Frank Dunn Williams was born in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, on May 6, 1853, the eldest child of Josiah Williams and Ellen Shand. He had 5 siblings: Mary Jane (1858), George Burrell (1859), David C. (1862), Margaret (1870) and Nellie (1876). Nellie appears to have died as a child and David never married.
When he was a very small boy, his family moved to a farm 12 miles from Dodgeville. At the age of 19, he left the farm to go railroading and devoted the rest of his life to railroads, both steam and electric. Frank was fascinated with railroads, building new lines, extending old lines and replacing temporary construction work with permanent structures.
In 1880, Frank married Lillian McConnell at Madison, Wisconsin. In that same year, he is listed as working as a carpenter. In 1881, he was raised to the degree of Master Mason in the Madison Lodge. Frank and Lillian had 2 children together, Nellie Reed (1885) and George Allen (1887). George was born in Olney, Illinois, almost 300 miles south of Waukegan and Nellie was probably born in Waukegan.
In 1889, Frank and Lillian came to Waukegan, where Frank built railroad sidings and yards for the Washburne and Moen company, later absorbed by the American (US) Steel and Wire Company. For almost 20 years, he was employed by the North Shore electric line. He served with the crew which built the new line from North Chicago to Milwaukee and was later made road master in charge of the line from Waukegan to Evanston. In 1919, a strike at the US Steel and Wire Company, led to a call for intervention from the state militia. This could likely have impacted either Frank or his son George.
In 1895, Frank's brother David came to live with Frank and was a wire worker. But David was a rolling stone and by 1900, he was living with his cousin in Deer Creek, Nebraska, where he died 2 years later at age 39. In August 1901, Frank purchased a lot in the subdivision known as Waukegan Highlands, in North Chicago Village, from The American Steel and Wire Company. By 1907, he owned the lot free of a mortgage. By 1910, he was living at 553 Ash Street, later renumbered to 728 Ash Street, where Dad lived as a boy. In the 1920 census, Frank and Lillian still lived on Ash Street. Nellie was living with them and teaching in a public school. Their son George was living there with his wife Anna and was a laborer for American Steel and Wire Company. In addition, adopted daughter Margaret, age 12, was living with them. Margaret was a student of Nellie's who was quite poor.
Frank Williams died on November 25, 1922, age 69, in Waukegan, of heart disease (listed as myocarditis). Funeral services, led by a Methodist minister, were held at the home, with Masons from Lodge #78 participating. Frank is buried in North Shore Garden of Memories in North Chicago.
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