University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

Page 8 text:

,x .. . wt. , , . x $.gy343: Tr. . 72.x. .. , ; xtll k. L . . ... 8...? . ...: , R. . x .. . ..., .: . I. . .L- l..tl.:. 9.. E v A , J... .r . In: .y , .- . . . .rllvrgl. 333,. .II In . . .3: ?pvfury . . . v ...!ig.hr41 x m. f . A A A . w .r. ,. .. . i . , a . . .. .. .,. ,. . .., . . .. .... V ... ...,.. . . , , U ...., ...,, 151 GIFT NOV 23 '42 ' .m . w. w LOYAL SON' Virginians TO JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS SCHOLAR STATESMA.IN - ORATOR OF HIS PROUD ALMA MATER THIS VOLUME CF CORKS AND CUR'Ls f?.1!111411:..1: . . : E713: ..., I .iiw ..Ji? .1 q 31...,1f...i.v1; l .llfl. .1 . , p4, .

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6 Qlurks anti QIuriIs 1915 when the opportunity came to him. Underwood was, and is, cool, self- contained, calm in argument, ready with facts and figuresea wonderfully clear speaker and a man to invite and retain confidence. Williams was, and is, as strong intellectually as either of the three. A scholar as well as statesman, he knows how to clothe argument in graceful diction. At times as impetuous as Bailey; again as cool and calm as Under- wood, he possesses a sharp, fiery, alert manner peculiarly his own. As a lighter he is quick, impetuous, zealous of success and with a readiness in retort which few men equal. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1854. His father, Colonel Christopher H. Williams, C. S. A., gave his life for his country in the war between the states. He was killed at the Battle of Shiloh, as his regiment, the 27th Tennessee Volunteers, was taking a battery in the Hornets, Nest? having previously had two horses shot under him in the same battle. Senator Williams's great grandfather, John Williams, went into the Revolutionary Army as Lieutenant Colonel of the liHillsboro Minute Menf, was afterwards promoted to a Colonelcy and served as a Colonel of the N orth Carolina line. Senator Williams,s grandfather on his mother,s side was Captain John McKnitt Sharp, who was senior Captain of the Mississippi Rifles, commanded by Col- onel Jefferson Davis in the Mexican War, and his maternal great grandfather was a Major in the Revolutionary Army, also serving from North Carolina. The Williams family, of course Welsh, l'lI'St settled in, Hanover County, Virginia, and afterwards moved to N orth Carolina. The Sharps wereScotch- Irish, originally from Maryland, subsequently moving into North Carolina. After his father,s death Senator Williams,s family removed to Yazoo County, Mississippi, the residence of his maternal grandfather. Williams was educated at the Kentucky Military Institute, the Univer- sity of the South at Sewanee, and entered the University of Virginia in 187 l. He soon took a prominent position both in student activities and in scholarship. He worked hard and yet was as full of fun and frolic as any one of his , associates. He was popular, although he never went out of his way to court popularity with either professor or student. To the first he commended hima self by his brilliancy and capacity for hard work; to the second by his manly bearing and his readiness to enter into all college activities-far more limited then than at the present day. For in the iiseventies,, athletics were unknown; baseball was a very feeble institution and football a game with no fixed teams, rules or organization. The fraternities and literary societies engaged much of the time and attention ofthe students in those days.