Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Williams, C. R. 1881 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 12, 2010, 8:34 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 290 - 291 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company C. R. WILLIAMS, owner of the Williams Wood Products Company, of Portland, has won an excellent reputation for the high quality of his products, which have been received with marked favor in the markets of the northwest, and he is enjoying well merited prosperity. Mr. Williams was born in 1881 in White county, Illinois, and is a son of George R. and Charlotte E. (Dorsey) Williams. His father, who had served for many years as clerk of the circuit court of White county, died in 1894, leaving his widow with seven children, five sons and two daughters. The two daughters married and remained in Illinois and in 1905 the mother, with her five sons, came west, and her death occurred in 1926. C. R. Williams was reared and received his school training in his native state and was first employed after coming to Portland in connection with installing the electrical work on a number of the buildings of the Lewis & Clark exposition, including the forestry building, the Washington state building and a number of other large structures. He followed that line of work until 1917, during which period he did the wiring on the first reinforced concrete building and the first apartment house in Portland, being at that time in the employ of the West Coast Engineering Company. He then went to Canada, leased a thousand acres of wheat land and operated the ranch for four years, but three out of the four years were dry and so he quit that work and in 1922 entered his present business. This was first established as the Schlee Ladder works in 1906 by a man named Schlee, the plant being at the present location. Subsequently he sold out to George Nelson, who operated as the Nelson Ladder Works until his death, in 1922, after which Mr. Williams took over the plant and business. In 1926 he changed the name of the company to the Williams Wood Products Company, at which time he also added other lines of products besides ladders. Under the trade name of "Red Top," he makes and sells extension ladders, single long ladders, sectional ladders, fire department ladders, French trestles, extension French trestles, extension scaffold jacks, Miller type painter's ladder, step ladders, orchard ladders, rolling store ladders, step stools, roof jacks, ladder jacks and swing stages, as well as screen doors, window screens and a number of miscellaneous novelties. During the winter season, in order to take care of the seasonal market conditions, the firm installs Sager metal weather strips. The firm employs an average of eight men and occupies about four thousand five hundred feet of floor space, which it has outgrown, however, and Mr. Williams is looking for larger and more suitable quarters. The products of the company are largely handled through jobbers and Mr. Williams covers the northwestern states as a salesman, in which capacity he has shown marked ability. Mr. Williams was united in marriage to Miss Floy Robinson, who was born in White county, Illinois, where she and Mr. Williams attended school together. They had two children. Frederick married Helen O'Brien, of Portland, and has a son, Donald Frederick. Max died at the age of eleven years. Mr. Williams is a Mason and a member of the Izaak Walton League and the Chamber of Commerce. He is a business man of sound principles, as is evidenced in his policy of making only high grade equipment, using only the best of materials and workmanship, and his judgment has been vindicated by a steady and substantial increase in the volume of his business, while many of his present customers were buyers of his first products and have remained his customers because of his goods and service. Personally Mr. Williams is straightforward in manner and true in every relation of life, so that he commands the unqualified confidence and respect of all who know him. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/williams1053gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 4.5 Kb