Who Was Frances Willard?

Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was the daughter of Josiah Flint Willard and Mary Thompson Hill Willard. She was born September 28, 1839, in Churchville, New York.  

 

Frances talked before she walked. It was reported that she was “speaking quite wisely at 14  months” but she did not walk until she was two years of age. She was a Tom-boy and preferred to be called Frank. She loved the outdoors. 

 

Her mother’s desire was first that her children be Christians and next that they be well-educated. Mother Willard home-schooled Frances until she was twelve years old. Then the Willard children had various teachers and attended various schools. 

 

The Willard family moved several times over the years. In December 1865, the family moved to  Evanston, Illinois  into a house her father had built. The house became known as Rest Cottage. Evanston was a prohibition village. The charter of Northwestern University forbade the sale of any intoxicating liquor as a beverage within four miles of the university. 

 

Willard was an American educator and social reformer. She taught in Sunday-School, public school and seminary. She never mentioned total abstinence, assuming her pupils did not drink.

 

When Willard heard of the Woman’s Temperance Crusade of 1873-1874, she called it a wonderful Christmas gift to the world. It was a famous winter battle of Home versus Saloon. Willard wrote, “It occurred to me, strange to say, for the first time, that I ought to work for the good of the cause just where I was…” She began working in the temperance movement.

 

In 1874, during the first National WCTU Convention, Annie Wittenmyer was elected President and Willard was elected National Corresponding Secretary. Willard became convinced that women needed the ballot as a tool to use in their battle against alcohol. In 1876, she addressed the National WCTU and delivered her Home Protection address. Wittenmyer and Willard did not agree on women obtaining the right to vote. 

 

In 1879, Willard was voted in as the National President of the WCTU. serving until her death. In 1883, She founded the world temperance union. She was a strong advocate of woman suffrage.

 

Anna Gordon said,  

As an organizer Miss Willard possessed rare powers of discernment, and

a still more rare magnetism. …She saw the real significance of the

Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. In the new society she saw the

first attempt to unite women into an organization which should make the

influence of womanhood an appreciable power in the world. She saw

that the army called into existence by the ravages of the saloon upon the

home could, with proper leadership, be arrayed likewise against every other

evil which threatens the home and strikes at our civilization. She saw in it,

too, a great educational agency for women.

 

The goal of her consecrated ambition was a universal sisterhood united in a common cause, and she was deaf to all sounds and blind to all sights which might lure her from that goal.” 

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Willard was a multi-dimensional personality, From our perspective in the 21st century, she seems larger than life. We marvel at the contacts she had, the tasks she achieved, and the adoration she received.