Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (1839 - 1898)

Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was born September 28, 1839 in Churchville, New York, United States. She was a daughter of Josiah Flint Willard and Mary Thompson Hill. When she was 2, the family moved to Oberlin, Ohio, then to Janesville, Wisconsin a few years later. By the 1850 census, her family lived in Plymouth, Rock County Wisconsin. ^[1] She moved to Evanston, Illinois when she was 18. ^{[2] [3]}

In the 1860s, Willard suffered a series of personal crises: both her father and her younger sister Mary died, her brother became an alcoholic, and Willard herself began to feel love for a woman who would ultimately go on to marry her brother. Willard's family underwent financial difficulty due to her brother's excessive gambling and drinking, and Willard was unable to receive financial support from them. In 1869, Willard was involved in the founding of Evanston Ladies' College.

Willard's time at the North Western Female College led her to become a teacher and she held various teaching positions until she became the President of Evanston College for Ladies. She held this position on two separate occasions, once in 1871 and again in 1873. She was also the first Dean of Women for Northwestern University.

In 1874, Willard participated in the creation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) where she was elected the first corresponding secretary.

Willard joined with Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, Mary Ellen West, Frances Conant, and forty-three others in 1885 in the founding of the Illinois Woman's Press Association.

As president of the WCTU, the crux of Willard’s argument for female suffrage was based on the platform of "Home Protection," which she described as "the movement...the object of which is to secure for all women above the age of twenty-one years the ballot as one means for the protection of their homes from the devastation caused by the legalized traffic in strong drink." Violence against women by inebriated men both inside and outside the home was a major problem. Most women were economically dependent on men, and if their husband or father drank or gambled money away, there was no recourse. And still, they had no power at the ballot box to advocate for themselves in terms of policy. This is how temperance and women's suffrage became linked as a moral imperative and gained the suffragettes gained momentum among Christian women.

She also advocated for the 8-hour workday, kindergarten movement, raising the age of consent, prison reform, Christian socialism,

Willard died on February 17, 1898 of influenza at the Empire Hotel in Manhattan, New York, New York while preparing to set sail for a visit to England and France.^[3] She died quietly in her sleep.

Sources

1. ↑ United States Census, 1850, Francis Willard in household of Josiah F Willard, Plymouth, Rock, Wisconsin, United States; citing family 396.
2. ↑ United States Census, 1860, Frances E Willard in entry for Josiah F Willard, 1860. Evanston, Cook, Illinois, United States.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949, Frances Elizabeth Willard, 1898.

See also:

Wikipedia: Frances Willard (suffragist)

Baker, Jean H. Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists Hill and Wang, New York, 2005 ISBN 0-8090-9528-9.

Gordon, Anna Adams The Beautiful Life of Frances E. Willard, Chicago, 1898

McCorkindale, Isabel Frances E. Willard centenary book (Adelaide, 1939) Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Australia, 2nd ed.

Strachey, Ray Frances Willard, her life and work - with an introduction by Lady Henry Somerset, New York, Fleming H. Revell (1913)