Rev. Mr. Joshua O. Williams, of Marshall, Texas, is one of those ministers who set education ahove riches and placed learning as the only true foundation of genuine achievements. To him no hardships were too severe, no privation too sharp, if only he could make his way into the schools to drink from the fount of knowledge. Mr. Williams is in hone and fibre a Texan. He was born at Montgomery, Montgomery County, Texas. He appeared for advanced work in the public schools of his native county and town. From the public schools of Montgomery County he went to the State Normal School, to Prairie Normal and Industrial Institute, at Prairie View. From Prairie View he went to Wiley University, at Marshall. Here he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, and completed in a fair measure all of the courses Texas could give him for his particular purpose in life. He had long before made up his mind to enter the ministry. He had been converted and had joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. Leaving Marshall he entered Gammon Theological Seminary, at Atlanta, Georgia, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. He spent some time as a school teacher both in Georgia and in his native State. However, his great work has been done in his chosen calling, the ministry. This too, like the most of his schooling, has been done in Texas. He has held some of the largest appointments in the Texas Methodist Episcopal Conference. Among these are numbered Ebenezer, at Marshall, Texas ; Mount Vernon, at Houston, Texas ; Tabernacle, at Galveston, Texas ; Trinity, at Houston, Texas, and the District Superintendent of Paris, Texas. Recognized as a leader and an unselfish worker, he has been placed at the head of many organizations in his state. He has been president of the Preachers' Aid Society, of the Texas Conference ; president of the Board of Trustees of his alma ma ter. Wiley University; president, and this in the business world, of the Boley Light and Power Company of Boley. Oklahoma. Boley it will be re membered, is a Negro town. He was a member of the last General Conference, which met at Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1916. He has traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to the Gulf, and into Canada. He is a Knight of Py thias, a member of the Mosiac Templars and of the Court of Calanthe. In these bodies, as in the church and in business organizations, he is regarded by his fellows as a man of universal power and leadership. Rev. Williams has twice been married. The first Mrs. Williams was Miss Katie Kendall, of Atlanta, Georgia. They were married in 1894. To them three children one son and two daughters were born. But only two are living. The mother her self soon passed away. Rev. Williams was married the second time to Miss Lenora B. Green, of Galveston, Texas. They were married in 1900. There are two children in the Williams home, a young lady and a young man. Through these the father is establishing a family tradition, as it were, by sending them along the paths which he trod, both in education and in vocation. Miss Lillian Katy Williams, the daughter, is a student at Wiley University, like her father years ago, she is a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Robert M. Williams, the son, has already run the early gauntlet in preparing for a career. Like his father back there in the eighties, he is now a student at Gammon Theological Seminary, and is a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. Rev. Williams own a handsome residence in Marshall, Texas, has valuable property in Houston, and owns an apple farm in the State of Washington. Sketch from The National cyclopedia of the colored race; (1919-) Author: Richardson, Clement, b. 1878

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