Butte County
Biographies
EDWARD T. WILLIAMSON
E. T. WILLIAMSON.--A native son of sterling qualities, both as a
neighbor and citizen and as the custodian of other people’s property and
wealth, is E. T. Williamson, at present the cashier of the Butte County Savings
Bank of Chico, and formerly a well-known and popular local educator. He was
born at Fairfield, Solano County, on April 3, 1876, the son of Angus
Williamson, who came from Glasgow, Scotland, sailing around Cape Horn and
landing in San Francisco in 1853. For a while Angus Williamson tried his luck
at mining, and then he engaged in farming and the raising of sheep. He made his
headquarters at Fairfield, but bought ranches in the Montezuma Hills, where he
had a fine stock-raising farm. He had married, at Liverpool, England, Catherine
Matthews, a native of that famous seaport city, and together they came to
California. The father is now deceased, and the mother resides at Los Angeles.
The youngest of nine children, all of whom
are still living, E. T. Williamson came to Chico in 1886, attended the public
schools here, and later studied at and graduated from the Chico State Normal,
having an honorable place in the class of 1895. For two years he taught school
at Douglas City, six miles south of Weaverville, Trinity County; and later he
entered the Department of Natural Science in the University of California,
where he studied for two years. He next taught as principal of the Palermo
school for a couple of years, and for three years he was assistant principal of
the public school of Chico. He also instructed for a term in the high school at
Chico, and for a year had the chair of mathematics at the State Normal School.
During the second year of his connection with this rising institution, Mr.
Williamson resigned to accept the position of cashier of the Butte County
Savings Bank, when it first opened its doors for business on September 5, 1905;
and this responsible position he has held ever since.
At that time, the bank was across the street from its present location; but in
August, 1915, it was moved to its new quarters at the corner of Second Street
and Broadway, to a building conveniently and even splendidly furnished. The capital
stock of the bank, originally $100,000, was increased in August, 1916, to
$150,000, and now its deposits are over $1,700,000. It is the largest savings
bank in the county. Mr. Williamson is secretary and treasurer of the Hotel Oaks
Company, and is also secretary of the Bidwell Park
and Playground Commission, said commission having been appointed by the city
trustees to care for and improve the twenty-three hundred acres donated by the
late Mrs. Annie E. K. Bidwell to the city of Chico
for a park.
At Portland, Ore., Mr. Williamson was
married to Pearl McMillan, a native daughter of California and a graduate of
the Chico State Normal, by whom he has had two children, Janet and Helen. A
Republican in national politics, Mr. Williamson is decidedly public-spirited in
local affairs. He takes a live interest, as he has for the past twenty years,
in the volunteer fire department, belonging to Chico Engine Company No. 1. He
is president and treasurer of the department. Fraternally, Mr. Williamson
belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
21 May 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 988-989, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies