Woman of the Century/Alice Williams

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2297013Woman of the Century — Alice Williams

WILLIAMS, Mrs. Alice, temperance reformer, born in Gallatin, Mo., 19th January, 1853. Her father, Franz Henry Von Buchholz, was the younger son of a titled German family. The older son inherited the family estate, and there was little left for the younger son, save the title, on which he found it difficult to live. At the age of twenty-eight he embarked for America. Here he found no difficulty in winning his way, and two years after settling in Lexington, Ky., he was married to Miss Harriette Thwaits, the daughter of a wealthy slave-owner of Lexington. The mother had all the conservative ideas of the South concerning woman, her sphere and her work, and in Alice's girlhood was shocked the first time she heard a woman's voice in the social prayer-meeting. At the immature age of sixteen, with the approval of her parents, Alice became the wife of R. N. Williams, a Christian gentleman, some years her senior. Into their home came a daughter and a son; then followed years of invalidism. During years of suffering Mrs. Williams read, studied and thought much. When the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was formed in Missouri, she became an active local worker. In 1884 she went with her husband to Lake Bluff, Ill., to a prohibition conference. There, at the request of Missouri's State president. Alice Williams' voice was first heard from the platform in a two-minute speech. She was appointed superintendent of young woman's work in Missouri and was called to every part of the State to speak and organize. She is a national lecturer in the department of social purity, and is one of the few, whether of men or women, who can speak strongly, yet not ALICE WILLIAMS. offensively, before a mixed audience on this most difficult theme. She has four children, two daughters and two sons. Her home is in Cameron, Mo.