Josiah Willard

Josiah Flint Willard (November 17, 1805 - January 24, 1868) 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.[1] He was the father of suffragist Frances E. Willard.

Background

Willard was born in Wheelock, Vermont, on November 17, 1805.[2] He originally moved to Oberlin, Ohio, to be part of the ministry there. He married Mary Thompson Hill, a schoolteacher. They lived in Churchville, near Rochester, New York, where their first son Oliver was born about 1834; a daughter, Caroline Elizabeth, died in 1838, and in 1839 came the birth of their daughter Frances Elizabeth Caroline.[3] A third daughter, Mary, was born about 1844.

In 1846, Josiah became ill. His doctor advised him to give up his theological studies and move to the open countryside. They moved to a 360-acre farm on a river in Janesville, in the Wisconsin Territory some few miles north of the Illinois border.[4] During the family’s stay in Wisconsin, they would convert from Congregationalism to Methodism,[5] a Protestant denomination that placed an emphasis on social justice and service to the world.

Legislature and partisan politics

Willard was elected to the second session of the Wisconsin State Legislature, which convened January 10, 1849 and adjourned April 2 of that year, as one of five members from Rock County; he was the only one from Janesville. In the next session, the only Rock County State Representative from Janesville was William Tompkins, a Whig.[6]

He was a delegate to the "Union Democratic Party" (also called the "Free Soil Democrats") convention which convened in Madison, Wisconsin on September 7, 1849. He was elected Vice-President of the convention, and to the state central committee of that party.[7]

Farming and other business

In 1849, Willard was elected the first Vice-President of the newly organized Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. In December 1851, Willard was elected president of the Rock County Agricultural Society.[8]

Willard was credited with getting the Wisconsin School for the Blind sited in Janesville, and was on its board of trustees from 1851-1857.[9]

In 1853, Willard and his neighbor built what is now known as the Frances Willard Schoolhouse.[10] The schoolhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Willard was an author of articles such as "Agricultural fences and enclosures",[11] and was one of two compilers (with Orrin Guernsey) of the History of Rock County and Transactions of the Rock County Agricultural Society and Mechanics Institute (Janesville: Wiliam Doty and Brother, 1856).

In 1857, he was one of the 14 Janesville notables who helped form the first board of trustees of The Mutual Life Insurance Co., later to become Northwestern Mutual Life.

Personal life

In 1858, the Willard family moved to Evanston, Illinois so that Mary and Frances could attend college and their brother Oliver could go to the Garrett Biblical Institute. The girls had attended Milwaukee Female College, where their mother's sister was a teacher[12] Frances would become a world-famous suffragist and first Dean of Women at Northwestern University.

Willard died in Churchville on January 24, 1868.[13]

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References
  1. Cannon, A. Peter, ed. Members of the Wisconsin Legislature: 1848 – 1999. State of Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau Informational Bulletin 99-1, September 1999; p. 122 Archived 2006-12-09 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Gordon, Anna Adams, Frances E. Willard: a memorial volume: 1898, pg. 18
  3. Willard, Frances (2002). Donawerth, Jane (ed.). Rhetorical Theory by Women before 1900: an Anthology. Rowmand and Littlefield. pp. 241–254.
  4. Moren, Isobel V. Women Who Reformed Politics Minneapolis: The Oliver Press, 1994; p. 30
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-07-23. Retrieved 2012-07-17.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Annals of the Legislature: Second Session of the State Legislature, 1849" and "Third Session of the State Legislature, 1850", in: Heg, J. E., ed. The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin 1882 Madison: 1882, pp. 179-181
  7. "Political: Union State Democratic Convention from the Wisconsin Free Democrat" Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette September 25, 1849; p. 2, col. 4
  8. Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. Transactions of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, with an abstract of the correspondence of the secretary Vol. I. Madison: Beriah Brown, State Printer, 1851; p. 116; 336
  9. Snyder, Clarence, et al. "First biennial report of the state board of control of Wisconsin Reformatory, Charitable and Penal Institutions, for the two fiscal years ending September 30, 1892", p. 155, in Governor's Message and Accompanying Documents of the State of Wisconsin Volume II. Madison: Democrat Printing Company, 1893 (Covers 1890/1892)
  10. Frances Willard Schoolhouse
  11. Willard, Joseph F. "Agricultural fences and enclosures," in: Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. Transactions of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, with portions of the correspondence of the secretary Vol. II (1852) Madison: Beriah Brown, State Printer, 1852; pp. 186-195
  12. Bordin, Ruth Birgitta Anderson (1986). Frances Willard: A Biography. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-1697-3.
  13. 'Willard Genealogy Sequel to Willard Memiors,' Joseph Willard/Charles Wilkes Valker, Willard Family Association: 1915, pg. 493-494
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