Collection Overview
Title: Williams Family Collection
Dates: 1880-1945
Creator: John Alden Williams
Repository: Drew Archival Library
Call Number: DAL.MSS.127
Accession Number: DAL.2019.035
Location: Fogg Archives Room
Quantity: 1 box
Language: English

Administrative Information
Access Restriction: Collection is open to researchers
Acquisition Information: Donation, Susan Purpura, 2019
Preferred Citation: DAL.MSS.127, Williams Family Collection, Duxbury Rural & Historical Society
Finding Aid Prepared by Carolyn Ravenscroft, 2019

Scope and Content:
The Williams Family Collection consists of numerous photographs and Duxbury-related brochures and ephemera. of both Frank Henry Williams and his son, John Alden Williams. The material relating to the Williams’ homefront participation during WWII is of particular interest.

Biographical Sketch:
Frank Henry Williams (188-1965) was born in Interlachen, FL, to George Williams and Flora Wade. In 1911 he married Nellie Weston Bates in Boston. She was from Duxbury, the daughter of Robert T. Blake and Emily Estes. The Bates family lived on Church Street in Duxbury. Frank and Nellie divorced, and he married her sister, Ethel Florence Bates. Together they had two children: Edith (1921-2014) and John Alden (1925-2017). A son by Ethel’s first marriage, Fred Harold Cushing Jr. (1914-2009), also lived with the family. The Williams moved to Duxbury by the 1920s, living on Bay Road and Church Street. According to US Census records, Frank Williams was a day laborer and teamster.

John Alden Williams (1925-2017), the son of Frank and Ethel Williams, was raised in Duxbury and graduated from Duxbury High School in 1943. Some of the photographs in the collection are of his high school classmates. During WWII, he and his father were both Auxiliary Policemen, patroling Duxbury Beach. For most of his adult life, John Alden Williams was also a member of the Coast Guard Reserves. He married Elizabeth “Betty” Louise Glauben and lived on Church Street, where he operated a Christmas Tree farm for many years. Upon his death in 2017, the Town of Duxbury purchased the property for conservation land.

NOTE: This archival collection was donated along with a Duxbury Auxilliary Police helmet, c. 1941-1945, Duxbury Auxilliary Police armband, c. 1941-1945. Cataloged separately.