William WILLIAMSON, Congress, SD (1875-1972)

WILLIAMSON, William, a Representative from South Dakota; born near New Sharon, Mahaska County, Iowa, October 7, 1875; moved with his parents to Plankinton, Aurora County, S.Dak., in 1882; attended the public schools and the Wayne (Nebr.) Normal School; engaged in agricultural pursuits and also taught school for several years; was graduated from the University of South Dakota at Vermilion in 1903 and from the law department of that university in 1905; was admitted to the bar in 1905 and commenced practice in Oacoma, Lyman County, S.Dak.; founder, with his brother, of the Murdo Coyote and the Prairie Sun; prosecuting attorney of Lyman County 1905-1911; circuit judge of the eleventh judicial district 1911-1921; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1912; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-seventh and to the five succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1921-March 3, 1933); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior (Sixty-eighth and Sixty-ninth Congresses), Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments (Seventieth and Seventy-first Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932 to the Seventy-third Congress; resumed the practice of law in Rapid City, S.Dak.; special assistant attorney general of South Dakota and assigned as general counsel for the Public Utilities Commission 1939-1951, and also the Department of Insurance of South Dakota the last five years; officer with an insurance company, 1950-1972; member of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission 1928-1972; died in Custer, S.Dak., July 15, 1972; interment in Pine Lawn Cemetery, Rapid City, S.Dak.

Bibliography

Williamson, William. William Williamson; Student, Homesteader, Teacher, Lawyer, Judge, Congressman & Trusted Friend; An Autobiography. Rapid City, S.Dak.: The Author, 1964.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present