Samuel Cole Williams - Historian and Writer

Historian and Writer

In 1925 Judge Williams retired to his home, "Aquone", at Johnson City, Tennessee. The house, named after a Cherokee word for "resting place" was modeled after a Maryland colonial home Williams had visited. His personal library was fashioned after the design of Sir Walter Scott's study at Abbotsford House. The home is named on both the Tennessee Historical Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

In his later years he devoted much of his time to writing. His history texts and articles carried his personal, if wordy, enthusiastic style which helped to popularize local history studies. Tennessee Governor Prentice Cooper appointed him to head the rejuvenated Tennessee Historical Commission in 1941. In that position he founded publications and arranged the 1944 purchase of a Johnson City farm which became the Tipton-Haynes Historic Site. During these years Williams founded the East Tennessee Historical Society and was also in part responsible for providing the land and financing of the public library in Johnson City named in memory of his son, Mayne Williams.

During his final years he helped prepare for the Tennessee Sesquicentennial in 1946 and was a member of the Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure in the Federal Courts.

Judge Williams was an avid scholar and collector of Tennessee history and gave many items to libraries and museums. His papers are found in the East Tennessee State University Archives of Appalachia, the University of Tennessee's Frank H. McClung Museum and in the Archives of Emory University.

He died December 14, 1947.