Frances Willard Schoolhouse | |
 | |
| Location | Janesville, Wisconsin |
|---|---|
| Built | 1853 |
| Architect | Josiah Willard/David Inman |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 77000054 |
| Added to NRHP | October 5, 1977 |
The Frances Willard Schoolhouse is a one-room schoolhouse built in 1853 in Janesville, Wisconsin. Prominent women's suffragist and social reformer Frances Willard studied and taught there. In 1977 the school was added to the National Register of Historic Places. [1]
In 1846 Josiah Willard and his family came to Rock County from New York, bringing along 7-year-old daughter Frances. Josiah was a progressive farmer who helped found the Rock County Agricultural and Mechanics' Association and promoted the first Wisconsin State Fair, which was held in Janesville. He also co-wrote the 1856 History of Rock County. [2]
In 1853 Josiah, David Inman, and other neighbors built the school that is the subject of this article, a one-room frame building with the low-pitched roof, frieze boards, and cornice returns - all hallmarks of the Greek Revival architectural style that was popular at that time. It was initially called the "little brown schoolhouse." Willard later wrote of it:
It was plain and inviting, that little bit of a building, standing under the trees on the river bank. No paint has ever brightened it, outside or in, from that day to the present. It looks like a natural growth; like a sort of big ground nut. Inside, the pine desks were arranged around the wall, boys on one side, girls on the other, a slight platform with rude desk taking up the end nearest the door.... It was a cold winter morning when school opened... we got the key, made the fire, and were the first to take possession. So passed the day - our first in the old school house we learned to love in spite of - nay, perhaps the better because of, its ugliness... [2]
Frances attended the little brown school as a student for about ten months in the 1850s, then came back to teach in 1858. After her time in Janesville, she studied in Milwaukee and points beyond, earning M.S., M.A., and L.L.D. degrees. She went on to be the president of Evanston College for Ladies and Dean of Women at Northwestern University. She and Susan B. Anthony founded the National Council of Women in 1888 and she served as its first president. She worked for social issues, advocating legal protection for women, an eight-hour work day, and the right of women to vote. She worked against drug abuse and alcoholism as president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and later as first president of the World's WCTU. Given all this, she was one of the prominent women leaders of the 1800s. [2]
Willard fondly remembered the little brown school and visited it shortly before she died in 1898. In 1904 when the school was remodeled, it was renamed "Fances Willard School" in her honor. The Rock County WCTU bought the building in 1920 to preserve it, then donated it to the Rock County Historical Society in 1969. In 1972 it was moved to the Rock County fairgrounds. [2]
On June 4, 2016 it was relocated from the Rock County fairgrounds to the campus of the Rock County Historical Society through the financial support of local businessman Bob Kimball and an anonymous donor.
The school was placed on the NRHP because it is the best-preserved structure connected to Frances Willard's time in Wisconsin. It is also one of the oldest surviving school buildings in Rock County. [2]
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." It plays an influential role in the temperance movement. Originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement, the organization supported the 18th Amendment and was also influential in social reform issues that came to prominence in the progressive era.
Janesville is the most populous city and the county seat of Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. It is a principal municipality of the Janesville, Wisconsin, Metropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Madison–Janesville–Beloit, WI Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 65,615, making it the tenth-most populous city in Wisconsin.
Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 and remained president until her death in 1898. Her influence continued in the next decades, as the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution were adopted. Willard developed the slogan "Do Everything" for the WCTU and encouraged members to engage in a broad array of social reforms by lobbying, petitioning, preaching, publishing, and education. During her lifetime, Willard succeeded in raising the age of consent in many states as well as passing labor reforms including the eight-hour work day. Her vision also encompassed prison reform, scientific temperance instruction, Christian socialism, and the global expansion of women's rights.
Elizabeth Josephine Brawley Hughes was an advocate of women's rights in the United States West region.
Lillian M. N. Stevens (1843–1914) was an American temperance worker and social reformer, born at Dover, Maine. She helped launch the Maine chapter of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.), served as its president, and was elected president of the National W.C.T.U. after the death of Frances Willard. Stevens also served as Editor-in-chief of the W.C.T.U.'s organ, The Union Signal.
The Frances Willard House is a historic house museum owned by the National WCTU and is a National Historic Landmark at 1730 Chicago Avenue in Evanston, Illinois. Built in 1865, it was the home of Frances Willard (1839-1898) and her family, and was the longtime headquarters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Willard called the house Rest Cottage because it became a place for her to rest in between her tours and WCTU activities.
Anna Adams Gordon (1853–1931) was an American social reformer, songwriter, and, as national president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union when the Eighteenth Amendment was adopted, a major figure in the Temperance movement.
Mary Greenleaf Leavitt was an educator and successful orator who became the first round-the-world missionary for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Setting out on virtually non-stop worldwide tours over a decade, she "went to all continents save Antarctica," where she crusaded against alcohol and its evils including domestic violence; and advocated for women's suffrage and other equal rights such as higher education for women. In 1891 she became the honorary life president of the World's WCTU.
Josiah Flint Willard was an American dairy farmer, naturalist and businessman living in Janesville, Wisconsin, who served one term as a Free Soiler member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. He was the father of suffragist Frances E. Willard.
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union Administration Building is a historic building in Evanston, Illinois, United States. It has served as the publishing house and national headquarters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union since its construction in 1910. The organization had an important role in the national discussion on prohibition and women's suffrage.
Sarah F. Cowles Little was an American educator from the U.S. state of Ohio. She served as Superintendent of the Wisconsin School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Janesville, Wisconsin.
Delia Krum Collins was an educator, philanthropist and reformer.
Lillian Hollister was an American temperance and church worker. Hollister served as Supreme Commander of the Ladies of the Maccabees.
Julia Colman was an American temperance educator, activist, editor and writer of the long nineteenth century. She served as superintendent of literature in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).
Mary Jane Aldrich was an American temperance reformer, lecturer, and essayist of the long nineteenth century. She served as vice-president of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and president of the Iowa union. At the time of the division in the ranks of the WCTU, Aldrich, with the Iowa union, adhered to the non-partisan temperance work, and became evangelistic secretary of the Non-Partisan National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. As a temperance worker, she was characterized as sanguine and practical. As a speaker, she was bright, forceful, entertaining and logical. She was the author of "Church and Sunday School Temperance Work" (1898).
Minerva Brace Norton was an American educator and writer. She was from her early youth until her last days a constant contributor to periodical literature. For most of her life, she also filled the role of a pastor's wife.
Mary Thompson Hill Willard was an American teacher and social reformer. Her daughter, Frances Willard, was the founder and president of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) as well as president of the National W.C.T.U.
Lucy Switzer was an American temperance and suffrage activist. She wrote many articles for Pacific Christian Advocate and the Christian Herald, and was a columnist in Cheney, Spokane County, Washington. She established the women's suffrage movement in eastern Washington Territory.
The Union Signal is a defunct American newspaper. It was the organ of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (N.W.C.T.U.), at one time, the largest women's organization in the United States. Established in 1874 aa The Woman's Temperance Union, it was renamed in 1877 as Our Union. When Our Union merged with another temperance paper, The Signal, in 1883, the organ's name was changed to The Union Signal. Published in Chicago, Illinois, it focused on the woman's temperance movement in the U.S. Initially, a weekly 16-page illustrated newspaper, it shifted location and publishing schedule before it ceased publication in 2016. The last edition of the N.W.C.T.U.'s quarterly journal, titled The Union Signal, was published in 2015, the main focus of which was current research and information on drugs.
Mary Osburn Adkinson was an American social reformer active in the temperance movement. She took a leading part in the organization of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Madison, Wisconsin, serving four times as its elected president. In Louisiana, she held the position of superintendent of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and matron in the New Orleans University.
