This Day in Texas History: “Village Blacksmith of Cumby” Born in Tennessee

This Day in Texas History:

“Village Blacksmith of Cumby” Born in Tennessee
May 31, 1839

On this day in 1839, Robert R. Williams was born in Henderson County, Tennessee. He moved to Texas in 1868 and in 1872 became a blacksmith at Black Jack Grove, later Cumby, where he organized the Masonic lodge.

At the age of sixty-five he began to study law. Known as the “Village Blacksmith of Cumby,” he held county office for twenty-eight years and three times represented Hopkins County in the state legislature. At the age of ninety-three he tried to resign as justice of the peace, but his constituents returned him to the office.

In 1908 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor of Texas against Thomas M. Campbell. Williams died at Cumby in 1941.