Jefferson County IA Archives Biographies.....Williamson, John 1822 - 
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Nettie Mae Lucas IAGWArchives@aol.com May 27, 2005, 10:24 pm

Author: Portrait & Biographical Album

Portrait & Biographical Album, Published 1890, Page 260.
HON. JOHN WILLIAMSON, Superintendent of the County Poor Farm of Jefferson
County, was born in Penrith, Cumberland County, England, December 25, 1822. His
father, RICHARD WILLIAMSON, was a stone-mason by trade and a weaver of fancy
goods, but followed the latter occupation during the greater part of his life.
He married MARGARET PATTERSON….who died at the age of forty years, leaving five
children, three sons and two daughters. Only one of JOHN’S brothers came to the
U. S., HIRAM, who crossed the waters in 1850 …..Late in life JOHN’S father also
came to America where he spent his last days, his death occurring in Fairfield,
Iowa, Nov. 13, 1860, twelve days before his 67th birthday.

When a lad of 11 years JOHN WILLIAMSON learned the weaver’s trade with his
father and continued to follow that pursuit during his residence in his native
land. On May 8, 1851, he married SUSAN MARSDEN, a native of Yorkshire, England,
born Dec. 16, 1818, and on the 65th anniversary of American Independence they
sailed for this country. After a voyage of six weeks on the briny deep, they
reached Boston Harbor in August, 1851. Going to Dover, N. H., both MR. and MRS.
WILLIAMSON began work in a factory …During four years of labor and saving, they
had acquired enough to enable them to make an investment in western lands and
with that purpose in view they came to Jefferson County in May, 1855, where they
purchased fifty acres of prairie land, four miles west of Fairfield…

In Keosauque on the 30th of October, 1856, MR. WILLIAMSON became a naturalized
citizen of America….During the war he served a short time as commissary for the
Home Guards, the stores consisting of five gallons of brandy. (P.S. He was not a
Prohibitionist at that time.) As a public speaker, MR. W. is in great demand,
whether at Old Settlers Associations, in political campaigns, or as a Fourth of
July orator. His speeches abound in native eloquence and invincible logic….


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