Charles H. Williams

The Rev. Charles H. Williams of North Billerica was a Baptist clergyman, born in England in 1868, who had worked as a granite cutter and a superintendent before entering the ministry. He represented Billerica in the Massachusetts House as a Republican in 1913, from the 19th Middlesex District.

As president of the Billerica Board of Trade he worked to bring the Opening of the Boston and Maine Shops to North Billerica and held options on land for the shops. In 1914 he organized Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc., a company that built low-cost houses for the shop workers on a plan by Warren H. Manning and the Massachusetts Homestead Commission, and as its treasurer and general manager he oversaw the building himself. By 1917 the company had built about seventy houses. He spoke on "How to Get Garden Suburbs in America" at the National Housing Association conference in Providence in 1916.

He served on the town's Finance Committee from 1917 to 1926 and on committees for water extension, gas service and the consolidation of town departments. In the 1920s he was listed as a real estate man.

References

1. Who's Who in State Politics, 1913: biography of Charles H. Williams, Representative from Billerica
2. Patricia C. Henry, The North Billerica Garden Suburb: Affordable Housing for Workers in 1914 (URI thesis)
3. Billerica annual reports 1915-1919: Finance Committee 1917, 1918 and 1919
4. Billerica annual reports 1925-1929: license from Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc., signed by Charles H. Williams, Treasurer and General Manager