On  Miss  Willard's  return  to  Evanston  she  was  one  of  a  tal-
ented trio  who  taught  the  Grove  School,  a  private  enterprise  where
Miss  Willard  found  an  opportunity  of  putting  many  of  her  unique
pedagogic  inventions  to  a  successful  practical  test  among  ' '  the
best-born  and  best-mannered  children  in  Evanston."  In  the
summer  vacation  of   that   year   Miss  Willard,   as   Corresponding


58  MEMORIAL    VOLUME

Secretary  of  the  American  Methodist  Ladies'  Centenary  Associa-
tion, helped  to  build  Heck  Hall  in  Evanston,  a  home  building  for
the  students  of  the  Garrett  Biblical  Institute.
When  her  parents  were  established  in  Rest  Cottage,  their
new  home,  in  the  autumn  of  1866,  Miss  Willard  taught  for  a  year
as  preceptress  in  the  Genessee  Wesleyan  Seminary  (the  oldest
seminary  of  the  Methodist  Church)  in  the  historic  village  of  Lima,
New  York,  only  thirty  miles  from  her  birthplace.
In  January,  1868,  another  severance  in  the  sacred  home  circle
brought  its  vigils  and  its  sorrow  —  Miss  Willard's  honored  father,
after  a  lingering  illness,  the  last  weeks  of  which  were  spent  in
Churchville,   ' '  going  triumphantly  home  to  God. "

When,  in  the  spring,  Miss  Kate  A.  Jackson,  a  loved  and
sympathetic  friend  who  for  several  years  had  lived  and  taught
with  Miss  Willard,  proposed  a  ' '  tour  of  Europe, "  it  was  a  joy  that
lost  nothing  for  its  complete  and  fresh  surprise.  What  more
natural  than  for  Miss  Jackson  to  gain  her  generous  father's  consent
to  meet  every  expense  of  the  extended  journey  these  enthusiasts
planned,  the  keen  and  kindly  gentleman  telling  Miss  Willard  she
must  believe  that  it  was  to  him  the  fulfillment  of  an  earnest  desire
that  his  daughter  should  go  abroad,  but  never  until  now  had  he
found  one  with  whom  he  felt  inclined  to  send  her.
