In 1850 Judge Williams was married to Miss Kate Van Atwerp, a daughter of General Verplank Van Atwerp. They had one daughter, Ellen, who cared for her father in his declining years. Mrs. Williams died in July, 1863, and some years later Judge Williams married Mrs. Kate George, a daughter of Ross B. Hughes, of Iowa, also now deceased. There were two adopted children of this marriage: Mrs. Carl Harbaugh, who resides in Seattle, Washington; and Theodore Williams, a student in Oregon State University.
Judge Williams sat upon the bench until 1852. There came further recognition of his ability as a jurist in 1853, when he received presidential appointment as chief justice of the territory of Oregon, to which office he was reappointed by President Buchanan in 1857. From that time until his demise, covering a period of fifty-seven years, he remained a resident of Oregon and his sound judgment and active labors were effective forces in shaping the policy and molding the destiny of the state. He was chosen a member of the constitutional convention which drafted the first organic law of Oregon and acted as chairman of the judiciary committee of that body. While in the convention he vigorously opposed the introduction of slavery in Oregon and before the instrument was presented to the voters made an active canvass in behalf of the anti-slavery clause therein. Grave problems which are ever to the statesman and the thinking man of wide import received his earnest attention and he took an advanced stand upon many questions which in the course of years have received public endorsement and become elements in our national growth and progress. In 1860 he became one of the founders of the Union party and subsequently canvassed the country for Lincoln and did everything in his power to awaken sympathy and support for the Union cause. He was a member of the United States senate at the most critical period in the country's history, having been elected in 1864, and it is a matter of record that his services during that vital epoch were in line with the policy which in its consummation was productive of such splendid results. He was appointed to serve on the committees on finance and public lands and on the reconstruction committee, and all questions which came up for consideration received his earnest attention, and his support or opposition thereto was the expression of conscientiously and carefully considered opinions.
A contemporary biographer has thus given the history of his senatorial service: "Among the measures which he was instrumental in bringing before the senate and which became laws are the following: The Military Reconstruction Act, under which the insurrectionary states were reorganized and their representation admitted to congress; an act creating a new land district in Oregon, with a land office at La Grande; an amendment to the act granting lands to the state of Oregon for the construction of a military road from Eugene to the eastern boundary of the state, granting odd sections to supply any deficiency in the original grant; various acts establishing post roads; a general law to secure the election of United States senators; the 'tenure of office act' vetoed by President Johnson, but passed over his veto; numerous appropriations for Oregon; an amendment to the act of 1861 relative to property lost in suppressing Indian hostilities in Oregon; an amendment to the judiciary act of 1789; an amendment to the act granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad from the Central Pacific in California to Portland, Oregon; an act to pay two companies of Oregon volunteers commanded by Captains Walker and Olney; an act to strengthen the public credit; an amendment to the act granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad from the Central Pacific to Portland, by which the grant was prevented from reverting to the government; an act granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from Portland to Astoria and McMinnville; a resolution to facilitate the building of a light-house at Yaquina Bay, and other light-houses on the Oregon coast; an act granting certain lands to Blessington Rutledge, a citizen
