Port Williams became an important regional shipping point for lumber and agriculture. In the days of sailing vessels, the river was used extensively to bring ships into the port to transport apples, lumber and potatoes, to be shipped to the world market, especially Great Britain. The village was renamed in honour of Sir William Fenwick Williams, who fought in the Siege of Kars (which is the namesake of Kars Street, Port Williams). Sir Williams became the first post Canadian Confederation Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. The railway arrived in 1869 with the construction of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway, later to become the Dominion Atlantic Railway. A station was built for Port Williams across the river in Greenwich. In 1884, Hantsport apple exporter W. H. Chase built the first apple warehouse in Nova Scotia beside the station, quickly followed by many others in the 1890s paving the way for a rapid growth in the apple industry in Nova Scotia.