Micajah Terrell Williams

HON. MICAJAH T, WILLIAMS began his career as Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, Cincinnati. Soon after he became connected with the "Western Spy". During the War of 1812 the editor of that paper, who was a Captain in the Army, lost his life, and Mr. Williams succeeded to the editorship On 3rd Month 12th, 1818, he married Hannah Jones. He served as a Member of the Ohio Legislature, and in the session of 1819 when Governor Ethan Allen Brown in his message called the attention of the Legislature to the necessity of providing some means by which the farmers of the interior could send their produce to Lake Erie, the matter was submitted to a Committee of which Mr. Williams, then a Member from Hamilton County, was Chairman. A Bill was passed authorizing two canals, one from Cleveland to the Ohio River and one from Cincinnati north to Maumee Bay, Micajah T. Williams was Speaker of the Assembly when this Bill was passed. At the end of his term as Speaker he was appointed by the Governor of the State a member of the Board of Canal Commissioners. In 1832 he was appointed by President Jackson Surveyor-General of the Northwest Territory, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of General Lytte. He served as a Director of the Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Company, and later became its President. In 1832 he went to England to negotiate the sale of the Ohio State bonds. As a Democrat he was a candidate of that Party before the Legislature for United States Senator, in opposition to Thomas Ewing, who was chosen to that position by the Whig Party. In 1840 Mr. Williams, when General William Henry Harrison was the Whig candidate for President, united with that Party, giving as his reason his convincement "that the Tariff which the Democratic Party opposed, was a necessity for the People, and that the Democratic Party was much more of a Southern than a National one". During his services as Surveyor-General, Byron Kilbourn was made Surveyor of the Government lands in Wisconsin, and soon after his appointment Mr. Williams said to him in course of conversation : "Somewhere on the western shore of Lake Michigan between Fort Dearborn (now Chicago) and Green Bay there must some day be a great city. As you work along that shore examine it thoroughly, determine where that city will be, and I will join you in the purchase of the land and lay out the city." The mouth of the Milwaukee was chosen, and at the first sale of Government land, the land on the west side of the Milwaukee River was purchased, and soon after the city of Milwaukee was laid out, and at a later period the lots were divided in equal numbers between Mr. Kilbourn and' Mr. Williams. Micajah T. Williams died in 1844 at the age of 52 years.
~ provided by Wendy Robinson
Genealogy of the Williams family: descendants of George Williams
by Richard Jordan Williams,
Publisher: Germantown, Pa, 1908
pg 22

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79072994/micajah-terrell-williams

• Reference: WikiTree Genealogy - SmartCopy: Oct 24 2020, 14:16:12 UTC