Washburn County WIGenWeb Project

People Histories

Fred W. Williams
(18 Jul 1856 - 05 Jul 1928¹)

-As transcribed from the "COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF THE UPPER LAKES REGION"

by J. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, IL, 1905

pages 406 - 407

Fred W. Williams, foreman of the farms of the Shell Lake Lumber Co., was born in Waite, Washington Co., Maine, July 18, 1856. His parents, Andrew and Margaret (McFarlane) Williams, were natives of the same county, the father being of Welsh descent. Andrew Williams was a farmer. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted in Company G, 6th Maine V. I., dying in the service about a year later. One of his sons, Hiram, enlisted in the same company and was killed in the battle of Bull Run. Mrs. Margaret (McFarlane) Williams is still living in Washington county, Maine, and has reached the age of seventy-eight years. Her parents both lived to a ripe old age, her father, Walter McFarlane, a millwright, who came from Scotland, dying in Maine at the age of eighty-eight, and her mother, Matilda McFarlane, living to be eighty-three.

Fred W. Williams passed his boyhood on the farm. In 1887 he came to Shell Lake and was employed by different lumber companies until 1890, when he entered the employ of the Shell Lake Lumber Company, with which he still remains. Since 1900 he has had charge of the farms of the company, consisting of about 800 acres, on which are employed about twenty men and twenty-four horses. he had a pleasant cottage home in the village of Shell Lake, but is now located at Atlanta.

On Sept. 24, 1896, Mr. Williams was married to Anna Ellecson, who was born in Forest, Fond du Lac Co., Wis., daughter of Seymour and Salome Ellecson. Mr. Ellecson, a native of Krogre, Norway, came to the United States in 1846 and settled two years later in Fond du Lac county, where he lived until 1897, since when he has resided in Chicago. He served three years in Company B, 8th Wis., V. I., during the Civil war. His wife, Salome, who was born in Homer, Cortland Co., N. Y., came to Wisconsin in 1847 with her parents, John and Phoebe Snell. They settled in Fond du Lac county, where Mrs. Snell died and Mr. Snell passed away in Pentwater, Mich., at the age of eighty-nine. Mr. and Mrs. Ellecson have a family of eight children, all of whom are living and married. To Mr. and Mrs. Williams have been born three children, as follows: Roy Allen, Marguerite Salome, and an infant son. Mr. Williams is a charter member of Shell Lake Camp, M. W. A. In politics he is a Republican.

1 - Editorial Note - Fred W. Williams' death date was derived from the Washburn Co. Register of Deeds Death Index. The death record is on file at the Register of Deeds Office in Shell Lake, in Volume 8, page 395. His burial location is unknown. It is also unknown when or where his wife died.