The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 91 RALPH B. WILLIAMSON. Ralph B. Williamson, a member of the Yakima bar since 1911 and specializing in his practice in irrigation and water right law, in which he has acquired a more than state wide reputation, comes to the northwest from Iowa. He was born in Tama, Iowa, July 31, 1879, a son of Thomas L. and Kate Williamson. The father, who devoted his life to the banking business, is now deceased. The son acquired a public school education in his native state and in the pursuit of his more specifically literary education he attended Cornell College of Iowa. He next entered Harvard university for a course in law, which he completed by graduation with the class of 1905. Removing to the northwest, he located at Portland, Oregon, where he remained for a short time, and later he spent five years in the reclamation service of the United States government as a representative of the legal department. In 1907 he came to Yakima while still engaged in that work, but in January, 1911, he opened a law office and entered upon the private practice of his profession. In 1913 the firm of Williamson & Luhman was organized and has since continued. He has made a specialty of irrigation law and has been identified with much of the most important of recent water law litigation. On the 5th of August, 1908, Mr. Williamson was married to Miss Helen M. Scott, of Yakima, a daughter of W. H. Scott, and to them have been born two children: Richard Scott, whose birth occurred November 16, 1909; and Mary Helen, born August 31, 1914. Fraternally Mr. Williamson is a Mason. In 1915 he was president of the Yakima Commercial Club and under his direction many projects of the organization were satisfactorily completed and new ones incepted. His political allegiance is that of the republican party and for a number of years he was a member of the hater code commission of the state. He assisted in drafting the code adopted by the legislature of 1917 and was largely instrumental in securing the passage of this act, generally believed to be one of the most important pieces of economic legislation passed by the legislature. There are few men who have equaled him in the extent of his experience and research in connection with questions relative to water rights and irrigation interests and his knowledge of law relative thereto enables him to speak with authority upon disputed questions of that kind. He takes a lively and earnest interest in matters pertaining to the public welfare, and is a permanent member of the legal advisory board appointed by President Wilson for Yakima county. ******************************** Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.