From Washington Progress Sept. 4, 1913

Kinston, Aug. 28. --Mrs. Jesse P. Williams, of Atlanta, formerly Miss Cora Taylor, of Bullhead, 
Greene county, has succeeded to the princely estate of her late husband, who was a noted 
southern capitalist. Mrs. Williams becomes the largest landowner of her sex in the world, and 
the richest woman in the south. 

Captain William died several weeks ago, and leaving no children and no will, his wife became 
the sole heir. 

His great estate is variously estimated at from $5,000,000 to 10,000 [sic]. She is the only 
woman in the Southern states to control a 200-mile interstate railroad, with its trains, stations, 
shops, terminals, docks and a steamboat line. 

She owns a quarter of a million acres of farming and timber lands in Georgia and Florida. Mrs. 
Williams is well-fitted to manage the property, having acted as the closest counsellor of her 
husband and virtual manager of his extensive interests during the last few years, when he was 
an invalid. Captain Williams has a brother at Mt. Olive, N.C. Mrs. Williams is connected with 
leading families of this section.





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