David R. Williamson, one of the numerous representatives of the old families of Greene county, Ohio, who are to be found in Jay county, a substantial farmer and landowner of Noble township and one of the best known men in that section of the county, living at his pleasant farm home on rural mail route No. 3 out of Portland, has been a resident of this county for many years and has done well his part in development work in the community in which long ago he elected to make his home. Mr.Williamson was born in .Greene county, Ohio, December II, 1847, and is a son of William and Jane (McCroskey) Williamson, the latter of whom, born at Rockbridge, Va., July 15, 1813, died on September II, 1877. William Williamson was born in York county, Pennsylvania, April 1, 1810, and when a lad became a resident of Greene county, Ohio, to which county his parents had moved. There he grew to manhood and married and made his home until he moved to Hancock county, same state, where he became the owner of a 240-acre farm and spent his last days. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, of whom five are living, the subject of this sketch having two sisters, Emma and Amanda, and two brothers, Harvey and William Williamson.
David R. Williamson was but a child when his parents moved from Greene county to Hancock county (Ohio) and in the latter county he received his schooling and grew to manhood. He remained at home until his marriage at the age of twenty-four years and then began farming on his own account, renting a farm in his home county. He was thus engaged there for about six years, at the end of which time, in 1878, he moved with his family to Indiana and settled in Noble township, this county, where he remained for three years, during which time he became the owner of a forty-acre farm in that township. He then returned to Ohio and was for a year engaged in farming on his father-in-law's place after which he returned to Jay county and located on his "forty" in Noble township. To this he presently added by purchase a tract of thirty acres and on this seventy-acre farm lived for twenty years, at the end of which time he sold it and then for seven years was engaged as a renter, continuing to farm in Noble township. He then bought a tract of sixty-five acres, the place on which he is, now living, and to this presently added an adjacent tract of fifteen acres, now being the owner of an excellent farm of eighty acres on which he and his family are very comfortably situated. Since taking possession of this place Mr. Williamson has made numerous substantial improvements and has a well-equipped farm plant. In 1919 he rented his farm and has since been living practically retired from the active labors of the farm.
Mr. Williamson is a Republican and he and his wife are members of the United Brethren church. On March 14, 1872, David R. Williamson was united in marriage to Hannah McKinley, who also was born in Ohio, and to this union nine children have been born, three of whom Leroy, James and Charles are deceased, the others being Nelson, John, Jennie, Homes, Robert H. and Dassie, all of whom are married. Mrs. Williamson was born in Hancock county, Ohio, and is a daughter of John and Maria (Marshall) McKinley, substantial farming people of that county. John McKinley and his wife were the parents of eleven children, William, James, Rachel, Oliver, Lydia J. (I ), Robert, John H., Elizabeth, Lydia J. (II), Hannah and Mary. Of these but two now survive, Mrs. Williamson and her sister, Lydia.
SOURCE: Milton T. Jay, M.D., History of Jay County Indiana, Historical Publishing Co., Indpls. 1922, Vol. II, pp. 110-111. Transcribed by Eloine Chesnut.