George Walton Williams grew up in Nacoochee Valley in White County and became a successful banker and merchant, living most of his life in the 1800s. He was a native of North Carolina, but besides Nacoochee Valley, he also lived for a time in Athens, Augusta and Charleston, S.C. But it was Nacoochee Valley that he held closest to his heart and a place where he learned a lesson from his father that perhaps helped him succeed as he did in later life. As prospectors invaded White County scrounging around for gold, Williams caught the fever.