Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Williams, W. 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com January 23, 2011, 3:32 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 758 - 759
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     W. WILLIAMS, who has devoted his attention to the laundry business since 
his school days, is now president and manager of the Liberty Laundry Company 
of Portland, an enterprise which holds to the highest standards of service in 
its particular line. Mr. Williams was born in Richmond, Indiana, a son of J. 
A. and Lyda (Bruce) Williams, the latter now deceased. The father, who is 
living in Salt Lake City at the age of eighty years, is the oldest laundryman 
in the United States in years of continuous connection with the business and 
yet operates the Salt Lake City Overall Laundry.

     Because of his father's connection with this line of trade W. Williams 
became associated with laundry interests when still a school boy. He attended 
the public schools of his native city and afterward was graduated from Earlham 
College with the class of 1903. On completing his college course he went to 
Ogden, Utah, where he was engaged in business with his father under the name 
of the Troy Laundry Company, continuing at that place for about a year. He was 
afterward associated with the Troy Laundry at Salt Lake City for three and one-
half years, having charge of the wash-room department until 1909, when he went 
to San Francisco and became connected with Frank J. Huebsch in the laundry 
business, there continuing until 1916. In the latter year he came to Portland 
and entered into active association with the Troy Laundry Machinery Company, 
selling laundry equipment, having charge of the territory here from 1916 until 
1925. He then purchased an interest in the Liberty Laundry Company, which had 
been established in 1921 by Lot Q. Sweetland on Union avenue and was removed 
to the present location on East Eleventh and Madison streets in 1922. Here the 
company has a half block, with fourteen thousand square feet of floor space, 
including first floor and balcony. They utilize twelve wagons and trucks, 
employ sixty-two people and handle over twenty thousand pieces in the linen 
supply department alone per week. This linen belongs to the firm and is sent 
out through contract arrangements to hotels, restaurants and barber shops, 
being called for and delivered. This firm has the only power plant in the 
northwest, with a one hundred and twenty-five horse power generating and 
alternating current, and the exhaust steam heats the water for the laundry. 
The company owns its water plant, the old east side city plant being located 
on this property, it being a spring water, very clear and pure. Today the 
laundry has every modern equipment and turns out three hundred and fifty 
thousand pieces of work per week, with socks darned, buttons sewed on and 
every article mended. Mr. Williams is a member of the Portland Laundrymen's 
Association, the Oregon State Laundry Owners Association and the National 
Laundry Owners Association and is thoroughly in touch with everything that has 
to do with the trade. He is also connected with the Retail Credit Men's 
Association. His interest in municipal welfare and progress is indicated in 
his connection with the East Side Commercial Club and the Portland Chamber of 
Commerce and he also holds to the high civic and personal standards of the 
Lions Club, of which he is a member. He likewise has membership with the 
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and he is now well known in his 
adopted city, where he has made steady progress in the business field, 
reaching an enviable point of success.

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