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. He was the father of suffragist Francis E. Willard.

Willard was born in Wheelock, Vermont, on November 17, 1805. 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. 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. During the family’s stay in Wisconsin, they would convert from Congregationalism to Methodism, a Protestant denomination that placed an emphasis on social justice and service to the world.

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 Assemblyman from Janesville was William Tompkins, a Whig.

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