Description

Larkin Williams and his brother Hamilton Williams both owned land on the southern side of what would become Tyson Research Center. They were part of the large Williams family that had a significant presence in Missouri during the early 1800s. This family was also known to have sympathy toward the Confederates during the Civil War and were likely enslavers.

Bio

Larkin Williams was born in 1805 to Thomas Williams and Jemima Carter of Greene County, Tennessee. In 1819, when Larkin was 14, the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Jemima died in 1828 and Thomas remarried in 1828 to Ruth Todd, with whom he had at least nine more children.

Larkin Williams married Mary Sipp, and the two settled on a farm in the Meramec River valley, between Fenton and Valley Park, MO. The road they lived on was later named Larkin Williams Road and carries that name to this day. A school named the Larkin Williams School was also located near the property, although it no longer exists. These names are a result of Larkin Williams’ contributions to his civic, school, and church communities. He was active in one of the earliest Methodist congregations near Fenton and also one of the charter members of the Fenton Chapter of the Masonic Lodge.

Larkin Williams owned land on what is now the south side of Tyson’s property alongside his younger brother, Hamilton C. Williams.

In 1887, Larkin Williams died at age 82. He was buried in the family cemetery on his farm. The farm’s 300 acres were divided among his five children after his death.

Williams was a common last name at the time, and due to this, records of enslavement for the family have not clearly been identified. In 1850, a “Master Williams Estate” enslaved two girls aged 15 and 17, and a 9-year-old boy. Additionally, family records state that “the Williams leaned to the side of the South during [the] Civil War”.

Birth Date

1805

Death Date

1887

Sex

Male

Keywords

Tyson landowner

Child of

Thomas Williams

Jemima Carter

Spouse of

Mary Sipp

Sibling of

Hamilton C. Williams

Enslaver

No records of relation to enslavement yet identified