Frances E. Willard

Francis Elizabeth Caroline Willard (September 28, 1839 - February 17, 1898) was an American educator, moderator of moderation, and a female suffragist. Willard became the national president of the Union of Women Christian Moderates (WCTU) in 1879 and remained president until his death in 1898. Its influence continued for the next decades, as amendments to the eighteenth (ban) and nineteenth (women's suffrage) to the US Constitution was passed. Willard developed the “Do Everything” slogan for WCTU, encouraging members to engage in a wide range of social reforms through lobbying, petitioning, preaching, publishing, and education. During his life, Willard has succeeded in raising the marriage age in many states, as well as in implementing labor reforms, including an eight-hour workday. Her vision also included prison reform, scientific education on moderation, Christian socialism, and the global empowerment of women. Willard was born in 1839 to Josiah Flint Willard and Mary Thompson Hill Willard in Churchville, near Rochester, New York. She was named after the English writer Francis (Fanny) Burney, the American poet Francis Osgood and her sister Elizabeth Caroline, who died last year. She had two other siblings: her older brother Oliver and her younger sister Mary. Her father was a farmer, naturalist, and legislator. Her mother was a school teacher. In 1841, the family moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where at Oberlin College, Josiah Willard studied for the ministry, and Mary Hill Willard attended classes. They moved to Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1846 for the health of Josiah Willard. In Wisconsin, a congregational family became a Methodist. Francis and her sister Mary attended the Milwaukee Normal Institute, where their mother’s sister taught. In 1858, the Willard family moved to Evanston, Illinois, and Josiah Willard became a banker. Francis and Mary attended Northwestern Women's College (not affiliated with Northwestern University), and their brother Oliver attended the Garrett Bible Institute.