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| Alcott, Louisa May | Author |
| Appleton, Frances | Wife of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
| Huntington, Jabez Williams | US Senator, 1840-47 |
| McClellan, General George | Civil War General - Union Army |
| Napoleon | Susan May Williams married Napoleon's great nephew. See this page illustrating this interesting connection |
| Spencer, Lady Diana | See how it is that many Williams descendants claim cousin relationship to Princess Diana through marriages two Parke and one Wise marriages. |
| Warren, General Joseph | Revolutionary war hero and martyr, killed early in war at Bunker Hill. |
| Whitney, Eli | Inventor of the Cotton Gin, progenitor of the interchangeable parts and the industrial revolution. |
| Williams, William | Signer of the Declaration of Independence |
| Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur | The originators of heavier-than-air-powered flight |
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Her father removed to Boston when she was but two years of age and personally conducted her education, assisted by his friend, Henry D. Thoreau. This education, with a short attendance at a young ladies' school, did not possess the practical quality that could be put to ready use in earning a livelihood. When necessity compelled her to support herself, she was obliged to resort to elementary teaching and sewing, and even to house service, and has given some hints of her struggles in a book entitled "Work." The statement that she worked thus to support herself does not bring all the nobility of this fine woman into view. Her efforts were for her family as well as for herself. Every dollar that she could spare from the bare necessities of life went into her home, to assist those she loved.
She began to write stories for weekly journals when she was about twenty years of age, and received a mere pittance compared to that given to authors of established reputation for no better literary work. Sixteen years she lived in this way with just enough success now and then to keep her from becoming altogether discouraged, and then the civil war broke out. She volunteered as a nurse, and was stationed at Georgetown, D.C.
Her first book was inspired by her army experience. It was called "Hospital Sketches," and yielded her the sum of two hundred dollars. She began to write articles for the magazines, and her book had given her a name that gained acceptance for some of her articles, but most of them were returned and, she says, "Consigned to an empty flour barrel." She continued writing short stories for small sums until 1867, when her publishers suggested that she should write a story for girls, and she wrote [p.49] "Little Women." The work occupied her three months, and she offered to sell the manuscript for one thousand dollars. Her publishers, however, induced her to accept a royalty, and she received many thousands of dollars from the sale of this one book. Eighty-seven thousand copies were sold in three years, and the advanced sale of "Little Men," which she wrote soon after, was fifty thousand copies.
"Little Women" established her reputation, and editors of magazines began to solicit contributions instead of declining them. She said she invariably supplied their requests by thrusting her hand into the flour barrel, and sending to the editor the article which he had previously returned "with thanks." Her books were so popular with the young that she could not write them fast enough to supply the demand and it is estimated that she received from them a total of over one hundred thousand dollars. After the publication of her "Life, Letters, and Journals," edited by Ednah D. Cheney, the respect which Miss Alcott had commanded as an author was deepened by the respect felt for her as a woman. This book revealed a personality that was greater than her work; it showed a life deeply and simply religious, void of cant and capable of unselfish living.
Her publications are: "Flower Fables or Fairy Tales" (1855); "Hospital Sketches" (1869); "An Old-Fashioned Girl" (1869); "Little Men" (1871); "Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag," series (1871-'82); "Work: A story of Experience" (1873); "Eight Cousins" (1874); "Rose in Bloom" (1876); "Silver Pitchers" (1876); "Under the Lilacs" (1878); "Jack and Jill" (1880); "Moods" (1864, revised edition 1881); "Proverb Stories" (1882); "Spinning-Wheel Stories" (1884); and "Lulu's Library" (1885).
She died on the day her father was buried, March 6, 1888 of Boston Mass."
The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume I, page 49
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The Williams lineage of Frances Appleton follows. She died a tragic death. Her dress caught fire from candle drippings and she died from the burns so suffered. Her famous husband, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is related to me via John Lathrop - See Longfellow's Lathrop line.
Frances is part of an interesting network of Appleton connections. Her first cousin, Samuel Appleton, married a daughter of Daniel Webster. A daughter from that marriage married a xg-nephew of Napoleon. (That nephew was also of Robert Williams descent.) A second cousin, Jean Means Appleton, married President Franklin Pierce. See the William-Napoleon Connection Page for more.
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Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949, page 1353
The Williams lineage of Jabez Williams Huntington is:
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| Book First -- The Confederation
Chapter 1 A Retrospect, Early Movements Toward Union On the eleventh of November able representatives from each of the four New England states and New York -- John T. Gilman of New Hampshire, Thomas Cushing, Azor Orne, and George Partridge of Massachusetts, William Bradford of Rhode Island, Eliphalet Dyer and William Williams of Connecticut, John Sloss Hobart and Egbert Benson of New York -- assembled at Hartford. The lead in the convention was taken by the delegates from New York, Hobart, a judge of its supreme court, and Benson, its attorney-general. At their instance it was proposed, as a foundation for a safe system of finance, to provide by taxes or duties a certain and inalienable revenue, to discharge the interest on any funded part of the public debt, and on future loans. As it had proved impossible to get at the valuation of lands, congress should be empowered to apportion taxes on the states according to their number of inhabitants, black as well as white. They then prepared a circular letter to all the states, in which they said: "Our embarrassments arise from a defect
in the present government of the United States. All government supposes
the power of coercion; this power, however, never did exist in the general
government of the continent, or has never been exercised. Under these circumstances,
the resources and force of the country can never be properly united and
drawn forth. The states individually considered, while they endeavor to
retain too much of their independence, may finally lose the whole. By the
expulsion of the enemy we may be emancipated from the tyranny of Great
Britain; we shall, however, be without a solid hope of peace and freedom
unless we are properly cemented among ourselves."
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1 Robert Williams 1608 - 1693 .. +Elizabeth Stalham 1602 - 1674 . 2 Isaac Williams 1638 - 1708 ..... +Martha Parke 1642 - 1675 .... 3 William Williams 1670 - ........ +Christian Stoddard 1670 - ........ 4 Solomon Williams 1700 - ............ +Mary Porter 1700 - ........... 5 William Williams 1731 - 1811 ............... +Mary Trumbull 1745 - 1831 |
See:
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