Harrison Williams (millionaire)

Harrison Charles Williams (1873-1953) was an American entrepreneur, investor and multi-millionaire.

Early life

Harrison Williams was born in Avon Township, Ohio in 1873 to Everett Williams and Laurett A. Williams. He graduated from Elyria High School in 1890. Williams abandoned an unsuccessful bicycle manufacturing business in Lorain in 1903. He went to New York City and took a job with a carpet sweeper company.

In 1900, he married Katherine Gordon Breed in Pittsburgh. [http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40A10FF355B12738DDDAA0894DF405B868EF1D3] She died in 1915.

In 1906 he created American Gas & Electric Co., and six years later created another holding company, Central States Electric Corp. [http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,771563,00.html]

When the Prince of Wales visited the U. S. on various occasions, he was Williams' guest at Glen Cove, Long Island. [http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40A10FF355B12738DDDAA0894DF405B868EF1D3]

In 1923, Williams financed and sponsored a trip to the Galápagos Islands through the New York Zoological Society that was led by William Beebe. Because of his patronage, there is a volcano in the Galapagos named after him. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,769810,00.html] With Vincent Astor and Marshall Field he also financed Beebe's expedition to the Sargasso Sea. He also contributed financially to the American Museum of Natural History's 1926 expedition to Greenland, led by George P. Putnam. [http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40A10FF355B12738DDDAA0894DF405B868EF1D3]

Williams bought the Krupp-built "Vanadis", then largest yacht afloat, with a cruising radius of 12,000 mi., renamed her "Warrior" and refitted her for his own oceanographic and pleasure purposes. [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40A1FF9395E1A7A93CAAB178DD85F418285F9]

In 1926 at age 53 after being a widower for 11 years, Williams married the divorcée Mona Bush, 24 years his junior. They departed on a year-long around the world honeymoon cruise on Williams' yacht. When they returned, they bought Elbert Gary's mansion at 94th Street and Fifth Avenue.

By 1929, Williams had accumulated a fortune estimated at a $680 million dollars in public utilities. He also began a business partnership with Waddill Catchings.

In 1937 he was investigated regarding investment trusts by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Also that year he began an affair with Coco Chanel.

Books

John N. Ingham; Biographical dictionary of American business leaders.