Tulare County Biographies

ALPHEUS C. WILLIAMS

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
The present supervisor of the Third District of Tulare county, Cal., A. C. 
Williams, who lives at No. 420 N. Church street, Visalia, was born in Dent 
county, Mo., November 24, 1868, and after leaving school became connected with 
the train department of the St. Louis and San Francisco railroad.
It was in 1891 that Mr. Williams came to California. Locating at Tulare city, he 
worked on different ranches near there for three years, then moved to six 
hundred and forty acres of land east of Visalia, where he engaged in grain 
farming, in which he was successful for some years. In 1903 he established the 
Visalia Feed,
Fuel & Storage Co., an enterprise which under his management became one of the 
most important of its kind in Central California. For a considerable period he 
has been prominently identified with local political affairs and in 1908 he was 
elected supervisor to represent the Third District of Tulare county, and it is 
worthy of note that he was the first Republican elected to that office by that 
constituency. How well he has served in that important capacity his fellow 
citizens well know and his record for efficiency and integrity is a most 
enviable one. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows.
In 1893 Mr. Williams married Miss Mary Ellen Goad, daughter of John C. and C. 
Odele (DeBolt) Goad, the former of whom was born in Madisonville, Hopkins 
county, Ky. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Williams, Ellen M. and 
Alpheus C., Jr. Mrs. Williams' father came across the plains to California in 
the early '60s, and lived in Nevada county until 1873, when he came to Tulare 
county and located on a ranch eight miles northeast of Visalia. He was one of 
the most prominent ranchers in the neighborhood of old Venus until his death, 
which occurred September 25, 1905. When he was twenty-one he joined the Masonic 
order and was popular in those circles. His wife, whom he married in Grass 
Valley, Nevada county, was a native of Ohio and passed away April 25, 1906. They 
were the parents of the following children: Pearl, Anna G. and Frank A., all 
deceased; J. E. Goad, of San Diego, the only living son; and Mary Ellen, who is 
now Mrs. Williams.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, pp. 627-628