Williamson Settlement

Williamson Settlement is a small rural community located off Farm Road 105 about seven miles north of Vidor and eighteen miles northwest of Orange in northwestern Orange County. The settlement was named for pioneer William Williamson, who came to the area and established a home in 1867. The Williamson house became a meeting place for local settlers to come together for social activities and church services. The family donated land for the Williamson Cemetery, and the earliest marked graves date to the 1880s. In 1900 William Williamson and his wife Joissine Desmarais converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, thus ushering in the beginning of Mormonism in Williamson Settlement (see MORMONS). Residents built a pine-log church around 1901 and a frame structure in 1915. In the early twentieth century the community had a school, the church, one business, and scattered farms. By 1970 the population was 151. In 1979 the community received a Texas Historical Marker honoring William Williamson. From the 1980s through 2000 the population remained constant at 175. The church still served as the center of the community, and Williamson Settlement also had a family genealogical association.