FRANCES E. WILLARD, THE GREAT TEMPERANCE CRUSADER; CLARA BARTON, WHO FOUNDED THE RED CROSS SOCIETY IN AMERICA; AND JANE ADDAMS, THE FOUNDER OF HULL HOUSE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT IN CHICAGO
Frances E. Willard, 1839
Family moves to Wisconsin
222. Frances E. Willard. In 1839, when Frances Elizabeth Willard was born, thousands were leaving the eastern states for the new West. Her father and mother were successful teachers in New York, but when Frances was two years old they decided to move with the westward current. After living five years at Oberlin, Ohio, the family went on to Janesville, Wisconsin, settling on a farm in the midst of picturesque hills and woods. There Frances and her brother and sister grew up healthy, happy children, playing together in the forest and fields. The parents were religious and were total abstainers, and the children never forgot their teachings.
Stands at head of her class
At fifteen years of age Frances went to school in Janesville, and at eighteen to a Milwaukee college for girls. The following year she entered the Northwestern Female College at Evanston, Illinois. At graduation she stood at the head of her class.
Death breaks up the home
Miss Willard began teaching. Then the death of her sister Mary, and shortly afterward, of her father, broke up her home. That home had been an ideal one. There the father and mother were equal in all things, and discussed together the affairs of the household. It was a perfect home, orderly and temperate. Frances Willard made up her mind to spend her life in spreading abroad a knowledge of such homes, and in helping women to become equal with men before the law.
FRANCES E. WILLARD