Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/547

WILKINSON, William Clearer, clergyman, ft. in Westford, Vt, 19 Oct., 1833. He was graduated at Rochester university in 1857, and at the theological seminary there in 1859. In the same year he became pastor of the Wooster place Baptist church, New Haven, Conn., and he remained there until 1861, when he resigned, and made an extensive tour in Europe. After spending a year as tutor in modern languages in Rochester uni- versity, he accepted a call to the pastorate of the Mount Auburn Baptist church, Cincinnati, Ohio. Resigning this charge in 1866, he opened a school in Tarrytown, N. Y., where he still resides. In 1872 he was elected to the professorship of homiletics and pastoral theology in Rochester theological •seminary, but in 1881 he retired from this office .and has since devoted himself to literary work. He is counsellor of the Chautauqua literary and scientific circle, and dean of the department of literature and art in the Chautauqua university. He has also lectured at Wellesley college on English literature. Rochester gave him the degree of D. D. in 1873. Dr. Wilkinson has contributed extensively to periodicals, and has prepared text-books in languages for the Chautauqua university, which have been widely used (1882-'7). His other publications include "The Dance of Modern Society" (New York, 1869); "A Free Lance in the Field of Life and Letters" (1874); "The Baptist Principle" (Philadelphia, 1881); "Webster, an Ode" {New York, 1882); "Poems" (1883); and "Edwin Arnold as Poetizer and as Paganizer" (1884).

WILLARD, Abijah, soldier, b. in Lancaster, Mass., in 1722; d. in Lancaster, N. H., in 1789. He served at the capture of Cape Breton, was wounded in the campaign, and rose to the rank of captain. In 1774 he was appointed a mandamus councillor, and soon became an object of public indignation. While in Union, Connecticut, he was seized and confined, but was released on the signing of a declaration that was dictated by his captors. He commanded a Massachusetts regiment under Jeffrey Amherst, went to Halifax with the royal army in 1776, and at a late period of the Revolutionary war was on Long Island. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished, and in July, 1783, was in the city of New York, where he joined fifty-four other loyalists in a petition to Sir Guy Carleton for extensive grants of land in Nova Scotia. These petitioners are known as the “Fifty-five,” and their petition caused much excitement in New York and St. John. In a controversy between “Viator” and a “Consistent Loyalist,” published in London in 1784, his name often appears. On the one hand, it was said that as commissary he “saved the government several thousand pounds,” and on the other he “saved to himself and nephew many thousand pounds more than they were worth when the rebellion began.” Willard settled in New Brunswick, and was a member of the council. After his death his family returned to Massachusetts.

WILLARD, Emma, educator, b. in Berlin, Conn., 23 Feb., 1787; d. in Troy, N. Y., 15 April, 1870. She was a daughter of Samuel Hart, and a sister of Mrs. Almira Lincoln Phelps. She re- ceived her education at the village academy, and in Hartford, Conn., and began to teach at the age of sixteen. After serving as principal of various academies, she took charge of an institution in Middlebury, Vt., and in 1809 married Dr. John Willard. who was then U. S. marshal of Vermont. In 1814 she opened a boarding-school for girls in Middlebury, where she introduced new studies and made many improvements upon the ordinary methods of instruction. Deciding to establish a seminary for girls, she matured her plans in a treatise on the "Education of Women," which was published in the form of an address to the legislature in 1819, and in that year she opened a school in Water- ford, N. Y., which was incorporated and in part sup- ported by the state government. In 1821 she removed to Troy, N. Y., which town had offered her an ap- propriate build- ing, and her school became known as the Troy female seminary. In 1825 Dr. Willard died, and the entire busi- ness management ,

devolved upon her.

She continued suecessfully until 1838, when she resigned, and was succeeded by her son, John Hart Willard, and his wife. In 1830 she travelled in Europe, and on her return she published her "Journal and Letters from France and Great Britain " (Troy, 1833), de- voting her share of the proceeds of its sale, amount- ing to $1,200, to the support of a school in Greece, that had been founded mainly by her exertions, for the education of native female teachers. She was associated in this enterprise with Almira Lincoln Phelps, Sarah J. Hale, Lydia H. Sigourney, and others. In 1838 she married Dr. Christopher C. Yates, from whom she was divorced in 1843, and resumed her former name. For many years before her death she resided in Troy, N. Y., and directed her energy to the revision of her numerous school- books and to public labors in the cause of higher education. In 1846she made a journey of 8,000miles through the western and southern states, addressing teachers' conventions, and in 1854 she attended the World's educational convention in London. She is considered the pioneer in the higher education of women in this country, and educated about 5,000 pupils. Her school-books have had a large sale, and have been translated into many of the lan- guages of Europe and Asia. Her publications in- clude " The Woodbridge and Willard Geogra- phies and Atlases," comprising a universal geog- raphy and atlas, a school geography and atlas, an ancient geography and atlas, geography for beginners, and atlas (1823) ; " History of the United States, or Republic of America " (New York, 1828) ; " Universal History in Perspective " (1837) ; " Treatise on the Circulation of the Blood " (1846) ; "Respiration and its Effects, particularly as respects Asiatic Cholera " (1849) ; " Last Leaves of American History " (1849) ; " Astronomy " (1853) ; " Morals for the Young " (1857) ; and numerous charts, atlases, pamphlets, and addresses. She was the author of many poems, the best known of which is " Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep." These were published in a volume, which was afterward suppressed (New York, 1830). See her " Life," by John Lord (New York, 1873).

WILLARD, Frances Elizabeth, reformer, b. in Churchville, N. Y, 28 Sept., 1839. She was graduated at Northwestern female college, Evanston, Ill., in 1859, became professor of natural science there in 1862, and was principal of Genesee Wesleyan seminary in 1866-'7. The following two years she spent in foreign travel, giving a part of