Samuel Williston (1795–1874) was a farmer who started the manufacture of covered buttons in Easthampton, Massachusetts. These were initially made by hand as a cottage industry but he organised mechanisation of the process and established a substantial factory in Haydenville. This prospered and he went on to became a great businessman and philanthropist, establishing and endowing institutions such as Williston Seminary and Amherst College. He was a trustee of such institutions and also served in the Massachusetts General Court as a representative and senator.
His adopted son, Lyman Richards Williston, had a son who took the same name and became famous as a professor of law.
References
- William Seymour Tyler (1874), A Discourse Commemorative of Hon. Samuel Williston, Delivered in the Payson Church at Easthampton, September 13, 1874, and also in the College Church at Amherst, September 20., Springfield, Massachusetts: Clark W. Bryan
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