Williamson family papers

Thomas Smith Williamson, 1800-1879 Thomas Smith Williamson was born in Union District, South Carolina 6 March 1800. He received his bachelor’s degree from Jefferson College in 1819 and then studied medicine in Philadelphia and New Haven, receiving his medical degree from Yale in 1824. In August 1832 he entered Lane Seminary, graduating the following year. He spent most of the rest of his life as a Presbyterian missionary to the Dakota Indians of the upper Midwest. He established the missions at Lac Qui Parle (in residence 1835-1846), Kaposia (1846-1852), and Pajutazee, or Yellow Medicine, (1852-1862), Minnesota. Following the Dakota Uprising of 1862, Thomas Williamson met with President Lincoln and advocated for the release of Dakota prisoners of war. In the late 1830s, Thomas Williamson, with Stephen R. Riggs, began working on the first Dakota translation of the Bible. The first translations were published in Cincinnati in 1839 by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Williamson had two sons: Andrew Woods Williamson, a professor at Augustana College, and John Poage Williamson, a Presbyterian missionary to the Santee Sioux. Thomas Williamson died 24 June 1879.

Andrew Woods Williamson (1838-1906) Andrew Woods Williamson was born 31 January 1838, in Lac qui Parle, Chippewa County, Minnesota. He enrolled at Knox College in 1853, graduated from Marietta College in 1857, and then went on to Yale University to receive his master’s degree in natural sciences. He was a member of the Union Army during the Civil War from 1861 to 1866 when he was honorably discharged after injuries and sickness. He was first stationed at Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, where he took part in the Dakota Conflict, and then took part in the Vicksburg campaigns. After he recovered from the war, he studied law in Minneapolis and then taught and/or acted as principal at various schools and colleges from 1866 to 1880. A.W. Williamson came to Augustana College as the chair of Mathematics and Astronomy in 1880, following a conversion to Lutheranism. During his 26 years at Augustana, A.W. Williamson served as secretary of the general faculty and as vice president from 1887 to 1888. He was also very involved with the local community, serving as an alderman for the City Council of the seventh ward from 1887–1889 and was a supporter of Grace Lutheran Church in Moline, Illinois. He retired from Augustana in 1905 and passed away 1 October 1906 in Portland, Oregon due to years of failing health. Williamson was the author of a number of publications, including The Descendants of the Robert and John Poage, Pioneer Settlers in Augusta County, VA; Is the Dakota Related to the Indo European Languages; and Plane and Solid Geometry on the Suggestive Method.