He was born on December 12, 1853, to Mary Forman and John Insco Williams. His father seems to have been an accomplished painter. His sister,
Eva Best, was a writer. At sixteen, he moved with his parents to Cincinnati and graduated from the
Chickering Institute of
Cincinnati, Ohio in 1870. He received "formal training" at
Troy Polytechnic School of New York. Williams was employed in 1873 as a
civil engineer on the
Northern Pacific Railroad. He later returned to Dayton and worked as an artist for seven years, and worked in his brother-in-law William H Best's jewellery shop. Then he worked for John Rouzer Co., a
lumber dealer for two years. ==Architectural career==