This was previously posted on the list: The Southern Illinoisan, Carbondale, Illinois, Sunday, October 20, 1968 EARL WILLIAMS RITES TODAY Earl WILLIAMS, 81, of Sesser, died Thursday in Chicago while visiting his son. He was born April 26, 1887, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Riley WILLIAMS. He was a member of the Church of God of Sesser and was a retired farmer. He leaves sons, Edward of Seeger and Clifford of Chicago Heights; step-sons, Archie, Clifford and Clarence, all of Sesser and Stanley ROBERTS of Mt. Vernon; a step-daughter, Mrs. Zella HARLAND of Sesser; and 11 grand-children, 23 great-grandchildren and several step-grandchildren. Funeral services will be at 1 p.m. today at the Church of God, Sesser, with burial in the Hammond Cemetery, Sesser. Friends may call at the Brayfield Funeral Home, Sesser. In a message dated 3/20/2013 10:53:17 A.M. Central Daylight Time, elvis500@frontier.com writes: (10) RILEY WILLIAMS was born 8-14-1852 in FCI He was 72 years old, when he died on 5-23-1927, which makes his birth 1855. Cause of death was listed as pneumonia. Informant was Betty HANLEY of Mt Vernon, Il. He was buried on 5-23-1927 in Kirk Cemetery, Ina, Jefferson County, Illinois He married Mary Ann COCKRUM on 1-6-1899 FCI She was born 3-3-1856 in Benton FCI and died 1-26-1930 in Chicago Heights, Illinois and was buried on 1-29-1930 in Kirk Cemetery, JCI In their wedding registery, it was listed as his second and her fourth. She must have been married to another WILLIAMS prior to Riley WILLIAMS, Family reports that she was married to a brother of Riley. After her second husband James ATCHISON, she went to Arkansas via wagon train with her brother Charles COCKRUM. The trip took six weeks. There were six wagons in the train They went that way, because of the Homestead Act. When they came to the Ferry on the Mississippi River, the Ferry operator was going to charge Mary 50 cents to take her cow across the river and she would not pay, so the cow had to swim across. Her children went to Arkansas with her. He son Jack married Allie Williams in Arkansas and where she also died. It is not know where Mary Ann met her second husband, who was suppose to be a brother of Riley, but is possible, when Wm Sanford WILLIAMS went to Arkansas in the late 60’s, with his third wife Mary Jane and several of their children, that one of the children, was from a previous marriage may have already been there or went with him and stayed there or then Mary Ann could have met him in Arkansas.