Campaign card, Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

WILLIAMS, William Elza, a Representative from Illinois; born near Detroit, Pike County, Ill., May 5, 1857; attended the public schools and Illinois College, Jacksonville, Ill.; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1880 and practiced in Detroit and Pittsfield, Ill.; State’s attorney of Pike County 1886-1892; member of the board of aldermen of Pittsfield; member of the board of education; became trial lawyer for the City Railway Co. of Chicago in 1903; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1899-March 3, 1901); resumed the practice of law in Pittsfield, Ill.; elected to the Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1913-March 3, 1917); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1916 to the Sixty-fifth Congress and for election in 1918 to the Sixty-sixth Congress; continued the practice of law until his death in Pittsfield, Ill., September 13, 1921; interment in Pittsfield West Cemetery.