Williams
Williams names 7 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Williams ROGER, the founder of the State Rhode Island
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ROGER, the founder of the State Rhode Island, and nobly distinguished as the first asserter in modern Christendom of the sanctity and perfect freedom of conscience; born in London, England, in 1607; studied at Oxford, entered the Church and naturally joined the Puritan party. To escape the persecutions to which the Puritans were subject in England, he like so many others fled to America to find what was denied them there-freedom to worship God. He arrived at Boston, New England, in 1631, and holding already in perfect clearness the grand truth of which he was the first modern apostle, soon found himself in collision with the churches already existing there; for they still acted on the very principles of which they had been the victims at home. At length, in 1636, he was ordered to embark for England. To avoid this he left Salem in mid-winter, wandered houseless and half-fed for 14 weeks, then found friends and hospitality among the Indians, whose language he had learnt. He preached to them, won their love, and was their friend and peace-maker till his death. He had resolved on founding a new settlement, and after beginning to build and plant at Seekonk, had to abandon the spot, and selected Rhode Island, on which landed from an Indian canoe, with five comrades, in June, 1636. He called the place "Providence," and commenced building. In the course of two years he was joined by others, and founded a commonwealth in the form of a pure democracy, and his system has had its influence on the whole political history of the State. He showed no spirit revenge toward those who had persecuted him; and when the colonies were threatened with general rising of the Indian tribes, he nobly risked his own life, and undertook the mission to the Narragansetts to dissolve the conspiracy, in which he succeeded. To secure the permanent existence of Rhode Island as a separate State, Williams was choses to visit England in 1643, to obtain a charter. He was received with the greatest favor by the Long Parliament, and took back with him the desired charter. Williams refused the office of governor, to which the colony wished to appoint him; labored on for its good, rewarding him self in doing it; had a warm controversy with George Fox; and died in Providence in 1683.
Williams JOHN SKELTON, an American banker and public official
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN SKELTON, an American banker and public official, born in Powhatan co., Va., in 1865. He was educated at Richmond, Va., and at the University of Virginia. He was the organizer and, from 1899 to 1904, the president of the Seaboard Air Line Railway System, as well as the organizer and president of a number of banks, trust companies, and industrial institutions. In 1901 he was the chairman of the trust company section of the American Bank- 1913, he was ers' Association. In March, appointed by President Wilson, first assistant secretary of the Treasury, and in January, 1914, comptroller of the currency, to which latter office he was re- 1919, and from which he reappointed in signed at the end of Mr. Wilson's second administration in 1921. He was at various times a member of the advisory board of the Interstate Commerce Commission on the valuation of railroad, steamship, telegraph, and telephone lines; a member of the advisory committee to the director-general of railroads for special supervision of railway financing; a member of the Capital Issues Committee; a member of the central committee and the national treasury of the American Red Cross (since 1913); and director of the division of finance and purchases under the director general of railroads.
Williams JOHN SHARP, a United States Senator from Mississippi
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN SHARP, a United States Senator from Mississippi, born in Memphis, Tenn., in was educated at the Kentucky 1854. He Military Institute, at the University of Virginia, and at the University of Heidelberg. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar in 1877. In the following year he removed to Mississippi and engaged in cotton planting. He took an active interest in politics and was elected to Congress from the 53d to the 60th Congresses (1893-1911). During his service in the House of Representatives, he served as minority leader and was the Democratic candidate for speaker from the 58th to the 60th Congresses. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1910, and was re-elected in 1916. During his service in the Senate he was a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and of the Finance Committee. He was recognized as one of the strongest Democratic members, both in the House of Representatives and the Senate. He wrote "Permanent Influence of Thomas Jefferson on American Institutions" (1913).
Williams TALCOTT, an American journalist and educator
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
TALCOTT, an American journalist and educator, born in 1849, in Abeih, Turkey, son of an American missionary. He was educated at Amherst College, from which institution, as well as from the University of Pennsyl vania, Brown University, other universities and colleges, he received honorary degrees. Beginning with 1873, he was on the staff of various newspapers, including the New York "World," the San Francisco "Chronicle," the Springfield (Mass.) "Republican," and the Philadelphia "Press." From 1912 to 1919 he was director of the Pulitzer School of Journalism, Columbia University, New York, becoming emeritus professor of journalism in 1919. He was a member of numerous scientific societies, a trustee of Amherst College, and of the Constantinople College for Girls; and from 1888 to 1914, a member of the board of managers of the Archæological Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. He was also a trustee of the Jeanes Fund and an officer in various philanthropic and other associations, as well as a frequent contributor to literary and philosophical journals.
Williams HENRY SMITH, an American physician and author
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
HENRY SMITH, an American physician and author, born in Durand, Ill., in 1863. He graduated from the State University of Iowa in 1887, and from the Chicago Medical School in 1884. From 1898 to 1902, he was engaged in post-graduate work in hospitals and served in Berlin, Paris, and London, as a specialist in mental diseases in several hospitals for the insane. He was medical superintendent of Randall's Island Hospital in 1892. He wrote "The Story of the Nineteenth Century Science" (1900); "The History of Art of Writing" (1902); "The Conquest of Nature" (1911; "The Wonders of Science in Modern Life" (1912); "Miracles of Science" (1913); "Luther Burbank-His Life and Work" (1915). He also edited several sets of volumes, including "The Works of Luther Burbank” (1915).
Williams JESSE LYNCH, an American writer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JESSE LYNCH, an American writer, born in Sterling, Ill., in 1871. After graduating from Princeton in 1892, he engaged in newspaper work for several years and in 1895 published "Princeton Stories". This was followed by "The Stolen Story, and Other Newspaper Stories" (1891); "New York Sketches" (1902); "The Married Life of the Frederic Carrols" (1910); "And So They Were Married" (1915). He also wrote several successful plays, including "Why Marry," produced in 1917, when he was awarded the Pulitzer prize by Columbia University for the best American play produced in that year. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
Williams SIR GEORGE, founder of the Young Men's Christian Association
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SIR GEORGE, founder of the Young Men's Christian Association; born in Dulverton, Somersetshire, England, Oct. 11, 1821. In 1841 he went to London; gathered together the young men employed in the same establishment as himself, and on June 12, 1844, organized, with 12 of them, a band called the "Young Men's Christian Association," which was designed to be "a society for improving the spiritual condition of young men engaged in the drapery and other trades." He was the first treasurer of the Young Men's Christian Association, and was always devoted to its interests. He was knighted in 1894. He died Nov. 6, 1905.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Of the Williamses gathered here, only the first has grown in stature: Roger Williams, whom Collier's called in 1921 the first asserter of freedom of conscience, is now a fixture of American constitutional argument, with a national memorial at Providence since 1965 and his shorthand marginalia decoded by Brown University students in 2012. His city has revised him slightly too: in November 2020 Rhode Island voters struck the words and Providence Plantations from the state's official name. The three living men Collier's profiled have faded. John Skelton Williams, comptroller of the currency until 1921, is remembered mainly for his bitter feud with the young Federal Reserve, and his Seaboard Air Line was absorbed into what is now CSX; John Sharp Williams left the Senate in 1923 and is recalled less as one of the strongest Democratic members than for the frank white supremacism of his speeches; Talcott Williams, the missionary's son born in Ottoman Abeih, founded the Columbia journalism school that has administered the Pulitzer Prizes ever since.
Written for this edition, 2026.