George T. Williams
GEORGE T. WILLIAMS is
one of the organizers of the
Northwestern Commercial
Company, and is the vice-president of
that corporation. He is president of
the North Coast Lighterage Company.
one of the leading companies engaged
in the business of lighterage at Nome.
Mr. Williams was born at Philadelphia, March 14. 1872. and was
educated in the public schools of Pennsylvania. He learned the trade of a
machinist in Philadelphia and became
an expert workman. He was employed in Cramp's ship yard, and has
helped to build several of the large
battleships which are now a part of
the Navy of the United States. Mr.
Williams was an employe of the
Cramps during a period of nine years,
and a part of that time his services
were utilized in many departments of
mechanical work where the highest degree of skill was required.
He severed his relations with the
Cramps in August 1897, and started
for Skagway, Alaska. He was among the first men to go over White Pass
at Lake Bennett September 17. The lakes were crossed
a canvas boat, and Dawson was reached October 1
he and his party arrived.
He devoted some time to mining and in 1898-'99 engaged m stopping goods from
Seattle to Dawson. In 1898 he made the record trip from Lake Bennett to Dawson.
This trip which never has been equaled was made in four days and seventeen hours.
He was a pilot of one of the first boats on the upper Yukon.
In the fall of 1899, with others, he organized the Northwestern Commercial Com-
pany, which is now the largest commercial and transportation company operating in the
Nome country. The North Coast Lighterage Company of which he is president, is composed of members of the Northwestern Commercial Company. It has the best facilities
for lighterage at Nome that can be devised. In one day the company lightered
1.008 ton of coal from the steamship Quito, and stacked this immense quantity of
coal in the
yard. The superior facilities possessed by this company are due to Mr. Williams
inventive genius and ingenuity. He constructed the first aerial cable way at Nome for discharging cargoes from the sea. This cable is 350 feet long and extends beyond the bar
in the sea in front of Nome. Engines handle two endless surf lines Connected with the lighterage plant is a ground and an elevated tramway, providing facilities for the easy
handling and expeditious transportation of freight from the wharf to the company's warehouses.
Mr. Williams and Miss Amanda Harris were married in Camden, New Jersey,
January 11, 1900. If energy, industry, application, ingenuity and honest effort entitle
a man to success, Mr. Williams should be among the most successful.
Source: Nome and Seward Peninsula by R. S.
Harrison. Seattle: The Metropolitan Press, 1905.
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