San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES EDMUND WILLIAMS
An enterprising businessman of
Stockton, whose foresight and optimism have been of real service in the
development of the important commercial interests of the Gateway City, is
Charles Edmund Williams, one of the founders of the firm of Williams &
Moore, pioneer shippers of wool, hides and tallow, and manufacturers of soap,
of 148 South Aurora Street. Mr. Williams
was born at Batesville, Independence County, Arkansas, the son of Robert and
Eliza (Ridgway) Williams, the former a native of Virginia, the latter of
Pennsylvania, and both now deceased. His
father passed away while Charles was a baby; and his mother, with five
children, in 1853, crossed the plains in an ox-team to California, locating at
Stockton.
Here Charles attended the local
schools, and in this city he secured his first employment, in a grocery
store. Then, in partnership with B. W.
Owens and E. Moore he engaged in raising sheep in central Nevada, and also in
San Joaquin Valley, and in this enterprise he continued for ten years. Early in the ‘80s he formed, with Edward
Moore, the partnership of Williams & Moore, and they began to deal in wool,
hides and tallow, becoming one of the pioneer concerns in that field. Mr. Moore died about thirty years ago. In recent years the firm has added to their
plant a soap manufacturing department, under the name of the Stockton Soap
Works. The plant is located in the
industrial district, on South Aurora Street, and there are manufactured the
well-known and popular soap products: “Stocktonia,” a laundry soap, and “Angora,” a borax favorite used for toilet and bath, and also a
general line of laundry soaps for the trade.
In partnership with James Jamieson, Mr. Williams has become one of the
owners of a muscat vineyard of 130 acres south of
Fresno, which was developed from raw land and is now in full bearing. Mr. Williams is a member of the Sun-Maid Raisin
Growers, and is a director of the Harris Harvester Works of Stockton.
As one of the oldest living pioneers
in the county, Mr. Williams has witnessed many of the most important and
interesting changes that have taken place in this part of the Golden
State. He was a member of the Hook and
Ladder Company of the Stockton Volunteer Fire Department in early days, and served
one term in the city council as a representative from the Second Ward and two
terms as councilman-at-large. He was
elected mayor of Stockton in 1903, and served until 1905, one of the best
mayors the city ever had. He is a
staunch Republican.
At Stockton, in 1881, Mr. Williams
was married to Miss Lillian Wood, a native of New Jersey; and they have been
blessed with three children. Maude is
the eldest; Hazel, the second-born, has become Mrs. George M. Burton, of Stockton,
and the mother of one daughter, Catherine; and the youngest is Byna. Mr. and Mrs.
Williams are communicants of the Central Methodist Church. Mr. Williams has been through
all the chairs of Charity Lodge, I. O. O. F., and is a member of the Independent
Order of Foresters.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
948. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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