Researching George Williams

Williams was knighted by Queen Victoria in her 1894 Birthday Honours, and he is buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

He is the great-great-grandfather of current British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

In 1875, Williams resigned as U.S. Attorney General under the controversy of his wife allegedly taking payment money from the custom house firm Pratt & Boyd in order to drop litigation by the U.S. Justice Department. After his resignation, Williams took part in counting Florida ballots for Rutherford B. Hayes in settling the controversial presidential election of 1876. Williams returned to Oregon, resumed private law practice, and was elected Portland's mayor, serving two terms from 1902 to 1905. Williams, at the age of 83, was indicted while Mayor of Portland for not enforcing gambling restriction statutes; he was acquitted and served out the rest of his term as mayor. On May 28, 1905, Mayor Williams made a speech at the opening ceremony of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. Williams was the second to last surviving cabinet member of the Grant Administration.

Sometime before 1884 he immigrated to Marquette in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. He was educated there, and began working on the railways at an early age, eventually becoming a General Agent of the Copper Range Railroad.

Williams was a Republican and was a member of the Michigan Senate from 1915 to 1916 for the 32nd district, which comprises Houghton County, Keweenaw County and Ontonagon County. George died March 31, 1934 in Green Bay, WI. He was buried next to his wife, Salina, in Houghton, MI (Daily Mining Gazette-Houghton April 3, 1934 obit.).

He served in the Ohio House of Representatives. In the late 1880s, Williams turned his interest to Europe and Africa. After having been impressed by meeting King Leopold II of Belgium, he traveled in 1890 to the Congo Free State (then owned by the king) to see its development. Shocked by the widespread brutal abuses and slavery imposed on the Congolese, he wrote an open letter to Leopold in 1890 about the suffering of the region's native inhabitants at the hands of the king's agents. This letter was a catalyst for an international outcry against the regime running the Congo, which had caused millions of deaths.

He began farming himself and joined and became an organizer for the Farmers Union of Canada in 1923. He served as president of its successor, the United Farmers of Canada, from 1929 to 1931, and steered it towards political action. Williams brought a militant class struggle perspective to the organization. He was also involved with the Marxist Farmers' Educational League and was founder and secretary of the short-lived Farmers’ Political Association formed in 1924.

In 1932, he and M.J. Coldwell cochaired a convention that brought together the United Farmers of Canada (Saskatchewan Section) and the Independent Labour Party to form the new Farmer-Labour Group (FLG) with Coldwell as party leader. The party was recognized as the unofficial provincial branch of the new Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) shortly after the CCF was formed. The FLG contested the 1934 provincial election. Williams tried to deal with claims by the Liberals and Conservatives that the FLG/CCF in power would expropriate farmers' land in order to collectivize agriculture by stating repeatedly that "the basis of CCF land policy was a recognition of the family farm as the fundamental unit."

The FLG elected five MLAs to the Saskatchewan legislature, including Williams in the constituency of Wadena, and he formed the official opposition to the Liberal government. Coldwell did not win a seat in the legislature and Williams became Leader of the Opposition. The FLG officially affiliated with the national CCF and became the Saskatchewan CCF. In 1935, with Coldwell's election to the House of Commons of Canada, Williams became acting party leader and officially became party leader and president in 1936.

In 1931, Williams had served as a Canadian delegate to the World Wheat Conference and subsequently, under the auspices of the United Farmers of Canada, he visited the Soviet Union. The Soviet tour resulted in accusations that he was a Communist, and some CCFers came to believe he would be unable to take the party to power even after it doubled its share of seats in the 1938 general election under his leadership. The party moderated several of its policies and limited its policy on nationalization of industry to transportation, communications and hydroelectric power.

Williams's style and militancy alienated some party activists, who called on Tommy Douglas, a popular CCF MP in the House of Commons, to take over the provincial party leadership.

In 1941 Williams resigned his seat in the legislature to serve in the Canadian Army during World War II with the rank of Major in the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps. John Hewgill Brockelbank, a Williams loyalist, became the CCF's house leader while Williams retained the party presidency and leadership. Douglas challenged Williams for the position of Saskatchewan CCF president at the 1941 party convention and was elected. In 1942, Douglas was elected party leader. Williams returned to Canada prior to the 1944 Saskatchewan election and helped rally rural support for the party in its successful election campaign. Williams was appointed Minister of Agriculture in the new CCF government, but he resigned in February 1945 for ill health. He died later that year in Vancouver.

Williams played on black teams in mostly-white minor leagues in 1889 and 1890. In 1890, he captained the York Colored Monarchs of the Eastern Interstate League, which was all-white except for the Colored Monarchs and one integrated team. That season, Williams won the league batting title with a .386 average and helped York win the league championship.

Williams played professional baseball until 1892. He was also hired to manage the Cuban Giants in 1897. In 1906, he organized and managed the Wilmington Giants of the racially integrated International League of Independent Professional Base Ball Clubs.

Williams entered the majors in 1961 with the Philadelphia Phillies, playing for them for one year before joining the Houston Colt .45's in 1962 and the Kansas City Athletics in 1964.

In a three season career, Williams was a .230 hitter (31-for-135) with 15 runs and five runs batted in in 59 games including seven doubles without any home runs.

An 11-season minor league veteran, Williams hit .277 with 71 homers and 430 RBI in 1,143 games for 10 teams from 1958 through 1968.

In between, he played for the Leones del Caracas club of the Venezuelan Winter League during the 1966–1967 season.

Williams died from lung cancer in his home city of Detroit at the age of 69.

Williams made a single first-class appearance for Hampshire in 1904, against Somerset.

In 1908 Williams joined Berkshire and represented the county in one Minor Counties Championship match during that season, making his debut against Buckinghamshire. In 1909 Williams played four matches for Berkshire, with his last appearance for the county coming against Wiltshire. After the 1909 season Williams made no further County Cricket appearances.

Williams' father was a Unitarian minister in Ohio. Williams studied at St. Lawrence University (graduated 1936), and Meadville Theological School (graduated 1939). After studies in Paris and Strasbourg he became assistant minister of a Unitarian church in Rockford, Illinois, where he married. From 1941 he taught church history at the Unitarian-affiliated Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, CA, and at the nearby Pacific School of Religion, while studying for his Th.D. completed at Union Theological Seminary, New York (1946). From 1947 he taught at Harvard Divinity School, being appointed Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History from 1956 to 1963. In 1981 he was appointed to the Hollis Chair of Divinity. He was among the original Editorial Advisors of the scholarly journal Dionysius. As a pro-life activist, he became the first chairman of the board of Americans United for Life.

Williams scored 311 points in 1920–21, which was a school record that stood for over 30 years. Regarded by Missouri basketball supporters as one of the greatest centers in program history, he led the Tigers to a two-year cumulative record of 34–2. He is still the only University of Missouri player to be named the national player of the year in men's basketball.

After college, Williams played AAU basketball and won two national championships, first with Lowe & Campbell's in 1922 and then with Kansas City AC Diamonds in 1923.

On February 4, 1961, Williams suffered a heart attack while putting luggage into his car and died later that day.

A number of his works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Works include:* Roosevelt School, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (1905, NRHP 1976)* First United Methodist Church, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (1906, NRHP 1979)* Coeur d'Alene City Hall, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (1908, NRHP 1979)* Coeur d'Alene Masonic Temple, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (1909-11, NRHP 1978)

Williams was born in Auckland in 1856, and did not start playing rugby until the age of 24. He was a member of the Wellington club Poneke, and was selected for Wellington province from the club in 1886, 1887 and 1888.

In early 1888, Joe Warbrick, a member of the 1884 New Zealand team that toured Australia, started planning for a squad of Māori rugby players to tour the British Isles. As Warbrick was scouting for players throughout 1888, his plans changed, and he decided to include a number of Pākehā (European non-Māori) in the side. Eventually five Pākehā were included in the squad of twenty-six, and the side was consequently named the New Zealand Native football team.

At 32, Williams was the oldest player in the team, and only joined a day before their first match. The tour became the longest in rugby history; 107 matches were played during the 14-month tour, which had legs in Australia, the British Isles, and New Zealand. Of these 107 matches, 74 were in the British Isles, and an average of a game every 2.3 days on that leg. Williams played in 53 of these, scoring 12 tries in the process, and captained the team on a number of occasions. In total, Williams played at least 75 matches on tour (a number of team lists are missing).

Williams played in all three of the Natives' "international" matches while on tour; a victory over Ireland, a narrow loss to Wales, and a controversial loss to England.

Williams retired as a player after the tour, but continued to be involved in the game as a referee. Along with two other players, he contributed to tour manager Thomas Eyton's Rugby Football Past and Present, published in 1896, that gave an account of the tour. He contributed a number of article to the New Zealand Truth before the departure of the 1924 All Blacks. Outside of rugby, Williams was a police officer, and was involved in the arrest of the Maori spiritual leader Te Whiti o Rongomai. He served throughout New Zealand, including in Wellington, Hastings, Invercargill and Marlborough.

Williams was born in Roseboro, North Carolina. He attended nearby Lakewood High School, where he played football; he continued to play football at North Carolina State University. Williams played for a total of four years at NC State; while he was not selected in the NFL Draft, he was ultimately signed by the New York Giants. Williams spent a total of three years with the Giants. While he never started a game for the team, he received substantial playing time; he appeared in 29 of the Giants' 32 regular season games in 1999 and 2000. Williams was on the team's roster when they advanced to Super Bowl XXXV, where they lost to the Baltimore Ravens by the lopsided score of 34–7. Following the loss, Williams was released from the team.

Williams ultimately signed with the San Jose SaberCats in May 2002. He was a key component of the SaberCats' mid-2000s run of success; over the seven years of his AFL career, the SaberCats reached four ArenaBowls (winning three). Williams was used mainly as a defensive lineman; at times, however, he was also used as a wide receiver. In 2007, his most productive year as a wide receiver, he caught five passes for 16 yards; all five catches, however, were for touchdowns. Williams' AFL career concluded with the SaberCats' loss to the Philadelphia Soul in ArenaBowl XXII. He finished his career with 78 tackles, 8 sacks, and 2 interceptions.

He retired from the sport in his twenties, though Paul Nihill (an Olympic and European medallist) credited Williams with his successful approach to training methods in the developing sport. Williams published an autobiography, Run, Rabbit, Run, Rabbit, Run, Run, Run, in 2010 covering his sporting exploits. He died on 24 December at the age of 81.