The elder Rezin Williams
served the father of our country as a hostler at Mount Vernon, where he
worked on Washington's plantation during the stormy days of the
Revolution.
There is perhaps nowhere to be found a more picturesque and interesting
character of the colored race than "Parson" Williams, who, besides
serving as a colored bishop of the Union American Methodist Church
(colored) for more than a half century, is the composer of Negro
spirituals which were popular during their day. He attended President
Lincoln's inauguration and subsequently every Republican and Democratic
presidential inauguration, although he himself is a Republican. Lincoln,
according to Williams, shook hands with him in Washington.
One of Williams' sons, of a family of fourteen children, was named after
George Washington, and another after Abraham Lincoln. The son, George
Washington Williams, died in 1912 at the age of seventy-three years.
"Parson" Williams, serving the Union forces as a teamster, hauled
munitions and supplies for General Grant's army, at Gettysburg. On trips
to the rear, he conveyed wounded soldiers from the line of fire. He also
served under General McClellan and General Hooker.
Although now confined to his home with infirmities of age, he posesses
all his faculties and has a good memory of events since his boyhood
days. Due to the fact that his grandmother was an Indian the daughter of
an Indian chieftan, alleged to be buried in a vault in Baltimore County,
Williams was a freeman like his father and hired himself out.
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