WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION

WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in November 1874 in Cleveland, Ohio. Annie Wittenmyer, an experienced wartime fund-raiser and administrator, was elected president at the WCTU’s founding. During her five-year tenure the WCTU developed a network of more than 1,000 local affiliates and began publishing the journal Our Union. Dissension, however, arose as a segment of the WCTU led by Frances Willard called for the addition of suffrage to the group’s platform enjoining abstinence from alcohol. In 1879 Wittenmyer, who opposed such a move, was replaced by Willard.

After Frances Willard took over leadership in 1879, the WCTU became one of the largest and most influential women’s groups of the 19th century by expanding its platform to campaign for labor laws, prison reform and suffrage. With Willard’s death in 1898, the WCTU began to distance itself from feminist groups, instead focusing primarily on prohibition. He expanded the organization’s platform to include such issues as labor laws and prison reform, and in 1891 he became president of the World WCTU (founded 1883). The WCTU also campaigned for women’s right to vote, though its support posed problems for suffragists as the alcohol industry became a powerful opponent of the movement.

With Willard’s death in 1898, the WCTU began to distance itself from feminist groups, instead focusing primarily on prohibition. Though its membership steadily declined following the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition) in 1919, the WCTU continued to operate through the 20th century. Opposed to the use of tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drugs, it ran a publishing house and was active in schools. (1)

The local chapter of the W.C.T.U. was established in Dubuque on October 13, 1875 with sixty-seven members. Meetings were held each week in the YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION (Y.M.C.A.) on Main Street. Almost immediately a meeting was called at the Methodist Episcopal Church for representatives of all the churches to introduce the topic of temperance into the Sunday School classes. All churches with one exception responded with the holdout claiming that there were so many German children that would leave if such an action were taken. In December a petition was addressed to all the women of the city asking them to refrain from serving intoxicating liquors to their New Year's Eve guests.

In January 1876 a committee of two representatives from each church were appointed to confer with priests and ministers about doing away with the use of fermented wine at the services for the Lord's Supper. Those in favor of using unfermented wine included the Methodist Episcopal, Christian and Baptist, and the Second Presbyterian. In March a survey of the community found there were 150 saloons of which 125 were considered German, 28 were English or French, and the remainder Irish and American. The following month the first in a series of four meetings in cooperation with the INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION OF GOOD TEMPLARS were held. At the first meeting three hundred pledges of temperance were collected. Efforts to involve the Y.M.C.A., in forming a Reform Club however, were unsuccessful. Leaders of the "Y" were in sympathy with the W.C.T.U. but were unwilling to take part in such activities as visiting homes of alcoholics. (2)

Members of the organization furnished the rooms of the TRIBE OF JONATHAN NO. 1 when it was formed and visited the families. Other activities included the successful formation of a Reform Club and the successful project of having the water department of the city designating the water fountains in front of the Palmer book store and one at city hall as belonging to the Union. On New Year's day coffee and doughnuts were served to one hundred seventy. Although the pastors were asked to preach a temperance sermon on one Sunday only one responded.

On June 27, 1882 at an all day prayer meeting the enforcement of the prohibitory amendment was "submitted to the people." A boys' night school was organized but discontinued in 1884. A girls' industrial school was opened on August 23, 1883. Jail meetings were well attended. When the Y.M.C.A. was discontinued in 1885, the Union was left without a place to meet until the Methodist church offered it space. Religious services at the jail, once given by members of the "Y", became the responsibility of the Union.

A petition requesting that children in the District of Columbia and the territories be taught in school about the evil effects of alcohol and narcotics. By 1887 a band of Hope was organized with an Eagle Band located in the Fifth Ward.

Interest in having a police matron involved the Union in 1888. The city council, however, responded that there were not enough women arrested to warrant the expense of such a position. Two members of the Union inquired whether the required teaching about alcoholic beverages was being carried out in the public schools. They learned that "as far as they could learn" that the required teachers was taking place with some degree of success. Flowers and texts were given to the jail in observance of Flower Mission Day. Two mission schools were established and good homes were found for two neglected little girls.

A survey of the saloons in operation was made annually beginning in 1884 with the number ranging from 126 to 175. Literature about the organization and its work was distributed. In 1896 this included 2,000 prohibition pamphlets, 1380 pages of literature, seven Bibles, thirteen copies of Titus or a "Comrade of the Cross," and twenty-seven other books were distributed to barber shops and jails. (3)

In September, 1903 the district convention of the Union was held at the First Congregational Church (later FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST). The Union's work reached overseas when an appeal was made for funds from the Philippines to improve the condition of the soldiers. By 1904 it was found that most churches used unfermented wine at the sacraments. Flower mission day proved a huge success. Flowers for others were made and distributed to others in the hope that in making the flowers the mental condition of the patients would be improved.

Work of the Union brought results. Around 1905 it was learned that in Kansas several newspapers would not publish liquor advertisements. At the annual picnic of the organization in UNION PARK it was found that temperance was taught every year beginning in fifth grade. The Industrial School at Mitchelville for girls was visited. Barred gratings had been removed and the inmates were taught dressmaking and all aspects of housekeeping. Another school at Independence was conducted by the Union and the Woman's Club. A new field of study announced at the time was non-alcoholic medication. (4)

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Source:

1. "Women's Christian Temperance Union," Online: https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/womans-christian-temperance-union

2. "Review of History and Work Accomplished by Local W.C.T.U.," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, February 18, 1906, p. 14

3. Ibid.

4. "New Study Taken Up by Local Unions," Telegraph-Herald, February 25, 1906, p. 14