Source: "Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1907" State of AL Dept of Archives and History, compiled by Thomas M. Owen, L.L, D. Director, Brown Publishing Co, Montgomery, AL, 1907 p. 87 Legislative Department, Barbour County JUDGE STERLING WILLIAMS of Clayton, Barbour county, was born there on March 26, 1874, and is the son of Jere N. and Mary Elizabeth (Screws) Williams, and grandson of J.S. and Effie (McNeill) Williams, and of Benjamin and Mourning (Drake) Screws and the great-grandson of John Screws, of Nash county N.C. and of James Drake, and early Alabama settler, who was killed by the Indians. His father was a major in the Confederate army, later a member of the State Legislature, a member of the Constitutional Convention, 1901, a member of Congress from the 3rd district and chancellor of the S.E. chancery division. Representative Williams obtained his early education in the common schools of Clayton; graduated with the degree of A.B. at the University of Alabama, 1892; read law in his father's office, and was admitted to the bar, by examination, at Union Springs; and has since practiced continuously in Clayton. He was made mayor of Clayton for an unexpired term in 1896, elected in 1902, and still holds the position; was three times enrolling clerk of the Legislature of Alabama, to which body he was elected a member in Nov 1906. He is a Democrat, having for four years been a member of his county executive committee. He is a Methodist; a Mason; and is unmarried.