Samuel Cole Williams

Williams wrote Tennessee's early history in his afternoons. After Vanderbilt law school, where family friend Horace Lurton encouraged him, he became a partner in Jonesborough, later moved to Johnson City, and joined the state supreme court in 1913. After resigning to be dean of Emory's Lamar School of Law, he came home at sixty to keep morning office hours and spend afternoons in his library. Collecting material on early settlers since 1893, he published six books, among them History of the Lost State of Franklin and Beginnings of West Tennessee in the Land of the Chickasaws.

What the plaque says

Samuel Cole Williams Born on a farm near old south Gibson about 4 miles NE, he spent his boyhood in a house on this site. He attended local public schools and a private school taught by Mrs. Sharp Lannon. Later he practiced law in this city, from 1884 to 1889. A distinguished jurist, he was also one of Tennessee's premier historians.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Davy Crockett Cabin — 22 mi
  A restored cabin and museum in Rutherford for the last Tennessee home of David Crockett, who broke with Andrew Jackson over Indian removal.
• Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park — 26 mi
  The largest group of Middle Woodland mounds in the United States, about two thousand years old, with the second tallest mound in the country, a museum and paved trails.
• Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School — 27 mi
  The one-room Black school Tina Turner attended in Nutbush, moved to Brownsville in 2012 and opened as a museum in 2014 beside Sleepy John Estes's house.

More markers nearby

• Coxville Church and Cemetery Winfield Scott (Scotty) Moore — 5.5 mi
• Union University — 11 mi
• Home of Casey Jones — 11 mi
• Adam Huntsman — 14 mi