Joseph J. Williams Born: 1852 Died: After 1922

Mayor Joseph "J.J." Williams was the second mayor to be elected by the citizenry of Memphis since the restoral of its charter in 1891.  After serving ten years as County Trustee Williams was elected mayor of Memphis in 1898.  At this time the worst Yellow Fever was twenty years into the past.  This was however only about the seventh year of the new city charter.  Investors were as wary of loan defaults as ever, if not more so.  Another epidemic would likely ruin the city for many years to come.

Conversely the city of Memphis was destined to be populated because of location and by 1898, also by existing infrastructure.  Also at work in the land was a reform fever generally referred to as the progressive movement.  By today's standards the goals of the progressive movement were noble and often achieved.  There was a focus on women's rights (suffrage), attempts to pass child labor laws, and an acknowledgement that industrialization had created its own particular form of misery.  There was also a feeling that the country had been "tamed", but lacked dignity.  That is hard to argue with, but also hard to repair.

In this climate J. J. Williams served eight years as mayor.  He wisely took it upon himself to complete work on the sewers.  Indirectly this had kept out the Yellow Fever and Williams used municipal money to finish the job.  The extent of the task was formidable and costly so other initiatives languished.  The Memphis streets were, after more than 60 years as an incorporated area as bad as they had ever been.  Fewer than ten per cent of streets were paved which lagged far behind Nashville and Atlanta.

Ultimately, the street question would be left to, and well handled by his successor as mayor, James H. Malone.  Today Williams is best remembered to many as the mayor who began to build a park system in Memphis.  Although the founders of the city had laid it out to have four small parks in the inner city, 75% of that land had been leased or sold by the city before the administration of Mayor Williams.  During his administration the city appropriated the land that would become both Riverside Park and Overton Park.   Attempts to create a park for African-American Memphians were stalled by outcries of white citizens of whatever area was suggested.  Ultimately these efforts led to the creation of Douglass Park.

Joseph J. Williams was born in Somerville, Fayette county Tennessee to a physician father of the same name.  He had the misfortune to lose is father to Yellow Fever in 1883.  The loss of his father turned Williams plans from medical school to business.  He spent some years in a pharmaceutical business, but ultimately turned to politics.

After his tenure as mayor Williams went on to be elected Clerk of the Criminal Court of Shelby County.  The same year as his father's death he married Miss Mattie Cheatham of Nashville.  The new Mrs. Williams was prominent in Memphis society, especially among the Daughters of the American Revolution.  Mr. Williams himself remained socially active being a mason, member of the City Club and the Memphis Driving Club. 

Mattie Williams presented her husband with five children.