Edward Franklin Williams was born in Uxbridge, Massachusetts on July 22, 1832. He graduated from Yale in 1856 after which he spent three years teaching in Connecticut and Massachusetts. He then went to the Princeton Theological Seminary where he graduated in 1861. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick in 1861. When the Civil War broke out, Williams joined the Christian Commission where he distributed religious literature, medical aid, and various supplies to Union troops. The Congregational ministry at Whitinsville, Massachusetts ordained Williams on October 17, 1866. He took charge of the Lookout Mountain Institute in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1866 where he educated young missionaries. After a brief time as a teacher in the Normal Department of Howard University in Washington, D.C., he moved west and began preaching in St. Charles, Illinois in 1869. From 1869-1873, Williams was the pastor of Tabernacle Congregational Church in Chicago Illinois. He then moved on to a pastorate at the South Congregational Church in Chicago, Illinois from 1873-1891. After 1891, Williams was a delegate to the International Congregational Council in London, England. He spent several years abroad and studied at the University of Berlin after which he published “Christian Life in Germany” in 1896. Williams served as the Editor of the Congregationalist, Director of the Chicago Missionary Society, and president of the Chicago Tract Society which published and distributed Christian literature. Additionally, Williams lectured at the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1894 and Beloit College in 1903. From 1901-1911, Williams was the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Evanston in Evanston, Illinois where he died on May 26, 1919.