Williams, Maj. Archie P.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Maj. Archie P. Williams, secretary and treasurer of the New Basin Canal and Shell road, is a member of one of the oldest families in Louisiana. He was born in Rapides parish, May 15, 1845, and is the son of J. P. and Marie (Bushnell) Williams, the former a native of Rapides parish and the latter a member of one of the most prominent families of Baton Rouge. J. P. Williams was a sugar planter and owned one of the largest sugar plantations in the state. His grandfather, Archie P. Williams, was in his time one of the most extensive sugar planters in Louisiana and the owner of Willow Glen sugar plantation, near Alexandria. He was a native of Kentucky and in politics a whig. J. P. was also a whig, taking an active interest in politics, but would never accept a public office. He died before the war. Of a family of nine children born to him three sons and two daughters are yet living: one daughter, the wife of Judge T. H. Lewis, an attorney of Opelousas, and the other of Hon. Frank D. Chretien, of New Orleans. The sons are Austin D., manager of "Baton Rouge Advocate;" P. D., a planter of St. Landry parish, and Archie P., our subject. Archie P. Williams received his education at the Virginia Military institute, when Stonewall Jackson was a professor in the same, and at the Louisiana Military institution at Alexandria, when Gen. W. T Sherman was the president. He is the only man now living, or that ever lived, who can boast of having had these two great generals as teachers. In May, 1861, he left school to join the Second Louisiana infantry, as a private in Company B, being color bearer, and while in the regiment took part in a number of battles in Virginia, among which are the battle of Yorktown, seven days before Richmond and the Wilderness. At the latter place he was severely wounded by a gunshot in the arm and leg. Later he was promoted to lieutenant in regular confederate service and assigned to duty in Texas under Maj. E. A. Burke, chief of transportation, then as aid-de-camp on the staff of Gen. A. P. Bagby, commander of the cavalry in the trans-Mississippi department. Mr. Williams was commissioned major, and at the close of the war was inspector-general on the staff of Gen. Bagby. When he was wounded he was taken prisoner and was in the hospital at Alexandria, Va., and at Washington, D. C. After peace was declared he became a planter in Rapides parish, Baton Rouge and also West Baton Rouge, and in the last named place married Miss Daisy Le Blanc, daughter of Octave Le Blanc, of one of the old and honored families in Louisiana. By this union five children were born--one son and four daughters. His wife died in Florida and he afterward married Miss Minnie Holleyman, daughter of Dr. A. T. Holleyman, a prominent physician of Jacksonville, Fla. Major Williams was deputy sheriff of St. Landry parish, deputy clerk of the supreme court at Opelousas, notary public and later chief of the "Times-Democrat's" expedition through the Florida everglades, the only expedition of the kind ever made with success. He was also employed in the United States engineer's department on the coast of Florida. He was recently appointed secretary and treasurer of the New Basin canal and shell road by Governor Nicholls and was reappointed by Governor Foster. He is a prominent member of the Southern Yacht club and an active and interested worker in the Democratic club of New Orleans. He is also prominent in the social orders of the K. of H. and the A. F. & A. M.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 457. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.