San Luis Obispo County Biographies

A. WILLIAMSON

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


A. WILLIAMSON was born in Scotland in 1835, and received instruction in 
his school-days from the celebrated Scottish historian, Dr. McIntosh. He served 
an apprenticeship in the tin and hardware business, after which he went to sea and 
visited the different ports in Europe, and finally doubled Cape Horn and came to Cali- 
fornia. On the day of landing at San Francisco, he was engaged by a mercantile house 
in that city, his various duties consisting of those of steward, waterman and copying clerk, 
which duties occupied his time from 4 a. m. to 10 p. M. After three years� service in this 
business, he gave the placer mines a trial, soon returning, however, to San Francisco, 
where he made the acquaintance of the senior member of a large English mercantile house 
and was given the position of trading agent. During his engagement with that firm he 
saw the important cities of the world. 

It was in 1868 that Mr. Williamson came to San Luis Obispo, where he has ever since 
been actively engaged in business. He is the pioneer merchant in the tin and hardware 
business, and relates some very interesting stories of the experience of merchants in 
those early days of San Luis Obispo. Every thing, he says, was in an embryo and un- 
settled state of affairs, but money was plentiful, the soil new, and new people were 
coming into the town and county every day, bringing their families with them, their 
efforts all seeming to tend to establish an endless prosperity and a rapid growth of both 
town and county. But the dry years came and the county suffered many serious draw- 
backs. Mr. Williamson is a firm believer in a splendid future lor this country and is 
of the opinion that it is not far distant. 

He was married in 1866, at Santa Cruz, and has seven children, five sons and two 
daughters. 

History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California  - by 
C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II.  -Lewis Publ. Co., 
Chicago, 1917.