Born in Tennessee, Williams was in Texas by the early 1820s, and received a Mexican land grant for his role in the Fredonia Rebellion. The rebellion marked the first time that Anglo settlers tried to secede from Mexico. Like a lot of early Texans, Williams often walked a fine line of divided loyalties. He pledged allegiance at various times to Mexico, Texas and the Cherokees.
The Cherokee connection came through his marriage to Nancy Isaacs, niece of Cherokee chief Richard Fields, though not all of his dealings with native tribes were so peaceful. He and his brother, the alliterative William Williams, who also had a Cherokee wife, settled near Nacogdoches but were taken captive by the Comanche and held as slaves for two years.
Leonard Williams showed his talent for diplomacy by first learning the Comanche language, and then talking the tribe into releasing him and his brother. Back home in Nacogdoches, a group of local rabble rousers had decided that they had enjoyed all they could stand of Mexican rule and seceded to form the Republic of Fredonia.
The local Cherokees thought the rebellion sounded like a good idea and they supported it. When Mexican officials got word of the uprising and sought to squelch it, Williams was sent to talk to the Cherokees. Williams convinced them that supporting the rebellion was a bad idea that would result in death and destruction for the tribe. In appreciation, Mexico gave him an 1829 land grant in present day Rusk County that included the town of Mount Enterprise.
Williams served with Texas' revolutionary Army and was half-blinded in the siege of Bexar. He was a sergeant with Benton's Rangers and also saw action during the Cordova Rebellion. Sam Houston appointed Williams the Republic's Indian Commissioner in 1842. In that role, he negotiated several important peace treaties, none of which were ever broken by the tribes.
When Texas rebelled against Mexican rule, Williams was once again sent to visit Cherokee chief Bowl, this time to persuade the Cherokee not to enter the fray on the Mexican side. Bowl agreed. The Republic later repaid the Cherokees by exiling them to Oklahoma.
Williams later served as an Indian agent at Torrey's Trading Post near Waco, and negotiated and signed the crucial peace treaty with native tribes at Tehucana Creek. He once rode for several miles in pursuit of some white renegades who were making a living by murdering and robbing the Cherokees. When he caught up with them, he hanged them.
With his knowledge of several Native American dialects, Williams was often the first person called upon when the government wanted to negotiate for the release of Anglo captives from the tribes. He was often successful. He negotiated the release of two children taken captive at the Council House fight in San Antonio, but was unable to obtain the release of perhaps the best known Comanche captive, Cynthia Ann Parker.
Parker was taken captive from the family's frontier outpost at Fort Parker by the Comanche when she was nine or 10 years old. Williams first saw her when he was camped with some Comanches on the Canadian River. He tried to obtain her release, but without success.
Over the years, Williams saw Cynthia Ann several more times. Each time he saw her she was a little more Comanche, a little less Anglo. She eventually married chief Nocona and was the mother of the great Comanche chief, Quanah Parker. She was later recaptured by American soldiers but soon died, by all accounts a deeply unhappy woman.
Williams retired from public life to his place near Mount Calm in Hill County, where he died in 1856, reportedly from a scalp wound he received in a battle with the people for whom he devoted much of his life.
Sam Houston visited Williams shortly before Williams died and intended to write his old friend's biography but Williams was already too far gone. He was buried in what was described as "a cow pasture on land that was his homestead" and the grave was neglected for several years.
In 1965, Williams' grave and several others were saved from oblivion and he was recognized for his service to Texas by the Texas legislature in May of that year. If Texas had awarded its own Nobel Peace prizes, Leonard G. Williams most certainly would have been a fitting recipient.
