While this collection contains no biographical information on its subject, biographical information has been found elsewhere for a Samuel Walker Williams, who is presumed to be the Samuel W. Williams to whom these papers belonged.

Samuel Walker Williams was born around 1848 on the "Leatherwood" Plantation in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. He was one of eleven children. At the age of 15, Williams joined the Fifth Virginia Calvary, C.S.A. as a private. He moved to Bland County, Virginia, around 1872, and married Bland County resident Maggie Grayson. The Williamses raised many children at their home, located just south of the old Bland Courthouse. Williams later married a daughter of Major R. R. Henry of Tazewell, Virginia. He practiced law in Tazewell County, was the commonwealth attorney for Bland County for many years and served a term in the Virginia Senate. He was also a judge of the circuit court of Tazewell, the attorney-general of Virginia for four years, and a Democratic nominee for Congress in 1896. At the time of his death, Williams owned more than 4,000 acres of land and mineral interests in Bland County, most of which were situated near the Bland Courthouse. He died in 1921.