Bob Williams is documented through only a small number of surviving public records, but those records connect his life to both the Adirondack iron industry and military service during World War I. He was born in Greenville, South Carolina, although his records differ on whether his birth year was 1895 or 1896.
When Bob registered for the World War I draft on June 5, 1917, he was twenty-one years old and living in the Standish area of Clinton County, New York. He worked as a laborer for the Northern Iron Company, which employed workers in the Adirondack iron industry. Bob was single and reported having no dependents. His registration described him as being of medium height and medium build, with brown eyes and black hair.
Bob entered the United States Army and served as a private under Army serial number 4,150,857. His surviving military documentation is sparse, providing few details about his assignment or the nature of his service. He was honorably discharged on December 14, 1918, shortly after the end of World War I.
No additional public records have currently been identified for Bob Williams. Nevertheless, the surviving documents preserve an important part of his story: a young man born in South Carolina who came to northern New York, found employment in the iron industry at Standish, and subsequently served in the U.S. Army during World War I. His experience contributes to the broader history of African American workers and military veterans in Clinton County and the Adirondacks during the early twentieth century.