Williamsburg, the third largest town in Franklin county, is located in the southwest part on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. 15 miles from Ottawa, the county seat. The land for the town site originally formed a part of a 30,000 acre tract purchased from the Sac and Fox Indians by W. B. McKenna and in turn sold by him to the Kansas Pacific Railroad company. A number of men were attracted to the locality by the prospect of coal and purchased land there in 1867, one of the first being M. V. Swift. A number of permanent settlements were made in 1868. Among the men who came that year were A. C. Henderson, Roger Hickok, William H. Schofield and Albert Supernau. James F. Dane and William Schofield owned the town site which they named Williamsburg, from Mr. Schofield's first name. In June, 1868, the town company built the first house, a wooden structure. The second building was of stone, erected in the spring of 1869 by C. Holman for a store. Drug, grocery and general stores were all opened in 1870.

The first school district was organized in 1868, a school house was built in 1870, and Helen M. Beardsley was engaged as the first teacher. The Williamsburg bank was established in 1881 and a private bank the following year. Stauffer's hotel, the first in the town, was opened in 1881. Williamsburg has a newspaper, good hotels, several general stores, hardware and implement houses, drug and grocery stores, blacksmith and wagon shops, lumber yards, physicians and lawyers, a money order postoffice, telegraph and express facilities, and other commercial enterprises. In 1910 the population was 600.