Pardon C. William, for many years
an associate justice of the appellate
division of the Supreme Court for the
fourth department died at 8:30 o'clock
Sunday morning at his home in Watertown
after a long period of failing
health. He was 82 years old.
Justice Williams passed away surrounded
by members of his family, of
whom three children survive, Mrs.
Mary F. Robinson, Mrs. J. Cooper
Stebbms and Robert P. Williams, all
of Watertown.
Funeral was held from Trinity
Episcopal church, of which he was a
member, at 2:30 o'clock Tuesday afternoon.
Burial at Brookside cemetery.
Justice Pardon C. Williams was
born upon a farm in the town of
Ellisburg, son of Mr. and Mrs. William
Williams. Securing the educational
advantages afforded by the
school in his district, young Williams
set out at the age of 14 to make his
way toward higher learning, and secured
a position as teacher in a country
school, where he acted as his own
janitor. in those days the teacher
had to exhibit his authority and the
best man ran the school. Williams
always maintained excellent government.
Between spells of teaching to earn his
livelihood, Justice Williams attended
Pierrepont Manor village school,
Union Academy at Belleville and the
Clinton Liberal Institute at Adams,
and finally at the age of 18, after four
years of strenuous work and study,
entered St. Lawrence University at
Canton. Two years later, in 1862, he
took up the study of law with Hammond
& Bigelow in Watertown. The following year
he was admitted to the bar and was taken into
the Hammond & Bigelow firm. Following the
Civil war Bigelow retired and General
Bradley Wlnslow, just back from
service, joined with Hammond and
Williams in the law firm of Hammond,
Winslow & Williams. In 1867 the firm
dissolved, Mr. Williams practicing
alone for seven years and being elected
district attorney. At the end of that
period he joined with the late Judge
McCartin in the practice of law, this
affiliation being terminated by his
election to the bench.
In 1884 Mr. Williams was elected
justice of the Supreme Court, and for
the ensuing 10 years he presided over
trials in this judicial district and became
well known throughout Lewis
county. His last term of court was
held in Watertown during the winter
of 1900, and it was through a remark
dropped by him from the bench that
it first became known he was being
considered for the higher position
upon the appellate division.
Before his court term was completed
announcement was made of his
appointment and acceptance as a justice
of the appellate division for the
fourth department, at Rochester. He
remained with this body of jurists
until attaining the age limit, when he
returned to Watertown, resuming private
practice and continuing to perform
duties for the state as official
referee.
Among the most famous of the
cases over which he presided as a
trial judge was the Roxalana Druse
murder in Herkimer, and the Bartholomew
Shea murder case in Troy in
1894. In the latter case Judge Williams
was appointed by the governor
to preside.
Shea was convicted of the murder of
Robert Ross in an election riot and
later paid the death penalty. Frank
S. Black, who later became governor,
was the prosecuting attorney under
special appointment of the governor.
The Druse murder was among the
most famous of its day and Mrs.
Druse, convicted of slaying her husband,
boiling the body and feeding the
flesh to the hogs, was one of the first
women to pay the penalty in New
York state.
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