A town called Mettamora was platted in Sec 20- 89-23 that also spilled over into Sec. 29, by William H. Merritt on July 15, 1857. Merritt owned the land and hoped to profit from a new town on the prairie. He laid out 121 lots and sold a few to eastern speculators, who eventually let them go back for taxes. This town was not of interest to anyone, until John I. Blair, chief engineer for the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad, came seeking a location for his railroad. He went to Merritt and asked for concessions in return for running his railroad through Mettamora. He also did this for nearly all of the 80 towns that he laid out across Iowa.

Then he went into Secs. 26 and 27 of 89N-23W, about 2 miles from Mettamora, and platted his own town. This he named Williams for Major William Williams of Fort Dodge. The plat was submitted during the winter of 1869, and the depot was the only building constructed that year. By 1870 the town had grown to one house, but by 1900 the town had grown to a population of 500. The post office was established on October 13, 1869 before the plat was submitted. The first postmaster was Isaac H. Brown, who also served as the depot agent - sort of a one-man town.

The town was incorporated on Oct. 22, 1883. B. F. Corbin was elected as the first mayor. L. N. Gerber was elected as town recorder, and five town trustees were also elected. They were: J. E. Frost, Fred Beisner, Edmund Crabtree, H. J. Johnson, and William Wilke. There was a question immediately about the legality of the incorporation which was removed in the spring of 1884 by legalizing legislation.

The first school was built in 1870 about a mile south of town. It was later moved to Rose Grove Township to serve as the Duden School. Another school was then constructed in 1875 in town, across from the Harrison Hotel. It was a one-room frame building like so many constructed in other towns in the county. The first teacher was J. M. Blake. In 1881, a two-story building replaced the small school, which was then moved across the street to be used as an implement shop. In 1893 it was decided that a larger school was needed. A bond was passed for $7,500, and the school was built on a lot in the eastern part of town by C. A. Williams. The lumber from the old building was sold and the structure was removed. This school was used until 1918 when another building was built in the south part of town. It was the first building large enough to hold both a junior high and senior high school. In 1957 an addition provided for an auditorium and gymnasium.

A school reorganization of Blairsburg, Kamrar, and Williams sent the high school students to Blairsburg in 1963, and five years later the junior high students were transferred there, too.

Williams was served by the railroad from the beginning. The Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad eventually became the Illinois Central line. A federal highway, the Grant Highway, was constructed in the early 1920's and passed along the suoth side of town. Several miles east the highway turned north again for about two miles, finally turning east, continuing on to Alden. The name was later changed to Hawkeye Highway, which many old-timers recall. This then became U. S. 20 which passed along the west side of town and turned east to continue to Alden. When the four lane was completed it was named U. S. 20. The old U. S. 20 was again renamed, this time as state road 928.

For such a small town it is interesting to note that it was home to five different newspapers at different times. The first was the Williams Standard which was published for two years. A rival paper, the Williams Herald, could not compete with the Standard and ceased operations after only a few months. In 1891, Williams again had two competing newspapers: The Wasp published by W. R. Pooley and The Hornet, which was published by Walter Hellen. The last newspaper was The Williams Enterprise, which was published by Paul Nesbitt in 1920 and continued for about 20 years.

A most unusual incident in Williams occurred in 1911 when the wooden water tower collapsed, sending a rush of water across the street to the Thomas Duffy home. Mr. Duffy was forced across the room by the flood of water that broke through the windows. He suffered a broken collar bone - at the age of 90.

Williams was always a very progressive community. It was among the first to have a complete water and sewage system, and in 1930 it was chosen by Bell Telephone as the first rural community west of the Mississippi to have dial telephones. Its north-south streets were all named for trees: Birch, Walnut, Locust, Cedar, Spruce, Pine, and Beech. The three east-west streets were, very logically, First, Second , and Third.

Within the last year or so, Ye Old Drug Store was restored in Williams, to serve as a museum of sorts for the younger people and as an opportunity to view times past for the older residents. According to the 1990 census, there are 368 people living in Willaims.