Marie Elizabeth Navarre. Clipping in Navarre-Williams Papers: Collection #042. The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections, University of Toledo Libraries. Toledo, OH

Mrs. Elizabeth Williams

With the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Navarre Williams, 86, of the Bay Shore, Friday [April 8, 1932], a link in the pioneer history of the Bay Shore and the Maumee valley is broken. The daughter of Alex Navarre and a niece of Peter Navarre, was born near Otter creek and had lived for 65 years in the house where she died.

Mrs. Williams was born near the old Indian village at Presque Isle, the farm having been given her father, Alexis Navarre, by the government in recognition of his services in the War of 1812. A similar tract was given to every one of the five brothers, including Peter Navarre. During the Civil war members of the family walked to the city to get their copy of the Blade which has been in the family ever since.

Mrs. Williams was married in 1866 to Cadwallader Williams, war veteran, who died a few years ago. She is survived by a son, Thad Williams; a daughter, Mrs. Robert Liedel, Ida, Mich.; sister, Mrs Fred Miller; eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren. The funeral will be Monday [April 11, 1932] at 2 P. M. in the residence and burial will be in North Oregon cemetery. Mrs Williams was a charter member of Ford circle, Ladies of the G. A. R.

WILLIAMS--ELIZABETH (Navarre), of Bay Shore road, widow of Cadwallader M. Friday, April 8, age 86 years. Surviving are one son, Thad Williams, one daughter, Mrs. Robert Liedel of Ida, Mic., one sister, Mrs. Fred Miller [neé Sarah Navarre], eight grand-children and four great-grandchildren. Funeral Monday [April 11, 1932] at 2 P. M. from the residence. Interment North Oregon cemetery. Hoeflinger Bros., funeral director.

Fifty-fifth Anniversary Celebrated

Long-Wedded Life Spent on One Farm

Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Williams 55 years ago Tuesday moved to a farm in Oregon township. It was their wedding day.

On the same farm Tuesday Mr. and Mrs Williams celebrated their 55 wedding anniversary.

"Would you like to be a boy again?" a neighbor asked Williams. "Yes if I could have my wife and my son and daughter also. But I can't be everything at once, so I'm more than satisfied to be 81 years old."

Mrs Williams is 77. The celebration Tuesday was quiet. The Williams have two children. Thad, who lives on the farm, and Mrs. Alta Liedel, Ida, Mich.

Thad W Williams [Thaddeus C. in the Navarre-Williams papers], Bay Shore Rd. died at St. Vincent's Hospital yesterday after a short illness. He was 69 and a lifelong resident of the Toledo area.

Surviving are daughter Mrs. Elmer Lang [neé Helen Williams], son Archie, New York, and two grandchildren [Richard C. and Judy Lang. His wife Rena A. (Momany) Williams having predeceased him on May 29, 1946].

The body is at Eggleston Meinert Funeral Home. [Burial at North Oregon Cemetery.]

IDA, Mich., May 14--Mrs. Alta Liedel [neé Alta Williams], 83 of 8501 Lulu Rd., died Monday night in Flower Hospital, Toledo, after an illness of several weeks.

Born in Toledo, she had lived in the Ida and Monroe areas most of her life and was a member of St. John's Catholic Church, Monroe.

Surviving are a son, Robert, Toledo; daughters, Mrs. Henry Van Acker and Mrs. Leon Lafer, both of Monroe, and Mrs. Helen Seeger, Toledo; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Sevices will be held Thursday at 8:30 a.m. in the Rupp Mortuary, 202 South Macomb St., Monroe, and at 9 a.m. in St. John's Church. Burial will be in St. Joseph's Cemetery, Monroe.

Monroe, Mich.--Robert Liedel, 75, father of Robert Liedel, Jr., Toledo; services Friday [May 17, 1957] at 9 a.m. in St. John's Church.

Helen Lang, now well into her eighties, still vividly remembers her grandmother, Elizabeth Navarre. The stories her grandmother told her when she was a girl Helen now shares with those who visit her, keeping alive the memories of the early pioneer days on the East Side.

The Navarres came to America from France in the1700s, settling in Canada because the allowed quota for French immigrants was already filled in the colonies. The family migrated west and came across the border into Michigan before finally settling in the wilderness of the Northwest Territory. At this time, long before the taming of the Black Swamp, northern Ohio was populated mostly by Indians with only a few trails winding through the vast uncharted forests. It was in this wilderness that the Navarres, especially Peter, proved so helpful to General William Henry Harrison and the American forces during the War of 1812.

For their services in the war, the Navarre family was given a large tract of land out along the Bay Shore. Elizabeth Navarre, a niece of Peter, grew up on the portion of the Navarre tract where Otter Creek Road joins the Bay Shore Road. Today the land is occupied by the large Standard Oil refinery. The house that Elizabeth lived in, originally a log cabin, was built about 1837, the date Toledo became a city.

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"It was a tattered, bearded, sun-bleached man who knocked the door of the house on Bay Shore Road. When Elizabeth opened the door, she shouted, 'Go away, Tramp!" She did not even recognize her own husband."

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Elizabeth, who was the youngest in the family, remembered going with her older sister Sarah to milk the cows. Thick woods surrounded the farm, and the young girls expected to see an Indian hiding behind every cow they approached. The Indians, though, were usually friendly with the settlers. The family always kept the cabin unlocked, and on cold nights would often awake in the morning to find the living area crowded with Indians sleeping on the floor by the fire. Elizabeth recalled that when the Idians were sent off to Canada, the squaws asked the Navarres to look after the graves of their loved ones who were buried in the woods along the bay.

One time the two girls found a baby deer in the woods. They were not allowed to keep it as a pet because it belonged in the wild, but when the deer was full grown it would often visit the house. It would come right up to the door and lick the frame, looking to find salt.

Elizabeth Navarre married Cad Williams, who also owned land along Bay Shore Road. While still a young bride, she was left along when her husband went off to fight in the Civil War. He was captured by the Confederates and sent to Andersonville prison in Georgia. Elizabeth recalled his escape. The prisoners were served their food in tin cans, and her husband was able to use the cans to dig a crude tunnel out of his cell and make his escape.

Alone deep in Confederate territory, his only chance was to hide away on a train heading north. He had prepared himself, by lying awak, listening to train whistles until he could tell which trains would take him in the right direction. After hopping a noith-bound train, he spent several days on a flat-bed car exposed to the elements. By the time he finally reached Ohio he was severely burned by the sun. It was a tattered, bearded, sun-bleached man who knocked at the door of the house on Bay Shore Road. When Elizabeth opened the door, she shouted, "Go away, Tramp!" She did not even recognize her own husband.

Elizabeth and Cad lived, for many years on the Bay Shore. Their youngest child, Thad, born in 1878, was Helen Lang's father. He married a Mominee and also settled on Bay Shore Road. Elizabeth survived well into the 20th century, and she lived with Thad's family in her old age when Helen was a girl, the old house was later moved to near Wynn Road when the land was sold to Toledo Edison for the Bay Shore Plant.

Helen's family still owns the original deed in which the government granted the land to the Navarres. The document is signed by the Indian women, as they were the ones who took care of the tribe's business matters. Today Helen lives at Sunset House, which is appropriately located on Indian Road, and can still tell her visitors about her family history. Her memories of her grandmother, Elizabeth Navarre, bring back the way life was for those early pioneer familes who settled in the are [area] that became the East Side.

Larry Michaels is a member of the East Toledo Historical Society.