By Marjory J. Sente
Born in 1866 near Sacramento, CA, Frances (Fanny) Lillian Willard was the eighth child born to Joel and Mary Grace Vineyard Willard. Among her ancestors was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a gold miner and politician and temperance advocates.

In 1870 the family relocated to a ranch in Nevada, where access to educational opportunities was limited. For two years, Frances took the daily train to a more advanced school in Palisade and back, acquiring all the education available locally.   

Knowing her daughter thirsted for a good education, Mary sent Frances to live with an older sister and brother-in-law in Pittsfield, Maine. Attending the Maine Central Institute for four years, Frances was dubbed “The Nevada Wildcat” by her New England classmates for her strong will and independence.

After graduation, Frances came to Arizona from Maine in 1886 to join her family, now living near Cottonwood. She traveled by train with Jennie Jordan, who was coming from Maine to take a teaching position. In Kansas City, their train was abandoned, and they had to take an immigrant train filled with men carrying their bedding and making their grub in the cars. However, the women safely arrived in Flagstaff, where Frances’ brother, Charlie, and Jennie’s brother-in-law, Frank Jordan, met them. They traveled by wagon to the Verde Valley, a trip that included an overnight camp out.

Returning to her mother’s home, Frances met John L. Munds. They soon fell in love, but John was planning to attend the Stockton Business School, which he did, beginning in 1887 and graduating in 1889.

Frances decided she would teach school while John was in California. Little did she know that over the next two years, she would teach at five schools and be the first educator in two newly organized school districts.
 
Obtaining a temporary teaching certificate, her first position was in Pine, starting with 49 pupils ranging from five to nineteen years. Sending the five-year-olds home, she then assessed the educational level of each student before any learning began.

Frances taught in Pine for six months, then accepted a six-month position in Payson to teach during the spring and summer of 1888. Payson’s harsh winters required adjusting the school calendar, so the school opened on April 1 with twelve pupils attending from neighboring ranches.

The term ended in Payson, and Frances took a teaching position in Stoddard for the fall. She was nearer to home and could visit her cousin, Flora Willard, who was teaching in Dewey.

She then taught a six-month term at the new Mayer school. At the end of the term, she returned to Cottonwood, expecting to prepare for her December wedding. Finding her mother’s home unfinished, Frances postponed the wedding until the following spring. Meanwhile, the newly organized Jerome school recruited Frances as its first teacher. The school opened in 1899 between two saloons, and occasionally a drunk would wander into her classroom. She resigned when the school board refused to expel two boys for drawing knives in her classroom. 

Frances and John were married on March 5, 1890, but she continued to teach after their first child was born, rejecting the idea that women should be confined to homemaking. In 1893, when Frances and the children were living in Flagstaff, she taught at a private kindergarten.

She said, “When I think of the narrow limits of the so-called ‘woman’s sphere’ my blood boils to think of the opprobrium she meets when she dares to step over the limit.”

In the early 1900s, Frances became a strong advocate for women’s rights and worked in the Arizona women’s suffrage movement. A statue of Francis Willard Munds stands in Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza in the Arizona Capitol Complex in Phoenix.

“Days Past” is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners International (www.prescottcorral.org). This and other Days Past articles are also available at www.archives.sharlothallmuseum.org/articles/days-past-articles/1. The public is encouraged to submit proposed articles and inquiries to dayspast@sharlothallmuseum.org Please contact SHM Research Center reference desk at 928-277-2003, or via email at archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information or assistance with photo requests.