Personal interviews with "Parson" Rezin Williams,
on Thursday afternoon, September 18 and 24, 1937,
at his home, 2610 Pierpont Street, Mount Winans,
Baltimore, Md.
Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol 1 (1906), p. 56.
Buchholz: _Governors of Maryland_--pp. 57-63, 192-167.
(P.L.G. 28 B 92.)
"Parson" Williams----
Oldest living Negro Civil War veteran; now 116 years old.
Oldest registered voter in Maryland and said to be the oldest
"freeman" in the United States.
Said to be oldest member of Negro family in America with sister
and brother still living, more than a century old.
Father worked for George Washington.
In 1864 when the State Constitution abolished slavery and freed about
83,000 Negro slaves in Maryland, there was one, "Parson" Rezin Williams,
already a freeman. He is now living at the age of 116 years, in
Baltimore City, Maryland, credited with being the oldest of his race in
the United States who served in the Civil War.
He was born March 11, 1822, at "Fairview", near Bowie, Prince Georges
County, Maryland--a plantation of 1000 acres, then belonging to Governor
Oden Bowie's father. "Parson" Williams' father, Rezin Williams, a
freeman, was born at "Mattaponi", near Nottingham, Prince Georges
County, the estate of Robert Bowie of Revolutionary War fame, friend of
Washington and twice Governor of Maryland.
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