William Sherley "Old Bill" Williams (January 3, 1787 – March 14, 1849) was a noted

mountain man A mountain man is an Geographical exploration, explorer who lives in the wilderness and makes his living from hunting, fishing and trapping. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s ...

and

frontiersman A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. Australia The term "frontier" was frequently used in colonial Australia in the meaning of country that borders the unknown or uncivilised, the ...

, known as Lone Elk to the Native Americans. Fluent in several languages, Williams served as an interpreter for the government and led several expeditions to the West. He married into the

Osage Nation The Osage Nation ( ) () is a Midwestern Native American nation of the Great Plains. The tribe began in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 1620 A.D along with other groups of its language family, then migrated west in the 17th cen ...

, having two children who both married

John Allen Mathews John Allen Mathews (1809 - September 19, 1861) was an American frontiersman and slave owner who settled among the Osage Nation and later advocated and died for the Confederate States of America. Early life and family John Allen Mathews was a nativ ...

Early life and education

Old Bill Williams statue in Williams Arizona

Williams was born on January 3, 1787, on Horse Creek, a branch of the

Pacolet River The Pacolet River is a tributary of the Broad River, about 50 miles (80 km) long, in northwestern South Carolina in the United States.Polk County, North Carolina Polk County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,328. Its county seat is Columbus. History The county was formed in 1855 from parts of Henderson and Rutherford counties. It w ...

, into a Welsh family. He was the fourth of nine children born to Joseph Williams and Sarah Musick. Sarah's family was from Virginia. Joseph was from North Carolina and served seven years in the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

, receiving a 274-acre land grant on Horse Creek in North Carolina as pay. In 1794 the family sold the land and moved west to

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

, then part of

Spanish Louisiana Louisiana (, ), was a province of New Spain from 1762 to 1801. It was primarily located in the center of North America encompassing the western basin of the Mississippi River plus New Orleans. The area had originally been claimed and controlle ...

. He learned reading, writing, and math from his parents, and received at least one year of formal schooling. As a child, he liked to explore and learned to trap animals for their furs, and found he had a gift for languages. At seventeen he left home to be a travelling

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

preacher and after seven years switched to fur trapping.

Career

Williams was a master

fur trapper A fur is a Softness, soft, thick growth of hair that covers the skin of almost all mammals. It consists of a combination of oily #Guard hair, guard hair on top and thick #Down hair, underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching t ...

and trail guide, becoming fluent in several Native American languages among the tribes he knew the best. His ability to communicate in the different languages made him valuable to the government and tribes for negotiations.

Life among the Osage

During the 1810s and 1820s, he lived with the Osage Indians in Missouri. While residing with the Osage people he became fluent in their language, created an

Osage language Osage (; Osage: ''Wažáže ie'') is a Siouan language spoken by the people of the Osage Nation in northern Oklahoma. Their original territory was in the present-day Ohio River Valley, which they shared with other Siouan language nations. Slow ...

dictionary, and helped translate the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

into Osage. He also worked for the United States as an Indian agent starting around 1813. In 1821, he assisted in negotiations between the Cherokee and Osage to end a war that had broken out. He was called "Red-Headed Shooter" by the Osage and left after the death of his wife in 1825.

Marriage and children

Williams married A-Ci'n-Ga, a full-blood Osage woman whose name translates to "Wind Blossom", circa 1813. A-Ci'n-Ga was a member of the Big Hill band and the Buffalo clan. He courted her in the traditional Osage fashion, gifting her parents

horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 milli ...

and asking their consent for the marriage. They had two children: Mary Ann Williams, born in 1814; and Sarah Williams, born in 1816. After A-Ci'n-Ga's death between 1819 and 1825, he sent his two daughters to

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

where they met

. Mary Ann married Mathews in the mid-1830s and after her death in 1843, Mathews married her sister Sara. Williams great-grandson through Sara is John Joseph Mathews.

Travels West

In 1824 he was issued a license to trade with the

Kickapoo tribe The Kickapoo people (; Kickapoo: Kiikaapoa or Kiikaapoi; ) are an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe and Indigenous people in Mexico, originating in the region south of the Great Lakes. There are three federally recognized Kickapoo tr ...

. From 1825 to 1826 he served as part of a survey of the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the ...

. He was hired by the survey's Commissioners George C. Sibley, Benjamin Harrison Reeves, and Pierre Menard, alongside

Joseph R. Walker Joseph R. Walker (December 13, 1798 – October 27, 1876) was a mountain man and experienced scout. He established the segment of the California Trail, the primary route for the emigrants to the gold fields during the California gold rush, fr ...

and Joseph C. Brown, to be part of a survey of the trail. They followed a route from

Fort Osage Fort Osage (also known as Fort Clark or Fort Sibley) was an early 19th-century factory trading post run by the United States Government in western Missouri on the American frontier; it was located in present-day Sibley, Missouri. The Treaty ...

to Santa Fe. During the expedition he was an interpreter for a treaty with the Osage signed on August 10, 1825; he also witnessed a treaty with the

Kaw people The Kaw Nation (or Kanza or Kansa) is a federally recognized Native American tribe in Oklahoma and parts of Kansas. The Kaw people historically lived in the central Midwestern United States. They have also been called the "People of the Sou ...

on August 16, 1825. Biographer Alpheus Hoyt Favour notes that it is hard to distinguish myth from fact between the years of 1825 and 1841 in Williams life. He definitely traveled the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

and may have married a Spanish woman and had a child, but Favour notes there is scant evidence. Similar stories exist about him marrying a

Ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute people, a Native American people of the Great Basin * Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah * Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah * Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern ...

woman and being adopted by the tribe, but Favour is skeptical due to the lack of evidence; however, Williams was definitely fond of and close with some

Ute people Ute () are an Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin, Indigenous people of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau in present-day Utah, western Colorado, and northern New Mexico.Pritkzer''A Native American Encyclopedia'' p. 242 Historically, their t ...

. In the fall of 1832,

Albert Pike Albert Pike (December 29, 1809April 2, 1891) was an American author, poet, orator, editor, lawyer, jurist and Confederate States Army general who served as an List of justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court, associate justice of the Arkansas Supr ...

created a pen sketch of Williams while the two were traveling together. In 1833-1834, he accompanied

on his expedition to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Other members of the expedition included

Benjamin Bonneville Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville (; April 14, 1796 – June 12, 1878) was an American officer in the United States Army, fur trapper, and explorer in the American West. He is noted for his expeditions to the Oregon Country and the Great Basi ...

Joseph Meek Joseph Lafayette Meek (February 9, 1810 – June 20, 1875) was an American pioneer, mountain man, law enforcement official, and politician in the Oregon Country and later Oregon Territory of the United States. A trapper involved in the fur tr ...

, Alexis Godey, Antoine Janis, William Craig, George Nidever, and Zenas Leonard. Historian Michael Snyder noted that during this expedition he showed "utter disregard" for the lives of Indians. In the fall of 1840, he went trapping with

Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent and United States Army, U.S. Army officer. He became an American frontier legend in his own lifetime ...

and other trappers near the Green River. He spent 1841 and 1843 on expeditions to the Northwest and New Mexico. Historian Michael Snyder, an

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

professor and

citizen, noted Williams's reputation declined as he aged. He wrote "Old Bill degenerated as he aged, becoming increasingly dirty, drunk, and dishonorable." In one instance he's claimed to have killed 25 innocent Indians and he frequently stole horses from

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

missions during his expeditions.

Frémont's Fourth Expedition and death

In November 1848,

John C. Fremont John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

hired Williams to guide his ill-fated fourth expedition through the

Southern Rocky Mountains The Southern Rocky Mountains are a major subregion of the Rocky Mountains of North America located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming, the central and western portions of Colorado, the northern portion of New Mexico, and ext ...

. Fremont sought to find a railroad route through the Rockies along the

38th parallel north Following are circles of latitude between the 35th parallel north and the 40th parallel north: 36th parallel north The 36th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 36 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Africa, th ...

. Williams warned Fremont against following his intended route through the La Garita Mountains in winter, but Fremont proceeded with his 35 men and 150 mules. The expedition eventually became hopelessly mired in deep snow and 11 men and all but a few of the pack animals died. Williams led a rescue party south towards

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art colony founded in Taos, New Mexico ** Taos Pueblo, a Native American ...

, and the survivors of the expedition eventually managed to follow. In March, Williams and Dr. Benjamin Kern returned to the La Garita Mountains in hopes of finding more survivors. On March 14, 1849, Ute warriors killed Bill Williams and Dr. Kern in the mountains for trespassing on Ute lands.

Honors

"Old Bill" is portrayed in an 8-foot-tall

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

sculpture by B. R. Pettit, erected in 1980 in Bill Williams Monument Park in

Williams, Arizona Williams () is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County, Arizona, United States, located west of Flagstaff, Arizona, Flagstaff. Its population was 3,023 at the 2010 census. It lies on the routes of U.S. Route 66 in Arizona#Historic Ro ...

, a town named after him. Bill Williams Mountain and the

Bill Williams River The Bill Williams River is a river in west-central Arizona where it, along with one of its tributaries, the Santa Maria River, form the boundary between Mohave County to the north and La Paz County to the south.''Arizona Atlas & Gazetteer,'' ...

in Arizona, and Bill Williams Peak and the

Williams Mountains The Williams Mountains are a subrange of the Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada. The mountains are located in Pitkin County, Colorado. The apex of the range is Bill Williams Peak located east of Aspen, Colorado ...

in Colorado are named for him. The Bill Williams Mountain Men of Williams, Arizona, founded in 1953, are named after him.

Notes

References

Works cited

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Old Bill 1787 births 1849 deaths American fur traders Mountain men People from Polk County, North Carolina Mathews family (Osage Nation) American people of Welsh descent