Biographical Sketch of

John Jacob Shibeley

Transcribed by Sandra Boudrou for the Marquette Co WI Pages


Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin, 
published 1890 by Acme Publishing Co., Chicago, Pages 776 - 777 


William D. Williams, wholesale dealer in general produce, Berlin, Wis., is a native of North Wales and was born 
in Carnarvonshire, April 1, 1844.  His parents, David D. and Ann (Evans) Williams, were also natives of the same 
country, as were their ancestors for many generations.  Our subject came to America with his parents in 1851, 
when in his seventh year.  The family chose Wisconsin as the scene of its future operations and settled on a farm 
in the town of Randolph, Columbia County, where David Williams now resides.  There were eight children in the 
family, our subject being the second and the oldest of five sons.  Margaret, the eldest child, became the wife of 
Owen E. Jones, and died in 1875; Robert is married and is now engaged in operating the old homestead in Columbia 
County; David married Louisa Moore and is living in Markesan, Green Lake County; Mary, wife of Robert Roseberry, 
makes her home in Springfield, Ill.; John, unmarried, died in 1878; Griffith is married and resides in Pierre, 
S. D.; Ellen is the wife of Albert Potts, of Fox Lake, Wis.
 
William D. Williams passed his early life in much the usual manner of farmer lads, assisting his father in the 
cultivation of the old homestead and attending the district schools.  When seventeen years of age he left the 
parental roof and started out in life to make his own way in the world.  Going to Milwaukee he engaged in the 
commission house of Morris & Owen, with whom he remained three years; later he was in the employ of other firms 
in the same line and continued to reside in Milwaukee until 1868, when he came to Berlin and established his 
present business as wholesale produce dealer.  His accumulated capital was not large, but by diligent and well 
directed effort he rapidly increased it and very soon had succeeded in building up an important and prosperous 
business.  At this writing Mr. Williams' annual sales exceed more than half a million of dollars, and is by far 
the most important mercantile business in the county, in fact, there are few if any more important houses in his 
line west of Chicago.  Butter, cheese and eggs constitute the important staples of his trade, while he handles 
large quantities of other produce including everything grown in the Northwest.  In the item of cranberries, which 
he has bought and sold ever since he began business in Berlin, he does a large trade.  In the year 1888 he handled 
6,200 barrels and the fruit shipped by him is said to be equal if not superior to the eastern-grown berries of New 
England.  His trade is largely North and West in Northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Montana.  His annual 
trade the past year in his three staples is as follows:  Thirty car-loads of butter, value $60,000; twenty-five cars 
of eggs, value $37,000; and thirty cars of cheese, value $75,000.
 
Mr. Williams was married in Berlin, on Sept. 1, 1869, to Miss Jennie Howell, who was born in Newark, Ohio.  Three 
children grace their union, a son and two daughters--Walter D., eighteen years of age; Flora A., fifteen, and Agnes, 
nine years of age.  All were born in Berlin.
 
Mr. Williams and his wife are members of the Congregational Church, and in politics he is a Republican.  Though he 
feels an interest in the success and welfare of his party, he has never had time or inclination to serve in public 
office.  For the past twenty-one years our subject has been an active business man with headquarters at Berlin, 
though his large business extends throughout the entire Northwest.  During that time, as his record shows, he has 
built up an immense trade as the result of close attention to details and the exercise of energy, enterprise and 
judicious management.  His business career has been marked by prompt and faithful discharge of all just obligations, 
and an unswerving integrity that has always commanded confidence and respect.
  





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