Dr. Williamson walked every Saturday to Mankato to preach to four hundred Dakota men imprisoned by the government during a recent war. In February 1863, Williamson and Gideon Pond baptized three hundred of the prisoners that came to believe the gospel. Dr. Williamson presided at the organization of the first church in Minnesota, and when it came time to organize the Synod of Minnesota in 1858, he led the proceedings in St. Paul. His sermon was delivered from Deuteronomy 8:2, “And thou shalt remember all the ways which the Lord thy God led thee.” He remembered the many ways the Lord had blessed his ministry as he recounted the history of early missionary work among the Dakotas.

Thomas Smith was born March 1800 in Union District, South Carolina, to Rev. William and Mary (Smith) Williamson. His father was pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Fair Forest. In 1805, the family moved to Adams County, Ohio, where Thomas studied in local schools to prepare for further work at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He began studying medicine in Cincinnati but transferred to Yale to complete the Doctor of Medicine graduating in 1824. Dr. Williamson returned to Ohio to intern with a local physician in West Union before moving to Ripley to set up his own practice. In 1827, he married Margaret Poage, the daughter of Col. James Poage. During the first six years of marriage the Williamsons had three children, but they died in their early years with two passing away within just a few months of each other. In the early 1830s cholera occurred several times in Ohio and young children were especially susceptible to the disease, so the Williamson children may have died of cholera. Thomas and Margaret were stunned by the three-fold tragedy. The deaths raised questions of their direction in life and what would God have them to do. Thomas had come to faith in Christ while in college and as he and Margaret discussed their options, they believed they would serve the Lord in missions to the American Indians.

In the spring of 1833 physician and ruling elder Williamson began the process for becoming a missionary. He was taken under care of the Presbytery of Chillicothe and spent a year at Lane Theological Seminary studying for the ministry. At a presbytery meeting held at Red Oak in 1834 he was examined for licensure with trials including reading an exegetical paper composed in Latin answering the question whether Christ’s death was vicarious; provided a written paper on Psalm 2:7-12; and then he delivered a sermon on Mark 16:16, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Trials completed, he was licensed and then combined pulpit supply with scouting the region of what is currently Minnesota to determine the best place for missions to the Indians. Williamson determined the Dakota people provided the best opportunity. He reported to Chillicothe Presbytery his findings and on September 18, 1834 he was ordained an evangelist working with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Thomas, Margaret, and his wife’s sister, Mary Poage, joined Alexander G. Huggins, a school teacher, and his family for the journey. They departed Ripley April 1, 1835 and headed up the Mississippi on a steamboat arriving May 16 at Fort Snelling near Minneapolis.

During the weeks at Fort Snelling the Williamsons adjusted to frontier life and gathered goods to take with them to their place of ministry. In Fort Snelling June 11, 1835, Williamson organized the first Presbyterian congregation in the region that would become Minnesota with nineteen members and four ruling elders including U. S. Army Major G. A. Loomis. The church was named Presbyterian Church at St. Peters. Williamson later conducted the wedding ceremony for Loomis’s daughter, Eliza Edna, when she married Lt. Edward A. Ogden. It was the first marriage service by a clergyman in what would become Minnesota.

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