Owen County Williams:Information about Solomon Williams
Solomon Williams (b. 06 Sep 1887, d. 17 Jul 1959)
Notes for Solomon Williams:Sol started work at Indianapolis Power and Light about 1928.
Burial:Riverside Cemetary, Spencer Owen County, Section B.
Notes from a conversation between Dean and Pam while driving/filming video of cemeteries in Owen County -- probably summer of 1990.
*Sol never owned a car.
*Dean and Sol never really got along.
*When Dean was a boy, he and Byron Ooley were forced by their dads to help carry a wooden cross to the top of a hill and help the men raise it.Then they were told to go back down the hill and wait in the buggy.The men put hoods on and sang "Old Rugged Cross" and went up the hill to burn the cross.The point of this KKK activity was to scare away a Catholic family who had moved to Owen County.The family's name was Beck and they had twin girls.Dean told this story with a lot of resentment and anger -- and disdain for his father.
Thomas Arthur (hisgrandfather) came home in June from fighting in the war.When he came home he took a bath in karosene and lard to kill the lice.
* Dean's best buddy was Fred Duling.Fred was the youngest son of Pearl Arthur Duling, Maud's younger sister.
*Sol was Railroad welder/blacksmith type.Iron stuff for Pennsylvania RR, then for IPALCO.
*Then he started a restaurant. (Some called it an ice cream parlor.)Then went to blacksmithwork, then RR.
* Sol sawed logs for Tom Smith (only about 5'5" and his wife was 6', no kids), then when Tom sold lumber and paid his men, he would have a poker game.Sol lost all the money.Dean commented that this guy (Tom) was the first in Freedom to have a car.
* Dean told story about Sol cutting ice on White River all winter for storage, then sell it in summer months.Perhaps for this same Tom Smith?anyway, same story about getting paid finally for all the work and blowing it all in poker.
*Dean says took Maude 2 or 3 years after the family moved to Indy and Sol started working for IPALCO to pay off all the credit they had had to use for food and necessities at Dyer's store.
*At a different time I remember Dean telling me that Sol's job at IPALCO was 'cleaning out the effluviam from the discharge pipes into White River.'
*Mom tells a story told to her by someone she and Dad talked to a a party of IPALCO retirees.This person knew Sol.He said he saw Sol supervising some black men digging a ditch.Then he saw Sol down in the ditch doing some digging himself, with the zipper on his pants unzipped.The man told Sol and Sol's reply(as told to Mom) was "If I'm going to work like a horse, I might as well look like one."
One story is that after Grandma died, Doris, Kat, and Huldah decided the house needed to be cleaned. They went down and cleaned, painted, reburbished the drapes etc.Sol told them not to come back if they were going to mess things up so much and stay so long.He didn't like his routine interrupted.
Another story is after Maude died, Sol liked to have his buddies over to hang around the house.Anyway, the story goes that he had some cronies over to drink andplay cards, and that one old coot laid down on the couch and died.Sol never told anyone.Dean just found out a long time after 'through the grapevine'.
ASK someone -- did Sol have any high school or trade learning?how -- when did he learn about 'iron stuff'?
IPALCO had a semi-pro baseball team and Sol was the catcher -- the lore says he was quite good.He fingers were curled and crippled from being broken so often.Dean also played the catcher position until he got 'too tall'.
From John's visit, 8-31-96
He said that Sol always wore long johns -- summer and winter.Probably originally white but usually sort of dirty looking.John also told a story about Sol when Sol worked at IPALCO.Said that they needed to have 'cooling rods' disassembled, cleaned and put back together.But they had no blue prints of any kind and no engineer to help do the work.Everyone was amazed when Sol took them apart -- a zillion pieces everywhere--cleaned them and then reassembled them without trouble. by himself.
Per Huldah: 1-29-98
Sol once took some woman to the hospital and had her sign in as Mrs. Solomon Williams; talk about scandal!!I'm sure Maude was humiliated beyond belief.He was a real ladies man when he was older.Huldah also said that they were burned out of their homes twice.Ask Dean?
More About Solomon Williams:
Date born 2: 06 Sep 1887, Owen, Indiana, USA.621
Died 2: 17 Jul 1959, Owen, Indiana, USA.621
Fact 1: Sol was 19 when Ken was born.
Fact 2: Sol was 23 when Doris was born.
Fact 3: Sol was 26 when Dean was born.
Fact 4: Sol was 33 when Kat was born.
Fact 5: Sol was 36 when Huldah was born.
Fact 6: Sol was 41 when Fred was born.
Fact 7: Sol's mom died when Sol was 5:raised by ?.
More About Solomon Williams and Maude Arthur:
Marriage: 24 Feb 1906, Owen County, Indiana, USA.622
Marriage Notes for Solomon Williams and Maude Arthur:It was always known that Sol was a Democrat and Maude a Republican.Fought about it.Per Huldah 1-98
Children of Solomon Williams and Maude Arthur are:
- Kenneth Arthur Williams, b. 22 Aug 1907, d. 1932, Owen County, Indiana, USA.
- +Doris Pauline Williams, b. 19 Jan 1911, Owen County, Indiana, USA, d. 24 Aug 1997, Jonesboro, Clayton Coumty, Georgia, USA.
- +Walter Dean Williams, b. 23 Sep 1913, Owen County, Indiana, USA, d. date unknown, Spencer, Owen County, Indiana, USA.
- +Lois Kathleen Williams.
- +Huldah Irene Williams.
- +Frederick Leland Williams.