Harry Palmerston Williams
| Harry Palmerston Williams | |
|---|---|
(L–R) Jimmy Doolittle, Jimmy Wedell and Harry Williams. c. 1933, in front of #92, a Wedell-Williams Model 44 air racer
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| Born |
October 6, 1889 Patterson, Louisiana |
| Died | May 19, 1936 (aged 46) Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
| Occupation | Businessman, politician, aviation company owner |
| Spouse(s) | Helen Marguerite Clark (1883–1940) |
Harry Palmerston Williams (October 6, 1889 – May 19, 1936) was an American businessman. He was in Louisiana throughout the early years of the 20th Century. He became a noted aviation owner of the Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation that dominated air racing in the United States during the so-called Golden Age of Aviation.
Williams was born on October 6, 1889 in Patterson, Louisiana to Francis Bennett Williams and Emily Williamson Seyburn. His father was a prominent Louisiana industrialist and civic leader, career paths that his son would later follow.
Williams was educated at Lawrenceville Academy, Lawrenceville, New Jersey and at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. In 1906, like his brothers, he entered his father’s lumber business with his first job was operating a dredge in south Louisiana swamps for $50 a month. In World War I, he served as a lieutenant in the Engineers Corps. After the war, Williams became active in politics, becoming the Mayor of Patterson, as well as serving as the president of police jury in St. Mary Parish and state highway commissioner.
Williams' business interests were also an area where he was prominent, as president of the Patterson State Bank, director of the St. Bernard Cypress Co. and treasurer of the Franklin and Abbeville Railway Co. He also served as a director of the Williams, Inc. and F. B. Williams Cypress Co. enterprises which had large holdings in real estate (sugar plantations), industrial ventures such as lumber (the lumber yard was one of the largest in the world), oil and mineral leases.
Williams was married to Marian Graham on December 12, 1912, and divorced in 1917. During a World War I War Bonds Tour in the same year, he met famed actress Helen Marguerite Clark and was married on August 19, 1918. The couple were very important socialites in Louisiana where as wife and hostess in Patterson, she presided as acting Tsaritsa of the Mystic Court at the Duke of Alexis Tableau Ball in New Orleans, 1924.
In the late 1920s, the St. Bernard Cypress Co. lumber operation was being wound up, and Williams began to explore other options, first concentrating on a personal interest in speed boats. In 1927, spurred by the news of the Lindbergh solo flight across the Atlantic, he had purchased a similar Ryan monoplane from Jimmy Wedell, a noted race pilot. After working closely with Wedell in learning to fly, Williams formed a partnership with Wedell and his brother, Walter Wedell, that was realized in the formation of Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation in 1928, based in Patterson. While Wedell provided the "seat-of-his-pants" design ingenuity coupled with Williams' business acumen and a reported $2 million-dollar stake, the two friends formed a strong bond.
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