Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-02-26
Famous Apostle of Temperance and
Purity Died in New York Early
This Morning.
MOST FAMOUS WOMAN IN THE LAND
Has Been ut the Head OF the Great
Temperance Crusade for Nearly
a Quarter OF n Century
---Her Funeral.

~ hin
shortly after midnight this morning at
the Hotel Empire, in this city.
At the bedside of Miss Willard at the
time of her death were her niece, Mrs
W. w. Baldwin; Mrs. i. NJ. NJ. Stevens
vice president of the w. G. L. u; Miss
Anna NJ. Gordon, Miss Wizards secre-
tary, and DR.. Alfred X. Hill.
Miss Willard had beer i'll for about
three weeks. DR.. Hill made the fol-
lowing statement last night:
miss Willard had suffered some
years with profound anaemia, and on
several occasions had been given up
take on a new lease of life and gained
in weight and strength, so that she
went through her convention work at
Toronto and Buffalo, which was most
arduous, aud came out much better
than was expected; but on her arrival
five weeks ago she was much pros
trated and readily took the grip, which
attacked the stomach, liver, intestines
and later the nervous system. The
disease progressed favorably, and in
many respects she had greatly inn
proved when the fatal issue came and
overwhelmed the nerve center. There
was no cancerous degradation OF any
organ, as has been stated"
There will be funeral services in New
York city and later in Evanston, H.,
Misss Willlard's home, where the body
will be taken.
Miss Wizards Career.
The Willards are an old English
family. The first American Willard
was one Of the founders of the famous
town of Concord and a notable figure
in early New England history. From
him Miss Willard came eighth in di-
rect line of descent. Her mother was
a native of Vermont, where she was
born i'm 1905. Her father, too, was a
Nermonter. Frances was born Sep
tember Is, 1899, at C~hurchville, o. As
a child she went TO Wisconsin with
her parents, living at Forest Home, on
the Rock river, from her 18th to the
10Th year. She was educated at the
Milwaukee Female college and later at
the Northwestern university, Evan
ston, and at 10 became a school teach
err. From 1853 to 1874 she had thir-
teen separate seasons of teaching in
eleven separate institutions and six
different towns, the pupils in all num-
boring about 1000.
Miss Willard in 1865 made a two
years trip to Europe with Miss Kate
jackson, who betrayed the expense.
They visited Egypt, the Holy Land,
Russia and all the rest of Europe. This
European trip was Miss Wizards II
experience of life, as woridlings live il.
She said of it:
Three things l did, once in a while,
during my two years and four months
Of foreign travel, that | never did and
never do at home. j went to see sights
on Sunday, went to the theater, and
took wine at dinner"
She learned to love Rudesheimer and
Grand Chartreuse, and in short, she did
in Rome as the Romans do, honestly
avowing that the forbidden pleasures
were sweet, and were abandoned with
n sigh.
becomes "a Temperance Advocate.
Miss Willard was 35 years old when
she finally adopted temperance work
as her vocation, although she was her
editarily disposed to it, her father and
mother having been life long teetotal-
ers and their children being accus-
toned from infancy to the representa-
ton of the case against alcohol. 1t
was not, however, until 1878 that Miss
Willard entered the temperance field
as a missionary.
She was soon in the heat of the fray
in the cause of temperance, and short
w was chosen president of the Wo-
mans Temperance society in Chicago.
She continued her labors in the local
field, and in the autumn of 1875 was in
strumental in the founding of the Ma
tional Woman's Temperance union, OF
which she was appointed national Sec
rotary. In 1878 Miss Willard began a
systematic tour of the American CONT
nent, addressing meetings in every
town in the union of 5000 or more in
habitants. In the ten years from 1873
to 1888 she averaged but three weeks
a wear a home and addressed an aver
age Of one meeting each day during
the whole of that period.
At Baltimore in 1878 a proposal to
indorse woman suffrage as a temper
ance measure was rejected, but the OIL
cial organ was permitted 20 publish
reports of the work of societies on that
line. The next year at indianapolis
Miss Willard was elected president of
the National w. c. Il. Ia post which
she held until her death. Under her
presidency the convention next year
declared in favor of woman suffrage,
and the whole work of the organiza-
ton was revised. Individual superin-
tendents were substituted for commit
tees ION the principle that if Noah had
appointed a committee the ark would
still have been on the stocks"
During recent years Miss Willard
had been heard Of and read of as doing
so much white ribbon and social pur-
ity work that her books have made
themselves prominent places. Among
her dozen best known works are: "A
Wheel Within a Wheel" "Hints and
Helps for the w. c. T. L." women in
the Pulpit" "a Classic Town" "a
Young Journalist" and "Glimpses of
Fifty Years"
In 1895 Miss Willard was the guest
of Lady Henry Somerset at the l~atter's
home in England for almost n year.
She returned September 81, 1896, and
since then she has been %unceasing in
her efforts to advance the cause she
loved.
OF Miss Wizards hearty sympathy
with every progressive movement there
is no need to speak. Her absorbing
idea for many years had been the
combination of the labor, the temper
ance and the woman's party.