The Opelousas courier., 1883-12-29
mrs. marie Bushnell Williams.


impressed the literary world with her
ability as q writer i'm both departments,
was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
about the year 1927. Her father,
Judge Charles Bushnell, Of Springfield,
Massachusetts,, belonged to a family
which has produced some of the ablest
secular and theological writer's of the
present century. He came to the State
d few years after the purchase Of the
Colony from the French government
by the United States and being well
known as an astute lawyer and an ac-
complished jurist he was appointed
Judge of the Third Judicial District OF
Louisiana his untimely death occur
ring just prior to his intended appoint
ment to a seat on the Supreme Bench
of the State.
On the maternal side Mrs. Williams
is d descendant of the English house Of
Willoughby, or, LeWilloughby and
d'Eresby, a family whose members
played a prominent part in the civil
wars of that country between the Roy
alists and Puritans, which caused some
Of them to leave England during the
proteetorate of Oliver Cromwell and
settle in Virginia, where they married
into the Noyes family. One of their
descendants, Mrs. 0'Brien, having ex-
pended her fortune in the purchase Of q
large body of land from the Spanish
government, situated near the town of
Baton Rouge, she established several fine
plantations on it.
~Inheriting her fathers literary taste
and studious disposition, Mrs. Williams
had the good fortune, IN her younger
daw, to become a fayerits pupil of the
eminent linguist and learned professor,
Alexander Dimitry, under whose able
tuition she became mistress of all the
leading modern languages, and OBJ
tanned such a general fund of knowl-
edge as to make her one of the best in
formed and most accomplished women
in America.
Marrying Mr.. Joseph F. Williams, a
wealthy planter Of Rapides parish in
1913, she resided near Alexandria on.
Red River until 1869, with the e2cep
H#M@#E 4M&Al4%2
ton of a brief period spent ID Texas,
when the civil war which was desola-
ting the entire Southern country,
drove her from her beautiful homo sub
sequent to that date she has lived in
OpeIousas, Louisiana.
For many years surrounded by all
that wealth could command to make
life enjoyable; blessed By marital re-
Iations of the happiest character be-
loved by her family, and highly es
teemed and respected By her numerous
friends for her brilliant talents and va
ried accomplishments, Mrs, Williams
was doomed to suffer from d continuous
chain of great misfortunes that must
have required uncommon fortitade to
sustain her under such a terrible or
deal. The death Of her husband the
wonnding of one of her son and the
nntimely death Of another the dea-
tr~nction, during the wal, Of her beauti-
full residence, ssThe Oaks,r and the
heavy loss of property which reduced
her from afluence to poverty, following
each ether iii rapid succession, were
sufficient Is. have paralyzed the energies
Of the most determined-bnt mot hers
and with j resolution that will carry
its possessor through the most trying
situations, Mrs. Williams sustained her
self for several years BY her literary
contributions TO the New Orleans
Times, and since her withdrawal from
that paper, By her prosaic sketches and
poetical effusions published in the
Youths Companion, Transcript and
Congregationalist of Boston, as well as
occasional pieces sent to other North
Urn papers ana magazines. Some 81
her poems are to be found in Southland
Writers and Living Writers Of the
South and onesOut of the plague
stricken cityr-was recently selected
BIZ LongfelloW for insertion HI bis