Frances Willard

Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (September 28,1839-February 17,1898) was one of the most prominent social reformers in nineteenth century America. She held the office of President of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union almost twenty years. Willard fought for woman's suffrage, women's economic and religious rights, prison reforms, education reforms and labor reforms. She brought the WCTU worldwide recognition with her dedication.

Early Life

Willard was born in Churchville, New York to Josiah Flint and Mary Thompson Hill Willard. She spent most of her childhood in Wisconsin on a farm. Willard has a tomboy, kept her hair short and insisted on being called Frank as a nickname.She had twelve siblings and her parents both being teachers were determined all their would be educated. Willard left home at age seventeen to live with her aunt in Milwaukee. She attended the one year at Milwaukee Female College then transferred to Northwest Female College at Evanston, Illinois where she graduated as valedictorian. After graduation she became a teacher at several colleges and seminaries in Illinois including Northwest Female College and in 1871 became the President.

Career

Willard resigned her position as President of Northwestern to accept the position of national corresponding secretary of Women's Christian Temperance Union. Having spoken and written extensively on the temperance movement she was the most logical choice. She used her position to also promote women's suffrage. Since childhood she felt the injustice of women being denied the right to vote.

Honors and Accomplishments

She founded the magazine The Union Signal, and was its editor from 1892 through 1898.

Her tireless efforts for women's suffrage and prohibition included a fifty-day speaking tour in 1874, an average of thirty thousand miles of travel a year, and an average of four hundred lectures a year for a ten year period. Her influence was instrumental in the passage of the Eighteenth (Prohibition) and Nineteenth (Women Suffrage) Amendments to the United States Constitution.

She wrote Woman and Temperance, Nineteen Beautiful Years, A Great Mother, Glimpses of Fifty Years, and a large number of magazine articles.

Other honors: Willard was the first woman represented among the illustrious company of America’s greatest leaders in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol, she was national president of Alpha Phi in 1887 and the first dean of women at Northwestern University. In 1940, she was portrayed on a United States postage stamp. A dormitory at Northwestern University, Willard Residential College was named after her. The Evanston, Illinois home where she lived and worked from 1865 until her death in 1898 has been preserved and made into a museum in honor of her memory.

She was publicly honored many times during her life by persons of prominence in government and society in many lands. Carrie Chapman Catt, Pi Beta Phi, said of her, "There has never been a woman leader in this country greater than nor perhaps so great as Frances Willard."

She was called the "best loved woman in America," and her close friend, John Greenleaf Whittier, wrote of her: She knew the power of banded ill, But felt that LOVE was stronger still. And organized for doing good, The World's united womanhood.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Woman and temperance, or the work and workers of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Hartford, Conn.: Park Pub. Co., 1883.
• "Frances E. Willard," in Our famous women: an authorized record of the lives and deeds of distinguished American women of our times... Hartford, Conn.: A.D. Worthington, 1884.
• Nineteen beautiful years, or, sketches of a girl's life. Chicago: Woman's Temperance Publication Association, 1886.
• Woman's Christian Temperance Union. President. President's Annual Address. 1888
• Glimpses of fifty years: the autobiography of an American woman. Chicago: Woman's Temperance Publication Association, 1889.
• Do everything: a handbook for the world's white ribboners. Chicago: Woman's Temperance Pub. Association, [1895].
• How to Win: A Book For Girls NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1886. reprinted 1887 & 1888.
• Baker, Jean H. Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists. Hill and Wang, New York, 2005. ISBN 0-8090-9528-9.
• Gordon, The Beautiful Life of Frances E. Willard, (Chicago, 1898)
• Alpha Phi International Fraternity

External links

• Frances Willard House
• Frances Elizabeth Willard (1839-1898) on harvard.edu
• Frances Willard by Harriet Townsend, 1916
• Willard Residential College [1]

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