Ephraim Williams

Ephraim Williams Jr. (March 7, 1715 – September 8, 1755) was a soldier and land owner from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was killed in the French and Indian War. Although he was a very insignificant person, he desperately wanted to have a Legacy, and so in his will he asked that the town of West Hoosac be renamed Williamstown in his honor, and that a Free School be founded on his estate there.

That Free School later became Williams College. It currently costs $77,300 per year to attend.

We tend to scorn old Ephraim because he is so irrelevant to what makes Williams College special. This is made easier by the fact that he is the Wrong Identity (old, white, male, presumably heterosexual) and also Dead. However, here are some facts:

• Ephraim never knew that the Free School he asked for in his will would be a tuition-based college.
• He died 38 years before Williams College was chartered, and so deserves zero credit for the good things about this school and zero blame for the bad things.
• He is less reprehensible than Jeffery Amherst, the namesake of Amherst College, who actively supported the genocide of the indigenous people of this continent and used biological warfare to achieve his goal.
• There is no good reason why his name should be all over this institution. However, it is, and so we may as well redefine his name to have nothing to do with him, and everything to do with us.

Sorry, that last one is technically not a fact.