Unity Among Reformers: Frances Willard and the WCTU

Cooler By The Lake
Unity Among Reformers: Frances Willard and the WCTU

Frances Willard (1839-1898) was a graduate of the Northwestern Female Seminary and President of the Evanston College for Ladies, the sister school to Northwestern University. When the two merged in 1872, Willard became the dean of women at Northwestern University.

WCTU Pledge.

WCTU Pledge.

One of the most prominent people to be part of the Lake Bluff Camp Meeting was Frances Willard, legendary leader of the influential Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Soon after becoming the national secretary of the WCTU in 1877, Frances Willard spoke at Lake Bluff. She was elected national president of the WCTU in 1879 and greatly expanded the size and the influence of the organization. Willard was also a promoter of women’s suffrage with set her apart from other temperance proponents. Willard thought if women could get the vote, they could use their electoral muscle to pass prohibition legislation.
In the summer of 1880, Frances Willard invited some of the local members of the WCTU to gather for a week at Lake Bluff “on the cool shore of Lake Michigan.” The gathering was so popular that a more permanent, annual gathering was established the next year.The WCTU's Lake Bluff Convocation was a week-long networking and educational event for those involved in the temperance movement, particularly those that felt it needed a strong religious influence. The goal was to promote a “unity among reformers, to secure contributions to temperance literature and quicken the zeal of the toilers.”
Frances Willard herself remarked on the influence of Lake Bluff, stating that it had become “the chief rallying place of temperance leaders on the continent, … unequalled in influence by that of any other rendezvous of the Prohibition Army.”Temperance leaders were ultimately successful with the passage of the 18th amendment in 1919. This was followed by the 20th amendment in 1920 which gave women the right to vote.