By: Sandra (Williams) Kinder (George's daughter, & MCWM Member)

George Grover Williams was born in 1911 and was the son of Union Civil War veteran, Henry Williams, Pvt., Co I, 37th Kentucky Mounted Infantry and Co K, 4th Kentucky Mounted Infantry.  As a child, George grew up in rural Oregon County, Missouri.  He would sit on the lap of his father listening to stories all about the Civil War, stories that he would remember for the rest of his life.  The photo to the left, is George as a little boy, sitting on the lap of his father Henry.

Henry was the oldest of the 14 children of John and Lucinda Williams of Elizabethtown, KY.  Henry told George that when the Civil War began, he wanted to fight for the Union since Abraham Lincoln was born just a few miles from his hometown.  Many in his family did not share his feelings however and ended up supporting the South.  So in 1863 Henry, who was only 15, ran away from home and joined the Union Army at Glasgow, Ky. 

Henry ended up running away two more times before his father finally gave up and let him join the army.  While with the 4th Kentucky in 1864, he saw action in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee. Henry also took part in the liberation of Andersonville Prison Camp in Georgia. George remembered his father telling him all about the horrible conditions he saw there.

Henry Williams, veteran

Henry was discharged on August 17, 1865 in Macon, GA. He boarded a freight train that was packed with starving and diseased soldiers, but he was happy to be going home, the war was finally over.

Many years after the war, Henry moved to southern Missouri and got married in 1900 to Ms. Melvina Parnell who was a midwife.  Henry was fifty-three and Melvina was twenty-two at the time.  They ultimately had five children and George was the last.  Henry was sixty-four when George was born in 1911. Melvina’s father, who was a “Southern sympathizer,” also lived with them. George remembered that the two would get to arguing about the Civil War and would have to go outside to settle their arguments.

Henry had a heart condition later in his life and stayed  at the Old Soldiers Home in St. James, Missouri where he made a living pruning grapevines and cutting hair. He would send the money he made back to his wife and little children. Once Henry started getting his Civil War pension, it made life a lot easier for the family. Henry passed away on the day after his 80th birthday and was buried on George’s 16th birthday in 1927.  Three months later George married Ms. Ruby Belle Price who was only 15 at the time. They had met at a tent revival and fell in love.  According to family legend, which hasn't been verified, Ruby Price was purportedly related to Missouri Confederate General Sterling Price.

George and Ruby were married for 59 years. He did anything to make a living for his family of seven children.  He picked cotton, harvested crops, sold used cars, pumped gas, and welded airplanes at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis.  He retired after thirty two years with McDonnell Douglas and then became a firearms dealer. He always found some way to take care of his family, he was a very good man and a friend to all.

He really enjoyed the last two years of his life mainly because of his friends at the Missouri Civil War Museum and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.  He really had a great time at Jefferson Barracks last year, and really enjoyed his visits with members of the Missouri Civil War Museum.  The renewed interest in his father and the Civil War added so much to his and his family’s lives.