From "Profitable Advertising", June 1905.
Unique in name and in line of work, Ohio native Orva Gilson Williams was long affiliated with the advertising novelty manufacturing business, and following his removal to Illinois continued success in his field, being the founder and president of the O.G. Williams Company. An active Democrat both prior to and after his resettlement in Illinois, Williams would enter politics in 1910, being an unsuccessful aspirant for Congress and two years later served as a Democratic National Convention delegate.
The son of Richard Gilson and Elmira (Frost) Williams, Orva Gilson Williams was born in Salineville, Ohio on April 25, 1865. He would study at Mt. Union College located in Alliance, Ohio, and also attended the Cincinnati Law School. Beginning in the early 1880s, Williams entered the advertising novelty business in Ravenna, Ohio, and later took employment with the Tuscarora Advertising Co. of Coshocton. He soon hit the road as a traveling salesman for that company, selling advertising novelties and signage. Traversing over thirty states and countless territories, Williams followed that route until joining the Standard Advertising Company in Coshocton and by 1894 had assumed the post of vice president and treasurer.
Williams' four-year tenure with that company saw it achieve a "most phenomenal growth", and with his connection to its sales department, the business could boast of $400,000 in sales in 1898. At the time of Williams' departure the following year, they had "branch offices in fourteen cities and foreign countries" and employed over thirty salesmen. Orva Gilson Williams married to Josephine Stack Ryan (1859-1932) in 1894. The couple had three children, Elsie, Dorothy, and Orva Gilson II (1896-1938).
After selling off his interest in the Standard Advertising Company in early 1899, Williams removed with his family to Chicago. Soon after his resettlement, he partnered with businessman Edward Donker to form the Donker & Williams Co., "Manufacturers and Importers of Advertising Specialities and Art Novelties." Incorporated in September 1899, Williams served that company as its secretary and treasurer, and in the succeeding years became a familiar name in Chicago civic affairs. He would hold a directorship in the Chicago Civic Federation, was chairman of the ways and means committee of the Chicago Association of Commerce, and was president of the Ohio Club of Chicago. Williams was also an active club-man in his adopted city, holding memberships in the Masonic Order, the Knights of Pythias, the Elks Lodge, the Iroquois Club, and the Chicago Athletic Association.
Several years after the founding of the Donker Williams Co., Orva Williams left that business to form his own company, and by 1908 was president of the O.G. Williams Mfg. Co, dealing in "calenders, leather goods, general novelties, and signs." One of his highest business honors came in 1908 when he was elected president of the National Association of Novelty, Leather, and Celluloid Manufacturers at that organization's annual convention. His full dates of service remain unknown at this time.
From the Omaha Bee, July 21, 1910.
Long an active Democrat, Williams was a firm backer of William Jennings Bryan's third presidential run in 1908, being affiliated with the National Businessmen's Bryan and Kern Association. After casting aside previous calls for him to run for public office, Orva Williams announced his bid for Congress in 1910. Hoping to garner the Democratic nomination for U.S. Representative from Illinois' 2nd district, Williams was one of two primary candidates hoping to oust seven-term Republican James Robert Mann. Unfortunately for Williams, he lost that race to John C. Vaughan, who would, in turn, lose the general election to Mann that November.
Despite his congressional defeat, Williams later aided his party in a different capacity, and in 1912 served as part of the Illinois delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, where Woodrow Wilson and Thomas R. Marshall were nominated as the party standard-bearers. This election year also saw Williams join the Illinois sector of the campaign of Ohio Governor Judson Harmon, then a candidate in the Democratic presidential primary race.
Williams' continued prominence in his field after his time as a delegate, serving on the board of directors of the Associated Advertising Clubs of America, and in 1918 was the president of the Council of State Societies of Chicago. He continued residence in Chicago, and on November 5, 1930, he lost his life in a tragic accident. While visiting Akron, Ohio Williams' car collided with another vehicle during a snowstorm, and he later succumbed to his injuries. Also injured in the crash was his sister Iola, a high school principal in the city. The driver of the other vehicle, J.A. Stewart, was subsequently charged with manslaughter, due to having "failed to observe a boulevard stop" before the crash.
Williams was survived by his wife and children, and following funeral arrangements, his remains were removed to Alliance, Ohio for burial at the Alliance City Cemetery.
From the New Philadelphia, Ohio Daily Times, November 6, 1930.
From the Nebraska State Blue Book, 1930.
The obscure Orva Chester Randall served Nebraska's 82nd legislative district in the state house of representatives for two terms, 1929-33. Born in Illinois in September 1873, Randall removed to Nebraska with his family at age 10. He would attend the Holdrege high school in Phelps County, and in 1896 married Minnie Cain (1878-1920), with who he had three sons, Leslie, Harry, and Ralph. Following his wife's death in 1920, Randall remarried in July of the following year to his wife's sister Nellie (1889-1957), who he also survived.
A farmer for the majority of his life, Randall held the posts of secretary and treasurer of the Phelp's County Farmer's Union and later was secretary-treasurer of the Nebraska Farm Bureau. Prior to his legislative service, Randall held two local elective offices in Holdrege, serving on the township board and school board. Elected to his first term in the Nebraska House of Representatives in 1928, Randall served in the session of 1929-31 and won a second term in 1930. A former president of the Federal Land Bank of Holdrege, Randall resided in that town until his death at age 89 in July 1963. He was interred at the Prairie Home Cemetery in Holdrege.
In addition to the above, two sources, politicalgraveyard.com and Findagrave, record Randall under the first name Orvis. This is an error, as Randall himself notes his first name as Orva on his 1917 draft registration card. This name is also recorded in period sources such as the 1930 and 1932 Nebraska Blue Books, and the 1920 Census.
Portrait from the Souvenir of the Nebraska Legislature, 1901-02.
Another "Orva" that entered Nebraska politics was Orva Gallogly, who was noted as a "firm friend of the farmers and stockmen" in the Nebraska Blue Book. A one-term member of that state's house of representatives, Gallogly was native of Wisconsin, being born in 1867, the son of Francis and Frances (Murphy) Gallogly. He removed to Iowa with his family at an early age, and by 1883 had resettled in Nebraska.
Establishing roots in Chapman in Merrick County, he farmed here and in May 1891 married to Frances Young (1869-1939), with whom he adopted a child. In 1898 he and his family relocated to Johnston in Brown County, where he was engaged in "cattle raising and the general merchandise business." In 1900 he was elected to the Nebraska House of Representatives as a representative from Brown and Rock County, and during the 1901-03 session was a member of the committees on Apportionment, Live Stock and Grazing, Penitentiaries, and chaired the Fish and Game committee.
Little could be found on Gallogly's life after his time in state government. Sometime after his term he and his family moved to Idaho and following his resettlement was a dealer in livestock in Oakley, located in Cassia County. At an unknown date, Gallogly removed to Boise, where he died of stomach cancer at his home on February 1, 1926, aged 58. He was survived by his wife and was later interred at the Pleasant View Cemetery in Burley, Idaho.
From the Burley Bulletin, February 4, 1926.
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