Weems was born Nov. 23, 1857, the son of Edward Mmortimer Weems and Elizabeth Sapp. William Weems was a planter and owned land adjoining his sister, Mrs. Thomas Monroe Adams, on the Chattahoochee River below Columbus in Chattahoochee County. When the US government wanted land for the new military camp in World War I, their plantations were selected. They sold for a handsome price, and they bought a new farm/plantation in what is now in north Columbus. Weems was still unmarried in 1921.