Samuel Cole Williams

Samuel Cole Williams (January 15, 1864 – December 14, 1947) was a noted 19th and 20th century Tennessee jurist, historian, educator, and businessman.

Samuel C. Williams was born January 15, 1864 near Humboldt, Tennessee. At the urging of family friend Horace Lurton, later a U. S. Supreme Court Justice, Williams pursued law training. He attended Vanderbilt University's School of Law and graduated in June 1884. After a few years of legal practice in Jonesborough, Tennessee Williams moved to Johnson City, Tennessee in 1892.

Williams joined politician Walter P. Brownlow in forming Watauga Light and Power Company and the Johnson City Transit Company (Johnson City Streetcar Company). In conjunction with John Cox he established the Banking and Trust Company which later became Unaka National Bank, Tennessee National Bank, and finally Hamilton National Bank. Judge Williams also had interests in Empire Chair Company and the John Sevier Hotel.

In 1912 he became Chancellor of First Chancery Division of Tennessee. In 1913 he was appointed to complete a vacated seat on the Tennessee Supreme Court. The next year he was elected to the court for a four-year term. He was re-elected in 1918. He left the Tennessee Supreme Court to serve as first dean of the Lamar School of Law (also known as Emory University School of Law) at, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia from 1919 to 1924.

He was appointed to codify the laws of Tennessee in 1928 and again in 1938. His eight-volume work, Williams Annotated Code of Tennessee, commonly known as "The Williams Code", became a model for other state revisions.

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.

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