A Pioneer Citizen Falls Asleep:  Mr J B Williams, a pioneer citizen of Holmes county and highly esteemed and respected by a host of warm friends, died at the home of his brother, Chubb Williams, at Chipley last Sunday evening.  The news of his sudden death came as a severe shock to his friends and relatives, and the expressions of sympathy for the bereaved ones were many and from the heart.

On Friday night before his death Sunday, Mr Williams seemingly was in the best of health.  He went down to Chipley from his home at Graceville to attend a meeting of the Masonic lodge, and it was while he was in the lodge room that he was stricken with paralysis.  He was removed to his brother's home where he became unconscious and remained so until the end came Sunday evening.

The funeral services were held at Mt Zion church Monday afternoon at two o'clock and the vast throng that assembled to witness the last sad rites over all that was mortal of their friend and neighbor, fully attested the high esteem in which he was held by all.  The Masonic lodge, of which the deceased was a faithful member, had charge of the funeral services, and the speaker, Rev D W Haskew, a brother mason, paid a beautiful tribute to the memory of the deceased.  The casket was covered with the most beautiful floral designs loving fingers ever wrought all of which spoke of peace, purity and immortality.

The deceased always took an active part in matters affecting the welfare of his community, the county and state.  He served the county for a number of years in the capacity of county commissioner, and later served one term as tax collector, filling each office with credit to himself and satisfaction to the people.  He was a man of generous impulses and never forgot the hospitable ways of the pioneer.  The stranger, even though a beggar, never failed to find shelter if he sought it at his hands, and he was at home by the bedside of the sick and delighted in all kinds and neighborly offices.  He had filled the various relations of life, as son, husband, father, brother, friend, and filled them well.  How much this county owes him and such as he is, it is impossible to estimate, though it would be a grateful task to trace his influence through some of the more direct channels, to hold him up in these degenerate days, in his various characters of husband and father, of neighbor and friend, to speak of the sons and daughters he has reared to perpetuate his name and emulate his virtues.  He was invariably a good neighbor, and there was no happier family circle in the land than his.  His best monument will be the good report that he has left behind him in the community in which he has lived for more than fifty years.

SOURCE:  Holmes County Advertiser, Bonifay FL, Saturday, 30 Sep 1911; transcribed by Cathy Strickland Popp