962 WILLIAMSTOWN IN DE PEN DENT SCHOOLS WILLIAMSTOWN INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS. There are two school districts within Grant Co., the Grant Co. School District, and the Williamstown Independent Schools, a district that consists of two schools. In 1884, Grant Co. legislator Judge C. C. Cram guided through the General Assembly an act creating a graded free school in Williamstown; in 1887, residents approved a tax for the school. The Williamstown Graded Free School opened its doors in 1891 in a red brick structure along Main St., containing four classrooms, a principal’s office, and an impressive 400-seat chapel–lecture room. By 1892 the school had an enrollment of 256. The following year, the institution graduated its first high school class. By 1920 a boosters club and a PTA were in operation, and in that year the girls’ basketball team won the championship in Northern Kentucky, despite having to practice outdoors. In March 1923, the old school building affectionately known as “the castle” burned, and classes were held in various locations throughout Williamstown until a new three-story brick school building opened in 1924, which was used as a high school until 1968. A school band was first organized in 1938 and has flourished ever since. In 1956 the school system was racially integrated. Shortly thereafter, a new building to house kindergarten through the fourth grade was added to the Main St. campus; in 1968 the last class graduated from the Main St. School; a new one-story school building at 300 Helton St., still in use, opened that September. An elementary school addition was completed in the 1990s. The most famous graduate of the Williamstown Independent Schools is Arnie Risen, of the high school class of 1942, who played in the National Basketball League and became the second person from Northern Kentucky to be inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame. The City of Williamstown recently renamed Helton St., where the schools are located, Arnie Risen Blvd. In 2006 the total enrollment of the Williamstown Independent Schools was 877, including 432 high school students. Conrad, John B., ed. History of Grant County. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1992.
WILLIAMSTOWN MUNICIPAL CEMETERY. Located just east of downtown Williamstown on the north side of Ky. Rt. 22, Williamstown Municipal Cemetery traces its beginnings to 1859, when a group of town leaders purchased from Alfred Kendall six acres adjacent to the existing cemetery of the Williamstown Par ticu lar Baptist Church. The Williamstown Cemetery Company owned and administered the grounds until it encountered financial problems during the Great Depression. In the mid-1940s a new state law was passed, which allowed the cemetery to be owned and operated by the City of Williamstown; at that time the cemetery was named the Williamstown Municipal Cemetery. Several additions to the property have been made over the years. In 1947, for example, the cemetery took control of the old
burial grounds of the Williamstown Par ticu lar Baptist Church. It is not known who was the first person buried in the cemetery, nor does it appear that the grounds contain any Revolutionary War veterans’ graves. There is at least one War of 1812 veteran buried in the cemetery. Famous people interred there include Ziegfeld Follies girl Bertha Opp, Caroline J. Marie Dupuy Blanchet (the first woman to climb Mount Blanc), and Doris V. Clark. In the early 1960s, the Odor family constructed a mausoleum on the grounds for its family members. Burials continue today at the cemetery at the rate of 50 per year. Chandler, Virgil, Sr. The Williamstown Cemetery. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1987. Reis, Jim. “Cemeteries,” KP, April 21, 1986, 4K.
WILLIAMSTOWN RAID. At 3:30 a.m., November 1, 1864, a Confederate Cavalry force of 32 men commanded by Col. Robert J. Breckinridge and Maj. Theophilus Steele (the son and son-in-law of Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge of Fayette Co.) conducted a raid on Williamstown, Ky. The raiders expected to capture a large sum of U.S. Government money that they had been informed was in the safe in N. C. Tunis’s store in Williamstown. The money had been removed already, but the raiders found 30 U.S. muskets that they confiscated. The raid was made without incident, and there was no reprisal by the U.S. forces that were occupying the area. Conrad, John B., ed. History of Grant County. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1992.
John B. Conrad
WILLIAMSTOWN UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. Little is known of the early history of the Methodist Church in Grant Co. Francis Asbury, Peter Cartwrite, William McKendree, and Barnabas McHenry are early preachers who traveled over large circuits, establishing churches throughout the Kentucky Methodist District. More than 100 years ago, Cartwrite visited the southeastern section of Grant Co., preached, and spent the night at the old Ackman homestead, where L. A. Ackman lived near Layton’s chapel. In 1847, William Tucker and his wife Elizabeth deeded a plot of land in Williamstown to trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This is the present site of the Williamstown United Methodist Church. In the late 1840s, Joseph Rand, a resident of Lexington, was pastor of the Crittenden Methodist Preaching Circuit, which included all of Grant Co. and part of Boone and Pendleton counties. It was a three-week circuit and preaching was largely in private homes. The Williamstown Methodist Church was one of the two churches in the circuit. Its old frame church building was destroyed by fire in 1885, and for three years, the church held services in the courthouse. Under the leadership of Dr. S. W. Spear, a brick church building was built in 1888 and dedicated in 1891. It was part of the Williamstown Methodist Preaching Circuit, sharing time with the Dry Ridge and Salem churches.
In 1892 the Williamstown Methodist Preaching Circuit also included Bethel Grove. In 1915 the Williamstown Methodist Church became a station church, with Rev. J. W. Carter as pastor. During the pastorate of K. O. Potts (1937–1941), a kitchen and classrooms were added, and there was a ser vice of dedication in 1941. Methodist Bishop Darlington delivered the dedicatory address. At this time the church had two missionary societies, the Women’s Society of Christian Service, of which Mrs. L. M. Ackman was the first president, and the Wesleyan Ser vice Guild, whose first president was Mrs. H. T. Matthews. During the pastorate of Rev. C. B. Hogg (1961–1964), an educational building was added to the church. The dedication of a new church building by Rev. Charles Perry, district superintendent of the Covington Methodist District, took place on August 23, 1970. In May 1971, a large portion of the church’s indebtedness was paid off through a substantial gift from the estate of Rev. George Ammerman and his wife, Nellie. In 1939, after consolidation of the Methodist Episcopal Church; the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and the Methodist Protestant Church, the Williamstown church dropped the word South from its name. In 1968, when the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged, the name was changed once again. The church is now officially known as the Williamstown United Methodist Church. In January 2004, under the leadership and pastorate of Christopher Morgan, the Williamstown United Methodist Church purchased the building and parking area on the west side of the church property in order to meet the immediate and longterm space needs of the church. Members and friends now have access to ample parking near the church. This space will be available for future classroom and activity uses as the church continues to grow. Conrad, John B., ed. History of Grant County, Kentucky. Williamstown, Ky.: Grant Co. Historical Society, 1993. “Footsteps of the Past,” Grant County News, historical supplement, February 3, 1994, 2–5. Williamstown United Methodist Church. www .williamstownumc.com/History.aspx.
Marie Ackman
WILLIAMSTOWN WOMEN’S CLUB. The Williamstown Women’s Club began during the early 1920s when a group of women organized the Welfare Club in Grant Co. The ladies met monthly at the county courthouse and paid club dues of 10 cents per month. They visited the sick, donated food for Christmas baskets, and brought fabrics to their meetings to make clothing for the poor. In 1924 the Welfare Club was reorganized as the Williamstown Women’s Club, with Mrs. Thomas W. Clark as its first president. In 1926, when the club affi liated with the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, it became a part of one of the world’s largest and oldest nonpartisan, nondenominational women’s volunteer