George Williams College (Chicago) George Williams College (Chicago) George Williams College was a college located in the northwestern corner of Hyde Park, Chicago. The college was an expansion of a summer camp founded by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) on the shores of Geneva Lake, Wisconsin in 1886. The college remained in Hyde Park from its founding in 1890 until 1965, when it moved to Downers Grove, Illinois. Subsequently, the Hyde Park campus was demolished in 1989. George Williams College can trace its origin to a summer camp founded on the shores of Geneva Lake, Wisconsin by YMCA leaders I. E. Brown, William
George Henry Williams age his family moved to Onondaga County, where was educated in public and private schools, including "Pompey Academy"; he did not attend college. Williams studied law under Honorable Daniel Scott having passed the bar in 1844 at the age of 21. In the same year Williams moved west, and practiced law in the Iowa Territory. After Iowa was admitted to statehood, Williams was elected district judge in 1847, serving until 1852. In 1853, Williams was appointed Chief Justice of the Oregon Territory by President Franklin Pierce. In 1857, at the Oregon Constitutional Convention, Williams urged that slavery be made illegal