Samuel Williams (American politician)

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Samuel Wardell Williams

|image = Samuel Williams.jpg

|office = Majority Leader of the
Indiana House of Representatives

|term = 1885

|office1 = Member of the
Indiana House of Representatives
from Knox County

|term_start1 = 1882

|term_end1 = 1886

|birth_name =

|birth_date = {{birth date|1851|02|07}}

|birth_place = Mount Carmel, Illinois, United States

|death_date = {{death date and age|1913|08|05|1851|02|07}}

|death_place = Vincennes, Indiana, United States

|party = Democrat
Populist

|spouse =

|children =

|alma_mater =

|religion =

}}

Samuel Wardell Williams (February 7, 1851 – August 5, 1913) was an American judge who is best known for being the Populist Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in the election of 1908.{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=176120.55;wap2|title=Public Offices held by Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates|publisher=US Election Atlas|accessdate=November 5, 2016}}

Biography

Williams was born in Mount Carmel, Illinois in 1851. At some point, he moved to Indiana and became a judge.

In 1904, he was one of the candidates for the Populist Party's nomination for president and served as chairman of the Populist Committee.{{cite book|author=Thomas Edward Watson|title=Watson's Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E4VTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA350|year=1913|publisher=Jeffersonian Pub. Co.|page=350}} He came in third place at the convention, receiving 45 votes on the first ballot. Thomas E. Watson received 698 votes, and William V. Allen received 319.{{cite web|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=272805|title=US President - Pop Convention 1904|publisher=Our Campaigns|date=November 26, 2005|accessdate=November 5, 2016}}

Williams served in the Indiana House of Representatives and was a Democrat at the time of his election to the Indiana General Assembly.'Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the State Bar Association of Indiana 1914,' Harrington & Folger Press, Indianapolis, Indiana: 1914, Biographical Sketch of Samuel W. Williams, pg. 238{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZJQAAAAYAAJ&q=samuel+wardell+williams&pg=PA407|title=History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana: From the Earliest Time to the Present; with Biographical Sketches, Reminiscences, Notes, Etc.; Together with an Extended History of the Colonial Days of Vincennes, and Its Progress Down to the Formation of the State Government|year=1886}}

In 1908, Williams was the vice presidential nominee of the Populist Party, running with Thomas E. Watson.{{cite book|title=The Independent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GZRAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA774|year=1908|publisher=Independent Corporation|page=774}}{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/12/26/106780172.pdf|title=S. W. Williams, Populist Leader, III|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 26, 1909|accessdate=November 5, 2016}} They received 28,862 votes (0.19%), performing best in Watson's home state of Georgia, where they received upwards of 12%.{{Leip PV source 2| year=1908| as of=September 10, 2012}}

Williams died of appendicitis on August 5, 1913, in Vincennes, Indiana, at the age of 62. He is buried at Greenlawn Cemetery in Vincennes.{{cite web|url=http://genealogytrails.com/ind/knox/death_notices.html|title=S. W. Williams Dies in Indiana|date=August 6, 1913|accessdate=November 5, 2016}}