rendering the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 the most helpful to humanity which history has known.
WILLARD, Miss Katherine, musician, born in Denver, Col., in April, 1866. Her parents, Oliver A. Willard and Mary Bannister Willard, were both of distinguished New England ancestry, and persons of remarkable intellectual gifts and acquirements. Her maternal grandfather was Rev. Henry Bannister, D. D., for twenty-seven years professor of Hebrew in Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Ill., and her father was the only brother of Miss Frances E. Willard. In the infancy of Miss Katherine Willard her parents removed from Colorado to their former home in Evanston, Ill. There, in a refined Christian home and with the best social and intellectual advantages, she spent her early youth. The death of her father occurred when she had reached the age of twelve, and in 1885 she accompanied her mother,
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KATHERINE WILLARD.
Mrs. Mary Bannister Willard, to Germany, where, besides continuing her studies in languages, art and history, she devoted herself to the cultivation of her voice under the best musicians of Berlin. Under the faithful improvement of rare advantages her gifts of voice, person and manner united to win for her a marked success. In the autumn of 1885 she began years of industrious study with Fräulein Louise Ress, the most celebrated exponent of the old Italian method, and she also studied with other famous singers of the Italian school. She sang in Berlin two successive winters in the Sing-Akademie with Scharwenka, Heinrich Grünfeld, the celebrated 'cellist, and with M'me Madeline Schiller. During her residence of five years in Berlin, she made the acquaintance of many eminent Germans and Americans. She was invited by the Countess Waldersee to sing in a soirée given to Prince Bismarck and Count Von Moltke, and in Berlin and elsewhere she sang in many private and public entertainments. In London, Eng., she sang with great success. She was invited by her old school friend, Mrs. Grover Cleveland, to Washington, and in 1889 she spent several weeks in the White House, where she passed a brilliant season in society and sang in many notable entertainments in the Executive Mansion and elsewhere. She sang in New York, Baltimore, Chicago and other cities in concert and parlor musicales. In October, 1892, she returned to Europe, to study in Berlin and to sing in London during the season of 1893.
WILLARD, Mrs. Mary Bannister, editor, temperance worker and educator, born in Fairfield. N. Y., 18th September, 1841. She is the daughter of Rev. Henry Bannister, D. D., a distinguished scholar and Methodist divine, and his wife. Mrs. Lucy Kimball Bannister, a woman of rare gentleness and dignity of character. In the infancy of Mary, their oldest daughter, the father became principal of Cazenovia Seminary, and her childhood and early youth were spent as a pupil in that institution. When she was fifteen, the family removed to Evanston, Ill. Possessing a love for study and rare talents, Mary made rapid progress in scholarship and was graduated with honor from the Northwestern Female College, in Evanston, at the age of eighteen. The following year she went to Tennessee as a teacher, but her career there was cut short by the approach of the Civil War. She became the wife of Oliver A. Willard, 3rd July, 1862, and went with her husband to his first pastorate, in Edgerton, Wis. In the following year they removed to Denver, Col., where her husband founded a Methodist church, and became presiding elder at the age of twenty-seven years. Two years later, the family, consisting of the parents, one son and one daughter, returned to Evanston, where they made their home for several years, and where another son and another daughter were added to their number. Mrs. Willard has always wielded a gifted pen. She wrote little during those years, giving such leisure as domestic care permitted to home study with her husband, who had become the editor of a Chicago daily paper. His sudden death, in the prime of his brilliant powers, was an overwhelming bereavement, and left to Mrs. Willard the responsibility of conducting his paper, the "Post and Mail," which she assumed with the assistance of her husband's sister, Miss Frances E. Willard. The financial burden proving too heavy, it was relinquished, and not long afterward Mrs. Willard was called to assume the editorship of a new paper, the "Signal," the organ of the Illinois Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Several years of most successful work as editor and temperance worker displayed her gifts, both in the editorial sanctum and as organizer and platform speaker. The "Signal" under her leadership came quickly to the front, and it was said that no other paper in America was better edited. In 1881 she made her first trip to Europe. Successfully editing the "Union Signal" for several years afterward, her health became impaired, and with her two daughters she spent a year in Berlin, Germany. In the autumn of 1886 she opened in that city her American Home School for girls, unique in its way, and which for six years has been carried out on the original plan with much success. It combines the best features of an American school with special advantages in German, French and music, and the influences and care of a refined Christian home. History, literature and art receive special attention. The number of pupils received never exceeds the limits of a pleasant family circle, and vacation trips are arranged under Mrs. Willard's personal supervision and escort. In the
