"In these pages a remarkable story emerges, a story that brings the reader into an intimate understanding of all that we now know of a man who had a dream and a sense of responsibility to the future that became Williams College. Ephraim Williams (1714-1755) was colonel in charge of a regiment of Massachusetts militia when he was killed at Crown Point, N.Y., September 8, 1755, in one of the engagements of the French and Indian Wars. His death put life into a will made in Albany less than a month before and fulfilled his great desire to do something for those yet unborn. This volume brings together the significant documentary remains of a colonial soldier who is quite unknown except for the college and the town that carry his name. There are glimpses here of political and religious life in colonial Massachusetts and of the ever- present dangers of frontier life. The over one hundred documents and the running narrative that holds them together constitute an introduction to a fascinating moment in the history of the American frontier, when the last will and testament of a soldier became a bold challenge to barbarism and ignorance."--Publisher.