This is a photograph of Henry Hudson Williams taken in San Diego, California at age 75 years old. He was born in Hudson, New York, September 28, 1828. Williams came to Kansas in the spring of 1855, and was the third settler on Pottawatomie Creek in Anderson County. He became closely associated with John Brown and other free-state men. Williams was sent as a delegate to the Big Springs convention in September, 1855, and marched to the defense of Lawrence in December, 1855. During this time, he was made second lieutenant of the Pottawatomie Rifles. Williams was a member of the Kansas House of Representatives elected under the Topeka Constitution. He was one of the free-state prisoners at Lecompton with Charles Robinson, Gaius Jenkins and others. Williams was sheriff of Miami County in 1857 and reelected in 1859 and served until 1861 when he enlisted in the Third Kansas Regiment. He later served in the 10th Kansas Volunteer Infantry headquarters. At the close of the Civil War, Major Williams went to Kansas City where he was appointed sheriff of Jackson County, but in April 1867, he returned to Kansas settling in Osawatomie, Kansas. Williams was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 1868 and the Senate in 1869 and 1870 and appointed one of the railroad assessors on March 24, 1871. He served on the statehouse commission from 1879 to 1883 and 1886-1887. Williams married Mary A. Carr in Osawatomie, February 23, 1858. He died in San Diego, California on March 28, 1906.