Ben Williams was born in 1877 in Monson, Maine and named after president Rutherford B. Hayes.[1]: 83 In 1888, he moved with his mother to Bertrand, Nebraska and started working as a printing apprentice.
Williams graduated from Tabor College in 1904 with a bachelor's degree.[2] While at Tabor, he played on the football team, edited a campus magazine, and was president of the Phi Delta Literary Society.[3]
He joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905 and from 1909 to 1917 edited the IWW's publication, Solidarity.[1]: 47
Williams published newspaper articles and authored several works on labor movement.[4]
He died in 1964.
