Sacramento County
Biographies
DAVID A. WILLIAMSON
DAVID A. WILLIAMSON.—For many years of his life identified with the lumber
business, David A. Williamson has for some years been the manager of the T. S.
Ferguson Lumber Company, one of the principal business firms of Galt. A
native of Indiana, he was born in Whiteside
County, January 21, 1858. His
parents, John and Amanda Williamson, were both natives of New
York, the father being a physician. The
Williamson family are of Holland
descent, settling many years ago in New York,
where many members have attained prominence. One of them, D. D.
Williamson, was elected to the office of comptroller of New
York City during the early part of the nineteenth
century and was thereafter elected to this office for thirty terms, without
opposition, a tribute to his ability and the place he occupied in the
confidence of the people. He was one of the founders and the first
president of the "Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company, holding this office
for many years. Another member of the family whose talent won prominence
for her was Miss Mary Williamson, a sister of the subject of this sketch, her
death occurring recently at Berkeley, Cal. She
was an artist with the needle and a designer whose work took the grand prize at
a number of world exposition.
John
Williamson came to Indiana in its early frontier days
and practiced medicine in the vicinity of Lafayette
for a number of years. He died there at the age of seventy-six, his wife living to be eighty-one. One of a family of
eight children, three of whom are living, David A. Williamson attended the Lafayette
schools, and at sixteen he went to work in the lumber business, and thus he was
steadily engaged until in 1886, when he went into this business for himself in Indianapolis,
Ind. He met with success and continued
there for the next seven years, but as with thousands of others, the panic of
1893 ruined his business. He then became a bookkeeper for a wholesale meat
establishment and was with them for three years, then went to New York, where
he worked in a similar capacity for a year, when he became the western
representative of the National Provisioner, having
its headquarters in Chicago for a year. Next he went to Toledo,
Ohio, and spent a year in the lumber business and then
came to Berkeley, Cal.,
in 1902, where for two years he was associated with Henry W. Taylor. He
then engaged in contracting in Berkeley and from there
went to Willows, Glenn County,
where he continued in the building business. In the fall of 1917 he came
to Galt and here he became manager of the T. S. Ferguson Lumber Company.
In
Lafayette, Ind., September 7, 1887,
Mr. Williamson was married to Miss Sally Ayers Ford, born at that place, the
daughter of William and Lida (Ayers) Ford, her
education being completed at Purdue University. Mr.
And Mrs. Williamson have three children: Geneve is the wife of Dr. Harms of Galt; Bartlett R. Is a
berry-basket manufacturer at San Francisco; John A. resides
at Sacramento. Mr. Williamson
is a member of the Masonic Lodge at Galt and both he and his wife are members
of the Eastern Star; he belongs to the Sacramento division
of the National Lumbermen’s Association known as the "Hoo-Hoos"
and is the oldest member of the order on the Pacific
Coast. He is a past master of
the Grange and is now clerk of the board of trustees of Galt union high school
district.
Transcribed 4-2-07
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Page 595. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.