I discovered Frances Willard while researching drinking fountains erected by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) throughout Western New York in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These public sources of fresh water, often placed near saloons, were meant to turn men away from demon rum, however naïve that sounds.
I located a small, inconspicuous WCTU fountain dedicated to Willard in front of the public library in Churchville. Its plaque reads:
IN MEMORIAM
FRANCES E. WILLARD BORN IN CHURCHVILLE, N.Y. SEPTEMBER 28, 1839 DIED FEBRUARY 17, 1898
AN ADVOCATE OF TEMPERANCE WHO DEVOTED HER LIFE TO THAT CAUSE
“BY THEIR FRUITS WE SHALL KNOW THEM”
I’d never heard of Willard, and my near certain guess is until now neither had you. But it turns out this native of our area was a giant of social activism and reform during the latter half of the nineteenth century. According to her biographer, Christopher H. Evans, by the time Willard turned fifty in 1888, she was “one of the most famous persons in the United States, if not globally” (Do Everything: The Biography of Frances Willard).
There’s more. Willard was the first woman honored with a place in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol building, where she stands to this day. And when, in 1940, the US Postal Service issued thirty-five stamps honoring famous Americans (noted collector President Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped with the selections) only two women made the cut: Louisa May Alcott and, yes, Frances Willard.
Willard’s former renown is attributable primarily to her leadership of the WCTU. She was among the cofounders of the organization in 1873. She was named president in 1879 and served in that position until her death. Under her guidance, the WCTU became the largest women’s organization in the world.
Ironically, perhaps one reason for Willard’s current obscurity, aside from the passage of time, is her ties with the WCTU, which today is recalled, if at all, as the prime mover behind Prohibition, among the notable failures of American government. The biggest surprise about the organization is that it is still active in 2024, promoting temperance and uniting “the motherhood of the world for the protection and exaltation of its homes.” Willard is revered in the society, affectionately known by some members as St. Frances.
We’ll return to Willard’s accomplishments as president of the WCTU in a moment. However, her career began in education, and it was as a teacher that she first distinguished herself.
“Frank,” as she was known among friends and family, attended North Western Female College in Evanston, Illinois, where she grew up after her family moved from Churchville. After graduating, she taught at the Pittsburgh Female College before returning to our area to become preceptress—essentially, a teacher—at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima. That institution later became the basis of Syracuse University, in 1870. The grounds of the seminary have been the location of several centers of learning with religious ties; today it is the home of Elim Bible Institute.
Willard’s career in education was marked by firsts. In 1871, she became the first female president of a college granting degrees to women: Evanston College for Ladies. When that college merged with Northwestern University, Willard was named the first dean of women and professor of English and aesthetics. But before long, after butting heads with the administration, Willard left higher education and pursued her main calling with the WCTU.
Frances Willard’s motto for the WCTU was “Do Everything!” She encouraged women to campaign not only for temperance but for a broad spectrum of social causes. Under her leadership, the WCTU was ahead of its time in fighting for women’s rights, including the right to vote and equal pay for equal work. She helped lay the foundation for the National Council of Women of the United States and was its first president. Also, Willard led the push for an end to child labor, the establishment of the eight-hour workday, free kindergartens, and other progressive causes.
Willard was even a proponent of physical exercise for girls and women, something far outside the mainstream in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Relatively late in life she took up bicycling and then wrote a book about it, A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle, encouraging others to follow her lead.
As a model of activism, Willard traveled throughout the U.S., speaking to thousands of audiences, preaching and writing prolifically, including ten books. In effect, she was everywhere, doing everything. By the time of her death in 1898 from complications related to influenza, her name was a household word. Most likely not so today. Nonetheless, in 2000 Willard was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. The Hall’s website declares that Willard “influenced the history of reform and helped transform the role of women in nineteenth-century America.”
Frances Willard’s family moved away from Churchville when she was a child; however, she returned to her birthplace often during her life to visit her extended family and friends. And she is honored there, with a modesty typical of her life, with a plain, nonworking drinking fountain.
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2024 issue of (585).
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