, p.1- Library of Congress, ChroniclingAmerica.com
Brattleboro Daily Reformer, “Brattleboro Local,” November 24, 1922, p.5- Library of Congress, ChroniclingAmerica.com
Cheshire County Registry of Deeds, Keene, NH: Vol 513, page 427; Vol 494, p185; Vol 519, p131, Vol 834, p238.
Chesterfield Annual Reports, 1937-1945. Historical Society of Cheshire County.
Find-a-Grave
Keene Sentinel, “Brattleboro Man Held for Alleged Assault,” November 22, 1922, p.3.- https://keene.advantage-preservation.com/
Keene Sentinel, “Brattleboro Local,” July 6, 1923, p.3.- https://keene.advantage-preservation.com/
Keene Sentinel, “Chesterfield Man Fined for Driving While Inbrieted,” October 5, 1935, p.4.- https://keene.advantage-preservation.com/
Keene Sentinel, “Real Estate Transfers,” June 17, 1941,p.3.- https://keene.advantage-preservation.com/
Keene Sentinel, “Military Funeral Tomorrow for Miller Williams,” February 20, 1945, p.5.- https://keene.advantage-preservation.com/
New Hampshire, U.S., Death and Disinterment Records, 1945- Ancestry.com
U.S. Federal Census, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940- Ancestry.com
U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1945- Ancestry.com
U.S., Lists of Men Ordered to Report to Local Board for Military Duty, 1918- Ancestry.com
US Social Security Administration application, 1940- Ancestry.com
U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917- Ancestry.com
Vermont Birth Records, Brattleboro, 1927- Ancestry.com
GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY
MILLER WILLIAMS was born in Wilsonville, Taylorsville, Kentucky on September 6, 1886, the son of Lewis and Lennie (Campbell) Miller. He married and had a son prior to 1920. In 1927, he fathered a child in Brattleboro, Vermont. Miller Williams died in Chesterfield, NH, on February 16, 1945.