WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION

Being researched

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 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)

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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