William Sherley Williams (1787 - 1849)

Born 3 Jan 1787 in Rutherford, North Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Died 14 Mar 1849 at age 62 in Colorado

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Biography

William Sherley Williams was a primitive Baptist preacher, called to the Osage Indians of Missouri. He lived in a teepee and married Windblossom. After Windblossom died, "Old Bill Williams" was recruited in Pueblo Colorado and served as an Indian guide for John C. Fremont in his Fourth Expedition..

William was a master trapper, Indian fighter and explorer. (See book by Alpheus H. Favour, copyright 1936. N.C. Historical Marker near Columbus, NC. 1). He became better known as "Old Bill Williams." "Old Bill" was a battle worn, drunken gambler who rode his mule jockey-style with the stirrups high, dressed in buckskin and Shoshone face paint.

Fremont was loosing faith that his seasoned guide, Alexis Godey, would have sufficient knowledge of passes across the Rocky Mountains. "Old Bill" was willing to take the risks in spite of an expected cruel winter. Later Old Bill wrote: " I wanted to go one way and Fremont will go another, and right here our troubles will commence." (from diaries of Charles Preuss).

Fremont was exploring a route for the first trans-continental railroad between the 37th and 38th parallels. The Expedition included the well connected Philadelphia physician Dr. Benjamin Jordan Kern and his two artist brothers, Edward "Ned" Kern and Richard Kern.

In mid November 1848 Fremont with 33 (unpaid) men left Bents Old Fort near La Junta, Colorado. They arrived in the San Luis Valley via Mosca Pass on December 3rd and were in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains at the Great Sand Dunes on the fourth. They had frozen; bitter cold winter conditions at the Rio Grande del Norte at Monte Vista (nearly 8000 feet elevation), December 8, 1848. By the 11th the exploring party had reached South Fork. The next day they loaded the hungry and dying mules and "made a right turn" into Alder Creek to begin the climb and fateful journey high into the La Garita Mountains.

By the Spring of 1849, twelve men of the Expedition had died of starvation, hypothermia and murder; newlywed Henry King of St. Louis was cannibalized near La Jara Creek. Thomas Breckenridge shot a deer near the Conejos River and saved the Relief Party from certain death. Only 22 of the 34 men survived the ordeal and disaster of The Fourth Expedition. Even Christopher 'Kit' Carson sick at his home in Taos, New Mexico, who Fremont had hoped to hire as guide in Fort el Pueblo (Colorado, on Arkansas River), didn't recognize his old leader and other comrades on the fourth expedition.

In March of 1849, Old Bill, Ned Kern and several Mexican packers had branched off from the group to retrieve the records and equipment they had cached many weeks earlier in desperation to lessen the load. On fate filled day, March 13th, 1849, a nearby Ute camp was attacked by a small detachment of the young Lieutenant Joseph Whittlesey who had orders to seek and chastise the Utes for recent outrages. Ten of the Utes men and about twenty horses were killed and the remaining Utes were driven away. Twelve of these Ute refugees, burning with rage, had stumbled upon Dr. Kern and Old Bill Williams that night or early the next morning and executed their revenge.

"Old Bill Williams" and Dr. Benjamin Kern were murdered by Ute Indians in the San Juan mountains, near what is now known as the junction of Embargo Creek & Rio Grande near South Fork in southern Colorado.

"Old Bill", had actually been a blood brother by adoption of the Utes that killed them, however, they had not recognized him due the lack of nourishment. When the Utes eventually realized that it was Old Bill, they "gave him a chief's burial, mourning for him as they would their own." Ben's thin body would have shared no such ritual.["In the Shadow of Fremont..." Pg 66."]

"Old Bill" was a Mountain Man of great proportions. All those interested should read about him at the Mountain Man web site.

The Fremont trails have been searched by archeologists It is easy for the historian to be lured into this research.

Burial

Mountain View Cemetery, Williams, Coconino County, Arizona, US^[1]

Source

1. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6699165/william-sherley-williams: accessed 11 July 2023), memorial page for William Sherley Williams (3 Jan 1787–14 Mar 1849), Find A Grave: Memorial #6699165, citing Mountain View Cemetery, Williams, Coconino County, Arizona, USA; Maintained by The Missing Link (contributor 46924872).

Old Bill Williams, Mountain Man by Alpheus Hoyt Favour (see Google Archives).

In the Shadow of Fremont: Edward Kern and the Art of American Exploration, 1845-1860. Second edition. By Robert V. Hine. Univ of Oklahoma Press; Reprint, Subsequent edition (November 1, 1982).

World Connect

Biography by Vaughan Family Org

Rev War Pension Application based on service of Joseph Williams

Of note are the WikiTree profiles that indicate Lewis family ancestry.

on Expedition

Charles Preuss