Austin H. Williamson, prosecuting attorney for this judicial district and one of the best known members of the bar of the Jay Circuit Court, is a Missourian by birth but a Hoosier by choice, a resident of Indiana since he was three years of age and of Jay county since he was eleven. Mr. Williamson was born at Osceola, Mo., June 19, 1871, and is the son and only child of David R. and Minerva (Ashville) Williamson, the latter of whom is still living, making her home at Redkey, where she has resided for many years. The late David R. Williamson, a former member of the bar of the Jay Circuit Court and for many years justice of the peace in and for Richland township, was a native of Ireland, born in County Donegal on November 23, 1844, son of Hugh and Mary (Ward) Williamson, both of Scottish stock, and was but an infant in arms when he came with. his parents to the United States, the family for a while making their home in Pennsylvania and then moving over into Ohio and settling in Warren county, where they remained until the winter of 1853-4, when they came to Indiana and settled in the vicinity of the Daycreek school m Pike township, this county. For some time Hugh Williamson conducted a tavern on the old Quaker Trace. In 1861 he and his youngest son, J. H. Williamson, opened a store at New Mt. Pleasant. Some years later he moved to Ridgeville, where his last days were spent, his death occurring at the age of seventy-three years. He also was the owner of a good farm in Jefferson township, this county. J. H. Williamson, above referred to, became a lawyer, with offices at Ridgeville, and died there more than twenty years ago. David R. Williamson was about ten years of age when he came with his parents to Indiana and he completed his schooling at Ridgeville, where he also received some commercial training, and as a young man was engaged in mercantile pursuits variously at Ridgeville, Bluff Point and Winchester. [Randolph Co.] He married when twenty-five years of age, in 1869, and not long afterward went to Missouri, where he became engaged in mercantile business at Osceola. When the panic of 1873 struck the country he met reverses there and came back to Indiana, again locating at Ridgeville, where he remained until 1884, in which year he moved with his family to Redkey, in this county, where he established his home and where he spent the remainder of his life. In his youth David R. Williamson had given considerable attention to the study of law in association with his brother and after taking up his residence at Redkey resumed these studies at his leisure and was presently admitted to the bar of the Jay Circuit Court. In 1894 he was elected justice of the peace and by successive re-elections served in that magisterial office for sixteen years, so it thus may be said that his son Austin "just naturally grew up to the law," even though he did not enter into the practice of that profession until he had given railroading a pretty thorough try-out.
Austin H. Williamson was about three years of age when his parents returned to Indiana from Missouri and his early schooling was received at Ridgeville. He was about thirteen years of age when his parents moved to Redkey and he completed his schooling in the schools of that city. He early became attracted to railroad work and became a clerk in the office of the Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company at Redkey, later occupying similar positions at Hartford City, Muncie and Peru and was thus engaged for twelve years, at the end of which time he transferred his connection to the Chicago & Erie Railroad Company and was for eighteen months or more engaged in that company's offices at Chicago. In the meantime Mr. Williamson had been devoting a good deal of his leisure to the study of law and had decided to give up railroad work for the profession of law. He entered the Indiana Law School at Indianapolis and after being graduated from that institution was admitted to the bar and opened an office for the practice of his profession at Redkey, where he since has made his home, he and his mother being very pleasantly situated there. Mr. Williamson is a Republican and has for years been regarded as one of the leaders of that party in Jay county. For eight years he served as city attorney at Redkey and was serving- as city treasurer when in 1920 he was elected prosecuting attorney for this judicial district (Jay county) for the two-year term beginning January 1, 1921, and has since then been devoting his attention to the affairs of that office. Mr. Williamson also has been admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the district of Indiana. He is a member of the Presbyterian church at Portland and is affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of that city and with the local lodges of the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen at Redkey.
SOURCE: Milton T. Jay, M.D., History of Jay County Indiana, Historical Publishing Co., Indpls. 1922, Vol. II, pp. 369-370. Transcribed by Eloine Chesnut.