Hugh H. Williams was born in Corwin, Wales on July 21, 1876. The Williams family immigrated to Utica, New York in 1880. They then came west, first to Colorado and then to Silver City, New Mexico in 1882 and finally to Deming, New Mexico in 1884. While Hugh was still young, his father left the family to search for gold in California and was never heard from again. At age 12, Williams went to work in a mercantile store and at 15 worked as a helper in a carpenter shop. In March of 1894, he begins his career on the railroads as a switchman for the Southern Pacific railroad. Four years later, at the age of 22, Williams became the joint yardmaster for the Southern Pacific railroad and the Santa Fe railroad at Deming, a position he held until 1900. The next three years saw Williams back and forth between jobs with the Arizona and New Mexico railroad and his position at Deming, due to illness in the Williams family in Deming. He also during this time served as transfer agent for the Phelps-Dodge Corporation in Guthrie, Arizona. In 1903, Williams came back permanently to Deming as yardmaster for the Santa Fe railroad. He was promoted to freight conductor and then passenger conductor in 1905, on the Rio Grande division between Albuquerque, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. Williams retired from the railroad in 1913 when he was elected to the newly created State Corporation Commission. He served as chairman of the committee in 1912 and 1913 and was reelected in 1914. He was a member of the Masonic Order and the Knights of Pythias. After his retirement he lived in Albuquerque. His recollections of his early life in New Mexico appeared in a column of the Albuquerque Tribune in 1953.
From the description of Hugh Williams scrapbook, 1912-1932. (New Mexico State University). WorldCat record id: 60822470
