Gardner D. Williams
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Gardner D. Williams | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Michigan House of Representatives from the Saginaw County district | |
| In office November 2, 1835 – January 1, 1837 | |
| In office January 6, 1840 – January 3, 1841 | |
| Member of the Michigan Senate from the 6th district | |
| In office January 6, 1845 – January 3, 1847 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 9, 1804 |
| Died | December 11, 1858 (aged 54) |
| Party | Democratic |
Gardner Davenport Williams (September 9, 1804 – December 11, 1858) was an American politician who served two terms in the Michigan Senate and two terms in the Michigan House of Representatives.
Gardner Williams was born in Concord, Massachusetts on September 9, 1804.[1][2] He was the son of Major Oliver Williams and Mary Lee.[3]
Oliver Williams left his family in Concord and went to Detroit in 1807 to work as a merchant, bringing with him $64,000 ($1.41 million in 2025) in goods to trade. He built a sloop named Friends Good Will and was returning to Mackinac Island from Chicago on a government-chartered voyage when his vessel was captured by the British, who had taken Mackinac Island while he was away.[4] He was taken as a prisoner of war and later paroled to Detroit; his vessel was armed by the British and renamed Little Belt. It was later recaptured by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie and is the sloop Perry referenced in his report, "We have met the enemy and they are ours: Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop."[5]
Following the war, Oliver Williams moved his family to Detroit, arriving on November 5, 1815.[4] He opened the Yankee Hotel on his property at Jefferson Avenue and Bates Street and ran it for several years.[6] The family moved again, to Silver Lake, Michigan, in 1819, with Oliver Williams cutting a road through the wilderness, driving the first team of horses from Detroit to Pontiac, and settling in the frontier village of Waterford, Michigan.[3]
Starting in 1827, Gardner Williams moved to Saginaw, Michigan and went into the Indian trade with his brother Ephraim, as an agent of the American Fur Company.[2][7] He spoke the Chippewa dialect fluently.[8] Alexis de Tocqueville visited the Williams brothers' store on his visit to Saginaw in 1831.[9] The Williams brothers hired their cousin Harvey to build the first sawmill on the Saginaw River in 1834.[10]
Williams married Elizabeth Beach in 1829.[11] They had three sons. His wife survived him and died on September 27, 1862.[12] Accounts also indicate he may have had at least one daughter by a Native American woman.[13]