Description:
Frances Willard Brewer, daughter of the Hon. George Willard and the niece of Charles Willard, led Battle Creek's library for nearly 14 years, from 1889 to 1903. Her father, a member of Congress, made the Battle Creek library a depository of government documents in 1876, but it was a $40,000 bequest from her Uncle Charles in 1897 that funded the construction of the original Willard Library building on what is now Capital Avenue Northeast. An advocate of intellectual life in the city, Mrs. Brewer had been a member of the Ladies' Library Association, which developed the Woman's Club, and was a charter member of the local chapter of the Woman's League. Born on June 27, 1845 in South Battle Creek, Mrs. Brewer was described in a July 8, 1912, edition of The Evening News, as "a woman of wide acquaintance of rare intellectual charm." She died July 6, 1912, in her Poplar Street home.
