William A. Williams

Hymn writer not to be confused with Welsh hymn writer William Williams (2) Born on May 30, 1854, Bealls­ville, Ohio and died: May 6, 1938, Cam­den, New Jer­sey. Buried at Ce­dar Hill Ce­me­te­ry, Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia. William was the son of Elam Will­iams and Eliz­a­beth Sar­ah Mc­Kit­rick, and hus­band of Ma­ry Eliz­a­beth Lan­ning. He studied at the West­ern Se­mi­na­ry, Al­le­ghe­ny, Penn­syl­van­ia, and was li­censed by the Clairs­ville Pres­by­te­ry in 1880. He gra­du­ated from Frank­lin Col­lege, New Ath­ens, Ohio, in 1876, and re­ceived his Doc­tor of Di­vi­ni­ty de­gree from Scio Col­lege in 1888. Starting in 1881, he taught Greek and Eng­lish lang­uage and li­ter­a­ture at Frank­lin Col­lege, and served as the col­lege’s pre­si­dent, 1887–1901. Co­py­right records state he was liv­ing in War­nock, Ohio, in 1892. Williams was or­dained by the St. Clairs­ville Pres­by­te­ry, and served in nu­mer­ous ap­point­ments: Pas­tor, Con­cord, Ohio Pastor, West Brook­lyn, Ohio Pastor, Pow­hat­tan Point, Ohio (1885–96) Pastor, Mounds­ville, West Vir­gin­ia (1896–1901) Sup­ply preach­er for con­gre­ga­tions at Al­len Grove and Lime­stone, Sha­dy­side, Ohio (1901–02) Pastor, Cross Creek and Two Ridg­es con­gre­ga­tions, near Steu­ben­ville, Ohio (1902–04) Pastor, Al­li­son Park con­gre­ga­tion, De Ha­ven, Penn­syl­van­ia (1904–08) Pastor, Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia (1908)