History of Churchville, (Oneida County) New York United States of America

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Frances Elizabeth Willard, reformer, was born in Churchville, N.Y., Sept. 28, 1839; daughter of Josiah Flint and Mary Thompson (Hill) Willard; granddaughter of John and Polly (Thompson) Hill, and a descendant of Maj.-Gen. Simon Willard, who came from Horsmanden, England, in 1634, and founded Concord, Mass., 1635; serving as judge of the supreme, superior and admiralty courts. Sire was carried by her parents to Oberlin, Ohio, in 1840, and in 1846 to Wisconsin, where her mother engaged in teaching school and her father in farming. She attended the Milwaukee Female college, 1857; was graduated from Northwestern Female college, Evanston, Ill., 1859; was professor of natural science in the college, 1862-66; and preceptress of Genesee Wesleyan seminary, Lima, N.Y., 1866-67. She studied and traveled in Europe and the Holy Land, 1868-70; was president of the Woman's college of Northwestern university, 1871-74, introducing the system of self-government, which became generally adopted in the other colleges, and was professor of athetics in the university, 1873-74, resigning in the latter year to identify herself with the cause of temperance. She was corresponding-secretary of the National W.C.T.U., 1874-78, and president of the union, 1879-98. In 1882 she became a member of the central committee of the national Prohibition party, and in 1883 toured the United States, organizing and strengthening the women's temperance work. She also founded in 1883 and was president (1883-98) of the World's W.C.T.U.; presented, under the auspices of the National W.C.T.U., memorials to each of the four political conventions for the nomination of president of the United States, 1884; was a founder of the Home Protection party, 1884, and a member of its executive committee, and accepted the leadership of the White Cross movement in her own unions, 1886, which remained her special department until her death. She was president of the Woman's Council of the United States from its organization, 1887; a delegate to the general conference of the M.E. church, 1887, and elected to the OEcumenical conference of 1889, but was refused admittance; was president of the American branch of the International Council of Women of the World's W.C.T.U., 1888; chairman of the World's Temperance committee of the Columbian exposition, 1893, and was also head of the Purity work of the World's and National W.C.T. unions. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred upon her by Syracuse university, 1871, and that of LL.D. by Ohio Wesleyan, 1894. She lectured extensively in Europe and the United States on temperance; edited the Chicago Daily Post, the Union Signal; was a director of the Women's Temperance Publishing Association of Chicago; associate editor of Our Day, Boston, Mass., and is the author of: Nineteen Beautiful Years (1864); Women and Temperance (1883); Hints and Helps (1875); How to Win (1884); Glimpses of Fifty Years (1889); Woman in the Pulpit (1888); A Classic Town (1890), and the following leaflets: A White Life for Two, The White Cross Manual and The Coming Brotherhood. A white marble bust by Lorado Taft was placed to her memory in Northwestern university in 1898. Her estate was bequeathed to the eventual benefit of the National Women's Christian Temperance Union. She died in New York city, Feb. 18, 1898.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Churchville, (Oneida County) New York

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