The Girl Who Fought The Dragon, Drink

Frances called her brother Oliver’s attention to the new law that she had written the previous night for “Fort City.” It read: “We will have no saloons or billiard halls, and then we will not need any jails.”

This little girl’s favorite game was to plan a play city, a place where everyone could live happily. She took a special delight in making laws for the health and pleasure of the citizens of her city.

Planning the city was only play, but in this game as well as in all others Frances Willard showed her remarkable ability as an organizer. Little did she realize that years later this ability would make her a valuable leader of the Temperance Cause.

Frances Elizabeth Willard was born at Churchville, New York, September 28, 1839. When she was but a tiny child, her parents moved to Oberlin, Ohio, in order that they might study at the university. After a few years of happy student life, Mr. Willard was obliged to give up his books and his dream of becoming a minister for a life outdoors in the West.

What an adventure the journey was for the three little Willards! There were no fine Pullman trains in which they could travel, for there were no railroads in that section of the country in those days. Three clumsy prairie schooners carried them to their new home. Frances and her little sister Mary rode in the third, perched comfortably enough among the cushions on the top of their father’s old-fashioned desk. For three weeks they traveled over the prairies, stopping only to cook their meals, gypsy-fashion, and to rest on Sundays.

“Forest Home” was the name given to the pretty rustic cottage that Mr. Willard built among the oaks and hickory groves, by the banks of the Rock River, near Janesville, Wisconsin. It was a delightful place in which to spend a happy childhood. To be sure, the Willards’ only callers at first were the chipmunks and birds, but there were no dull days. Every minute was filled. Frances did her share of the household tasks and far more than her share in planning the family games.

Although the lively Frances was the leader in all the fun, there was one sport in which she was not allowed to join. This was horseback riding. Confiding to her brother that she must ride something, she tried the cow. Her father laughed when he saw her on her clumsy steed, and allowed her to have a horse after that. This simple way of disposing of difficulties served her well all her life.

Active and full of fun as Frances Willard was, she liked to be quiet and thoughtful too. A black oak in the garden bore the sign:

The Eagle’s Nest—Beware!

High up in the leafy branches Frances would sit for hours, making up bits of verse or editing the “Fort City” newspaper.

On Sunday afternoons the children would wander with their mother in the orchard while she talked to them about the beauty that God had created. They realized that God was very near.

Frances was quite young when she first heard from her parents of the unhappiness that drink brings. With the other children she signed a pledge written in the big family Bible, and ending:

For some years Mrs. Willard took charge of the children’s lessons, but later a young woman from the East came to teach them and some of their little neighbors. No child was ever more hungry for knowledge than little Frances Willard. She often declared that she wanted to learn everything.

There came a day when Frances was very happy and excited. A little schoolhouse had been built in the woods about a mile away. It was so small and brown and plain that she called it “a sort of big ground-nut,” but it was a real schoolhouse, with a Yale graduate for a teacher.

Later on Frances and Mary went away to college. They attended Milwaukee Female College, and then Northwestern Female College at Evanston, Illinois, from which they were graduated. At these two schools energetic, high-spirited Frances was a leader, both in and out of the classroom.

Frances Willard was the same earnest, hungry-minded, determined girl when she became a teacher that she had been as a student. She began to teach in her own “brown-nut” schoolhouse during her first college vacation. After her graduation from college she spent a number of years in the teaching profession. During this time she was at the head of several important schools. She concluded her teaching career as Dean of the Woman’s College in Northwestern University.

About this time many people were becoming alarmed at the amount of drunkenness throughout the United States. They were distressed by the misery caused by drink. In the small towns in the Middle West, women often marched through the streets singing, praying, and begging saloon keepers to give up their business.

In Chicago a band of women, marching to the City Council to ask to have the Sunday closing law enforced, were rudely treated by the mob. Frances Willard had never forgotten the pledge that she had signed in the family Bible. The insults to these women aroused her fighting spirit. She felt that she must help.

One day the mail brought her two letters. One letter offered her the principalship of a prominent school in New York City, which would pay her a large salary. The other letter asked her to become president of the Chicago branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Because of the meager funds of this organization no salary was offered her. Although she had no means besides her earnings, Miss Willard chose the latter position. Later, discovering that she had no private income, this organization provided a sufficient salary for her.

Frances Willard felt sure that she should devote her life to the cause of Temperance. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union needed a leader badly, so with all the energy with which she had planned her play city, Miss Willard developed this organization.

From that time on, Frances Willard gave her whole life to the Cause. She pleaded eloquently for Temperance in every large city in the United States and in many small ones. She became the president of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and later of the World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which was organized through her efforts.

In the National Capitol there is a hall where each state may place the statue of two of its most beloved leaders. Illinois erected there the first statue to a woman—a marble figure of Frances E. Willard. In the year 1910 Frances E. Willard’s name was selected for the Hall of Fame.

To-day, we have that for which Miss Willard dreamed and worked: a nation in which the sale of intoxicating drinks is prohibited by law. The passing of this milestone on the road to Temperance has greatly benefited the world. To Frances E. Willard, who contributed so much to the success of this movement, humanity is indebted.