From Rowan County to the Palouse
An orphan who got one day of school walked his family three thousand miles across America — by wagon, by riverboat, and finally by freight team — and ended it at the head of a golden-wedding table on a Washington prairie.
Nicholas Columbus Williams was born in Rowan County, North Carolina in 1826. His mother died when he was about three and his father when he was about eight — nobody was ever certain.
What follows is the story of how that boy came to sit at the head of a decorated table on Pataha Flat in 1898, fifty years married, twice elected a county commissioner, surrounded by eleven children and their children.
Most of what we know comes from his daughter Mettie, who wrote it down.
- Yadkin County Nc
- Johnson County Mo
- Hardin County Ia
- Pataha Prairie
In this arc
Vignette · in From Rowan County to the Palouse
Sent to school for one day, then sent to the fields
He was placed with a family on the understanding that they would send him to school. They sent him once.
1826–1863
Vignette · in From Rowan County to the Palouse
One log house, fifteen feet square, for a family of thirteen
They landed at Wallula in the last days of November 1873. Nine years later the homestead was engraved for a county history.
1873–1882
Vignette · in From Rowan County to the Palouse
Everything taken except one horse they kept in the brush
Order No. 11 emptied five counties. Belinda traded somehow for oxen and took the children out — three weeks on the road, two hundred and fifty miles.
1863–1873
Vignette · in From Rowan County to the Palouse
Three households, one mill, one year
A ledger from the Pataha flour mill, 1889–90, holds accounts for a son and a son-in-law of Nicholas Williams. They paid in wheat.
1889–1890People