b"SCHOOLMARM UPSETS ARIZONA POLITICSBy Bill Roberts Reprinted from The TravelerFannie Willard taught school in Pine, Payson, at the mining camp of Stoddard on the Agua Fria and in Mayer before marrying Johnny Munds. When Munds became Sherriff of Yavapai County in 1898, Fannie Willard Munds joined Bucky ONeills widow, Pauline, in the Territory of Arizona Womens Suffrage Organization. That launched Fannie Munds on a 15-year struggle to win the vote for women in Arizona Territory, a battle not won until the first general election after statehood in 1912, where the right of women to vote won by a 3 to 1 margin. The pioneer schoolmarm who had fought such a determined battle to win the vote for women had changed the face of Arizona politics forever. This is her story.T he granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton Willard, a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, had a lot of spunk. Frances Willard endured several tragic losses in her young life before and during her familys move from Pine Valley, Nevada to Arizona Territory and the Verde Valley. Born on June 10, 1866, at the famed Willard ranch near Franklin in the Sacramento Valley, her father Joel and mother Mary took her to a ranch in Pine Valley when she was four. In 1879, her fathers health was failing and he decided to move to the Verde Valley in Arizona Territory to escape the cold winters of Nevada. Joel Willard and his sons drove the familys herd of cattle and horses south across the Virgin River and the Colorado.Father DiesIn crossing the Colorado with the cattle Joel contacted pneumonia from fighting the river waters and died at Dolan Springs on the Arizona side. His sons buried him there and after resting the herd drove the cattle on across the Big Chino Valley and up to the Baker-Campbell ranch at what is now Perkinsville, then down to Cottonwood and their homestead on the Verde.Just weeks before Fannie lost her father on the drive to Arizona, her baby sister Mabel died of whooping cough at the Pine Valley ranch, where Mary Willard, Fannie, and Mabel had remained while Joel and his sons drove the herd to Arizona. And just a few months after word ofFrances (Willard) Munds became the first State Senator in Arizona history and the second in the history of the United States.the death of Joel reached the Pine Valley ranch; Fannie and her mother were to get word of even more losses. in shock. It would take Mary Willard several years todrove her to her new job in a buckboard. They made recover from the tragedies of 1879. When she did, sheStrawberry Station by nightfall, stayed overnight, and Brothers Drown sold the ranch in Pine Valley and moved to Cottonwoodwent on the few miles to Pine the next day.Joels sons got the herd to the banks of the upper Verdeto be near her surviving sons, arriving there in late in June of 1879. They immediately set about building a1883. Fannie was sent to relatives in Maine to attendWhen Frances opened the one-room Pine school there brush and rock dam across the river to have a reservoir forthe Central Maine Institute which offered a far betterwere 49 students ranging in age from five to 19 years their stock. They worked from a small rowboat. Duringeducation than was available in Arizona Territory at theold. A teacher today would file a protest if she had 49 the effort, the boat capsized. Mary Willard received wordtime. She graduated in 1885 at the age of 17. students in her classroom. Frances reduced her load that they had found the bodies of her youngest son, Alex,by sending the five-year-olds home, as kindergarten 10, and her oldest boy, Ninian, 23, shortly after they hadPioneer Schoolmarm on the Rim was not part of her agreement. The students had never drowned. Ninian tried to save his young brother from theFannie Willard decided to teach school while her fianc,been graded so she held individual oral examinations water and died trying. Alex was still clutched in NiniansJohnny Munds, attended Stockton Business College. Theto determine what grade level each student was at and arms when the bodies were recovered.regularly scheduled teacher's examinations had alreadyassigned them accordingly.been given, so Frances presented her diploma to Bucky Within a little more than six months, 12-year-oldONeill, who was the school superintendent in Prescott.At Pine, Frances met Mollie and Jane Birchett, fellow Frances had lost her baby sister, her father and two ofShe was accepted as a teacher and was sent to theteachers. Mollie, who would later marry Sherriff George her brothers. Her mother was devastated and deeplyMormon community of Pine. Fannies brother, Charlie, continued on page 2018 August 2019"