Williams Bay
The bay named by or for Capt. Israel Williams cuts almost rectangularly into section 6 of Linn, leaving on its west side a strip of that section about
five-eighths of a mile long from south to north and, say forty rods wide. From the head of the bay to the town line of Geneva is one-third of a mile.
From the Linn strip the ground slopes upward into section 1 of Walworth. The village of Williams Bay lies on the Linn strip and the Walworth slope,
with such varied contour as to make the site practicable and pleasing to home-keepers and summer visitors. The village settlement began about 1879.
Mr. Simmons noted that in 1893 the place "began to attract attention of such as were seeking summer homes." At the head of the bay the Chicago &
Northwestern Railway Company made one of its terminal stations, six miles from Lake Geneva, ninety-two miles from Chicago by way of Elgin and Crystal Lake. The first trains arrived and departed June 1, 1888. A postoffice was established in 1892, with Mrs. Marie R. (Barnhart) Williams, 1902, Mrs. Josephine Barnhart, 1898, Miss Anna Peterson, 1907, as postmasters. James L. Tubbs platted the village in 1897 for Mrs. Lucretia S., widow of Royal Joy Williams.