Highlights Archives
Frances Willard Day, September 28
September 28 marks the birthday of educator and reformer Frances Elizabeth Willard. Although born in New York in 1839, Willard grew up on a farm near Janesville. In 1857 she enrolled in the Milwaukee Female College but soon transferred to the North Western Female College in Evanston, Illinois. Willard became dean of women and professor of English and art at Northwestern University in 1873.
As a new wave of anti-liquor agitation arose among women in the 1870s, Willard became a leading temperance advocate and was elected corresponding secretary of the national Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1874. From 1879 until her death in 1898, Willard served as president. Willard helped to transform the WCTU into a multi-issue reform organization, establishing departments to focus on everything from obscene literature and labor conditions to suffrage. Willard also published a number of articles and books, including Occupations for Women in 1897, in which she sought to inspire young women to aim high in life and to work hard to achieve whatever position in life they wanted. Under her leadership, the WCTU became a prestigious world organization, drawing a membership of more than 2 million women.
More information about Frances Willard, including some of her writings as well as the work of other temperance activists is available in the Brewing and Prohibition topic of our digital collection, Turning Points in Wisconsin History. You can also visit the historic Frances Willard Schoolhouse in Janesville, one of the earliest remaining one-room schools in Wisconsin, which was built by her father and a neighbor in 1853.
:: Posted September 28, 2005
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