Muscogee County GaArchives Photo Person.....Williams, Charlie Frank ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 May 13, 2007, 7:14 pm Source: Sesquicentennial Supplement III, Ledger-Enquirer Name: Charlie Frank Williams Photo can be seen at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/williams12834gph.jpg Image file size: 131.3 Kb 4 Men Were Keys to Construction: Jones, Williams, Jordan and Wright. ( This is a very large article, so I will post each builder seperate.Three of the builders has pictures, there is no picture for Seaborn Jones. CGT) By william Rowe Ledger Staff Writer Charlie Frank Williams (Dec. 20, 1891-Aug. 2, 1957) lives in memory as a man interested in every phase of community development. He had an eye for beauty and an uncanny sense of where things should go in the building of a powerful city, associates recall. He dedicated himself to making of his works things that could be enjoyed by the community. The grandson of John T. Williams, farmer and merchant who migrated from South Carolina to Alabama in 1833, he was the son of Warren Williams (Oct. 26, 1846- Dec. 30, 1927), for whom a Columbus apartment complex is named, and Cora Alethia Booker Williams. Charlie Frank, born in Phenix City, Ala., studied at Marion Mllitary Institute in Alabama, at Alabama Polytechnic Institute - now Auburn University - and at Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He enlisted in the Army and served as an Infantry Lieutenant in 1917-18. He returned home in 1919 and went into the coal business in Phenix City, broadened it to include builders' supplies, then sold the coal interest to focus on lumber and construction materials. Active in Phenix City affairs, he served several years as president of the Phenix City school board. In 1921 Williams married Loma La Delle Tefft of Phenix City and they had a daughter, Cora La Delle, now Mrs. Jacob L. Riley Jr. of Columbus. Mrs. Williams died in 1926. Williams moved to ColumbUs in 1923 and established a woodworking plant that became, in January, 1924, Williams Lumber Co. On Feb. 7, 1928 he married Ethel George Chandler, daughter of William T. Chandler Jr. and Coralette Metcalf Chandler of Montgomery, Ala. Their children are Ethel Chandler, now Mrs. Frank D. Foley Jr.; Cathryn, now Mrs. Walter Kilgore, and Camille, now Mrs. Charles McKenzie Taylor of Atlanta. Williams was a close business friend of another Columbus developer, W. C. Bradley, who died in 1947. Williams was called the "Father" of the Columbus Country Club, for his service as president, and his fundraising efforts during its 1946-1950 expansion and the construction of its present main building. As head of Williams Lumber, Williams Construction Co., and The Concrete Co., he built millions of dollars worth of military construction at Fort Benning. With the late Fred Wilson of Atlanta, he built Camellia Apartments at the entry to the military reservation, named for his favorite flower. The same team built the Traffic Circle Shopping Center in Columbus, and Emory University Apartments in Atlanta. Williams developed La Delle Apartments on 13th Street, Hilton Heights residential section, and a home near the corner of Hilton Avenue and Edgewood Road that was the beginning of Clubview subdivision. With Muscogee Development Co., Williams built Mohina Woods homes. It was Williams and associates who purchased gas properties from Georgia Power and organized the Gas Light Co. of Columbus, which he served as president. Charlie Frank built a small Rock Park subdivision off Cherokee Avenue, he headed an effort that raised local funds for construction of Warren Williams Homes, and he was a key figure in the building of St. Francis Hospital. He was a large contributor to construction of the chapel of First Baptist Church, to which he belonged. In depression-era 1932 Williams built a country home at Uxau-hatche (Big Creek) with spacious recreation facilities and a huge stone swimming pool fed with cold spring water which flows into a fishing and boating lake. The Lake Huston property was sold to Tom Huston Peanut Co., now Tom's Foods Ltd., affiliated with Genetal Mills. A charter member of the Columbus Lions Club, a former Rotarian, Williams remembered his birthplace and his mother when he made available an eight-acre wooded area in front of Phenix City's Cobb Memorial Hospital for use as a park in her memory. Williams was a long-time friend and advisor to former Muscogee school superintendent William Henry Shaw in securing sites permitting desirable development of the county school system. Williams was called the "father" of the Columbus Country Club for his service as president and his fund raising efforts during its 1946-1950 expansion and the construction of its present main building. The restless energies of this city builder also led him to serve as a Georgia member of a national advisory council to the Democratic party, and to contribute his business leadership as director of Tom Huston, Columbus Fiber Mills, Columbus Plumbing and Heating, Hewitt Contracting, and Columbus Bank & Trust Co. Special Sesquicentennial Supplement III Ledger- Enquirer, Sunday, April 30, 1978, pg S-28. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/williams12834gph.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 5.8 Kb