Reuel Williams Collection

Collection

Identifier: SpC MS 0934-sc

Staff Only

Scope and Contents Note

A collection relating to a U.S. Senator from Maine. Included are a guest book used by Reuel Williams covering the years 1841 to 1847, a letter from Helen Augusta Williams Gilman dated July 4, 1847 in Augusta to her husband Dr. John T. Gilman in Portland, Maine in which she describes the Fourth of July celebrations in Augusta and the visit of President Polk and Secretary of State Buchanan, and a transmittal letter from John T. G. Nichols to Muriel Sanford in November 1991 which relates his relationship to Reuel Williams and his great grandparents Dr. John Taylor Gilman and Helen Augusta Williams Gilman.

Dates

1841-1991
Majority of material found within 1841-1847

Access Restrictions

No restrictions on access.

Use Restrictions

Information on literary rights available in the repository.

Biographical Note

Reuel Williams, a Senator from Maine, was born in Hallowell, Maine, June 2, 1783. He attended Hallowell Academy, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1804 and commenced practice in Augusta, Maine. He was a member of the State legislature 1812-1829, 1832, and 1848. He was elected February 22, 1837, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Ether Shepley and served from March 4, 1837, to February 15, 1843, when he resigned. He died in Augusta, Maine, on July 25, 1862.

Helen Augusta Williams Gilman was a daughter of Reuel Williams who later married Dr. John Taylor Gilman, a founder of the Maine General Hospital which became the Maine Medical Center in Portland.

John T. G. Nichols was the great, great grandson of Reuel Williams.