Representative Alfred Williams View All Years

Memorial to the Honorable Alfred Williams of Montgomery County

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character and public service of the late Honorable Alfred Williams, who represented Montgomery county in the Fortieth General Assembly, and who died suddenly at his farm home near Villisca on April 16, 1948, after a life of service and distinction, begs leave to submit the following memorial:

He was born February 2, 1875, on the farm where he lived most of his life and where he died. The second of the five sons of James S. and Nancy Williams, early settlers of the Nodaway valley region, he attended the local rural school, the Villisca High School and Tarkio College, where he was graduated in 1902. After a short period of teaching school, he entered Yale University, where he received an advanced degree in 1907. He was in educational work for several years, then returned to the home farm in 1914.

In June, 1910, he was married to Hazel Phillips of Oskaloosa. One son, Wallace, was born to them, who, after finishing his educational work, became a partner with his father in the farming business and now carries it on.

In 1922 he was elected state Representative from Montgomery county, serving in the Fortieth General Assembly, and worked valiantly for better schools and teachers’ opportunities, and for better conditions for farm life. He served as a member of the county board of education, and on the organization of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration in 1933, he was elected as the first county chairman of the board, serving for several years. He was a charter member of the Farm Bureau, and from the age of twelve a member of the Presbyterian Church, in which he served for nearly a quarter century as elder, and at times as clerk of the session.

Surviving are his widow, his son and daughter-in-law, two brothers and a host of friends. He was a man of fine and exact mental powers, of wide knowledge and great interest in public affairs. In public life he was active, fearless and incorruptibly honest—great qualifications in the days when the county AAA was being organized, the corn-hog program being set up, and the quotas being established. His management of that work served farming interests of Montgomery county in a way that will long be remembered.

He always retained his interest in the biennial sessions of the General Assembly in which he had served, following the proceedings with fine understanding and appreciation. He will long be numbered among those statesmen of past years who served his time and generation well, and will be remembered as one to whom all of us later members will always be indebted, because they laid for our work today the solid foundation of past decades.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Fifty-third General Assembly of Iowa: That in the passing of the Honorable Alfred Williams, the state has lost an honored citizen and a faithful, useful public servant, and the House, by this resolution, would express its appreciation of his services, and tender its sympathy to the members of the family.

Be It Further Resolved: That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House and that the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

ELMER A. BASS,

LEO B. HANNA,

HOWARD E. BROOKINGS,

Committee.