Garland County ArArchives Biographies.....Williamson, Curnel Samuel 
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Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 July 17, 2009, 9:38 pm

Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

CURNEL SAMUEL WILLIAMSON.
    Curnel Samuel Williamson was for many years a resident of Hot Springs and
although he now makes his home in St. Louis he still has important business
interests and investments in the former city. He was born in Covington,
Kentucky, April 5, 1851 and obtained his education largely in the public schools
of Cincinnati, Ohio, and in the Chickering Institute. His parents removed with
the family to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1861, and Curnel Samuel Williamson started
out to provide for his own support when a youth of eighteen years, initiating
his business experience as a clerk with the Peoples Ice Company of Cincinnati.
At the age of twenty years he was bookkeeper with the ship chandler firm of
Williamson & Company, the senior partner thereof being his uncle. In 1871 he
came to Hot Springs on a visit, after which he returned to Cincinnati, but in
1872 again made a trip to this city. He did not take up his abode here at that
time, however, but in 1875 returned to Hot Springs and was married on the 18th
of October of that year, to Miss Fannie Gaines, a daughter of William H. Gaines,
who is mentioned on another page of this work. About the time of his marriage
Mr. Williamson took the management of the old Hot Springs Hotel, associated with
A. B. Gaines and carried on the business until the hotel was destroyed by fire
in March, 1878. At that time Mr. Williamson turned his attention to the real
estate business, conducting important transactions of this character until 1892,
when he erected the Great Northern Hotel and the Great Northern Bathhouse. He
then assumed management of the hotel and bathhouse and carried on the business
successfully for a long period. In 1897 he erected an addition to the hotel,
making it as it now stands. In 1874 he had acted as agent for the White Star
Line Packet Company, having four side-wheel steamers on the river, and was
located at Memphis, Tennessee. In 1872 he had been agent for the Cincinnati &
St. Louis Express Line, also having four river steamers. Mr. Williamson
continued to conduct the hotel until 1903, when he removed to St. Louis, where
he has since resided, although retaining his business and financial interests in
Hot Springs. He is connected with the city of St. Louis in an official capacity.
While in Hot Springs he laid out the Williamson and Gaines addition to the city
and he owns large real estate holdings here. He still visits Hot Springs quite
frequently, to look after his hotel and other interests and takes great pleasure
in meeting his old friends, who are always glad to see him. He rejoices, too, in
the progress and development that is taking place in Hot Springs, ever
manifesting a commendable pride in what has been accomplished as the years have
gone by. This is a city famous for its fine hotels.

    To Mr. and Mrs. Williamson were horn four children: Maria L.; Etna A., the
wife of Paul Powers of Washington, D. C; Curnel Samuel, Jr., of Pine Bluff,
Arkansas, who is engaged in merchandising; and Mary P., the wife of M. P. Relyea
of New Jersey. For his second wife Mr. Williamson chose Ida L. Miller, who was
born in Iowa. Mr. Williamson has been a member of the Elks lodge of Hot Springs
for nineteen years. He has always voted with the republican party and he held
the office of chief deputy sheriff under Mr. Houpt. He collected taxes
individually during the smallpox epidemic of 1895 and in 1896 he acted as deputy
sheriff, collecting all taxes and making settlements. A man of pronounced
ability and of progressive public spirit, Hot Springs was loath to have him
leave but she feels that she still has a claim upon him because of his extensive
investments here and because of his continued interest in the welfare and growth
of the city.



Additional Comments:
Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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