Manuscript Sabbath Observance Reports from the Texas chapter.
[Religion] Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Original Sabbath Observance Reports from the
Texas chapter. Handwritten Sabbath Observance Reports from 1891, 1892 and 1897. Includes many
details about the people, places and activities related to W.C.T.U. - written by M.A. Dorsey.
16 leaves, 32 pages; ink manuscript on rectos and versos.
A remarkable survival - manuscript reports from a local chapter of the WCTU, the oldest voluntary, nonsectarian
woman’s organization in continuous existence in the world. The WCTU is a founding member
(1888) of the National Council for Women (Frances Willard was its first president) and the International
Council of Women in 1893. It is also a charter member (1945) of the United Nations Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGO). For almost 125 years the WCTU has trained women to think on their feet, speak in
public, and run an organization.
The National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in 1874. The slogan "For
God and Home and Native Land" (later changed to "Every Land") expressed the WCTU’s priorities.
Behind the WCTU’s temperance reform was "protection of the home." Through education and example
the WCTU hoped to obtain pledges of total abstinence from alcohol, and later also tobacco and other
drugs. Local chapters were called "Unions" and were largely autonomous, but closely linked to the
state unions and national headquarters. There were clear channels of authority and communication and the
WCTU quickly became the largest woman’s organization in the United States (and later, in the world.)
The crusade against alcohol was a protest by women, in part, of their lack of civil rights. Women could
not vote. In most states women could not have control of their property or custody of their children in
case of divorce. There were no legal protections for women and children, prosecutions for rape were rare,
and the state-regulated "age of consent" was as low as seven. The WCTU turned to organizing politically
in addition to moral persuasion to achieve total abstinence. They adopted a "do everything" policy which
came to mean that all reform was inter-connected and that social problems could not be separated. The
use of alcohol and other drugs was a symptom of the larger problems in society. For over 100 years the
WCTU has been conducting training seminars for teachers and others interested in alcohol tobacco, and
drug education. Today the WCTU is still concerned that the wide availability of alcohol, tobacco, and
other drugs combines with other social problems to the detriment of society.
In 1888 the Texas WCTU became the first union in the South to take the radical step of endorsing woman
suffrage, a decision that alienated the conservative rank and file. Membership dropped to fewer than 600
and did not rebound until the 1890s. As late as 1893 Texas was the only southern union doing even
minimal suffrage work. When the state’s first suffrage association, the Texas Equal Rights Association
was formed that year, WCTU women filled almost all of the offices. The WCTU operated through
departments of work, the number of which fluctuated over the years but averaged two dozen. They
included anti-narcotics, medical temperance, evangelism Sunday schools, Christian citizenship, motion
pictures, good literature, social purity, prisons and jails, and work among soldiers and sailors.
Temperance women were able to secure a law requiring alcohol education in the public schools, and
members helped draft the legislation that established Texas Woman’s University.
By 1894, under "home protection" the WCTU was endorsing woman suffrage. By 1896, 25 of the 39
departments of the WCTU were dealing with non-temperance issues. However, temperance, especially in
terms of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, was the force that bound the WCTU’s social reforms together. To promote its causes, the WCTU was among the first organizations with a professional lobbyist in D.C.
Print Inquire