San Augustine, San Augustine County
Born in Tennessee about 1804, Samuel A. Williams became a Methodist minister. He was admitted to the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Church in 1834, and also served as a minister in Alabama. Williams became the first Methodist minister regularly stationed in East Texas in 1838 when the Republic of Texas was made an official district of the Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Church. The first informal conference met in San Augustine that year and assigned Williams to the Nacogdoches circuit. In 1841 Williams married Terisa Kellogg, and in 1843 he was assigned to the newly created Lake Soda District that included Shelbyville, Harrison, Lake Soda, Henderson and Nacogdoches. Williams was elected chairman of the annual meeting of the East Texas Methodist Conference in 1850 and 1851. He was chosen as their delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for several years. A powerful speaker and well-respected minister, Williams retired in 1863, and died in 1866. He was buried at his home in San Augustine. A grave marker was placed here in 1936. (1997)