November 23-24, 2024: AmericanTemperanceStudying: The WCTU

[150 yearsago this week, the Women’sChristian Temperance Union was founded at a nationalconvention in Cleveland. So this week I’ve AmericanStudied a handfulof key temperance histories, leading up to this weekend post on the influentialorganization launched by that 1874 convention!]

Six impressivewomen who together reflect the evolution of a successful and still-activeorganization.

1)     MatildaGilruth Carpenter: No national organization springs to life without morelocal efforts on which it’s building, and that was certainly the case for theWCTU, which in many ways began in central Ohio in lateDecember, 1873. It was there that a reformer and religious leader named MatildaGilruth Carpenter spearheaded an effort to close saloons, calling her communitythe Women’s Christian Temperance Union in the process. The bookshe authored a couple decades later about those experiences is one layer toher legacy, but the national organization that met in her native Ohio about ayear later is certainly another.  

2)     AnnieTurner Wittenmyer: By the time she was elected as the WCTU’s firstpresident at that 1874 convention, Annie Turner Wittenmyer had been a prominentactivist for at least a decade, most especially through her Civil War-eraefforts with Soldiers’ Aid Societies, Sanitary Commissions, and dietaryreforms. But Wittenmyer’s activism made an effort to be as apolitical, or atleast non-partisan,as possible, and she frequently fought with other WCTU leaders over whether theorganization should address (much less support) women’s suffrage. Which is why in1879 she lost the presidency to…

3)     Frances Willard:Willard was a groundbreaking educator who also became one of the late 19thcentury’s most impassioned and effective feminist activists, and she saw the WCTUas very much part of the overall women’s movement, rather than solely or evencentrally a temperance organization. In her 19years as WCTU President (a term ended only when she passed away in 1898)she pushed the organization to fight for not only suffrage, but also many othersocial reforms, including equal pay for equal work, uniform divorce laws, andfree kindergarten. She also founded the World’sWoman’s Christian Temperance Union to make these efforts truly global.

4)     Bessie Laythe Scovell:Think globally, act locally isn’t a new idea, though, and some of the mostsuccessful WCTU efforts took place in state chapters. Probably the mostprominent and effective of those state chapters was the Minnesota WCTU, whichwas founded in 1877; Scovell didn’t become its president until 1897, so itsefforts were well established by then, but she became a particularly importantsymbol of this chapter’s groundbreaking work, especially among immigrantcommunities in the state. In that hyperlinked “President’s Address,” deliveredat the Minnesota WCTU’s 24th Annual Meeting in 1900, Scovell laysout her holistic and progressive vision for the organization and how it couldbecome better connected to immigrant communities through linguistic andcultural solidarity.

5)     FrancesEllen Watkins Harper and ElizaPierce: Such local efforts certainly helped advance the WCTU’s cause, but evenmore important were the leaders of color who could help make the organizationmore truly representative of the American population. That included Harper, theAfricanAmerican poet, novelist, educator, and activist who led the WCTU’s “Departmentof Work Among the Colored People”; and Pierce, the Iroquois NativeAmerican activist who started a new New York chapter and extended the WCTUto Six Nations communities throughout the state. As with all the temperancehistories I’ve highlighted this week, the WCTU’s was complex and could featureexclusionary attitudes to be sure; but women like Harper and Pierce helped makesure it likewise featured inclusive possibilities.

Thanksgivingseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?