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Water Street -1865
Walk further down Water Street to # 223. An office in this building served, during the nineteenth century, as headquarters for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

In 1894, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union had an office at 223 Water Street, as did their younger counterparts - the Young Women’s Christian Temperance Union. The office hours were from noon until 9 PM. The W.C.T.U., organized nationally in 1874 (in Cleveland), was a major force in social change in the nineteenth century: prohibition – the effort to prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages - was their crusade.

It could be argued that Maine was the most successful state for prohibition. Legislation restricting the sale of alcohol passed in 1851 (the “Maine law") and the State Constitution was amended in 1884 (effective January 1885) to prohibit the sale and manufacture of intoxicating liquors, except for “medical and mechanical purposes and the arts.” Cider was excluded. Prohibition did not end officially in Maine until 1934, when voters repealed the state’s constitutional amendment, after prohibition ended nationally. Lillian M. N. Stevens, born in Maine, was the Women’s Christian Temperance Union national president from 1889 to 1914.

Officers who occupied the office at 223 Water Street for the W.C.T.U. in 1894-95 included: Mrs. Eugene Fogg, president; Mrs. J. M. Wyman, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Susan Waldron, recording secretary and treasurer; and Miss Mary Frain, janitor.

Officers for the younger group included: Miss Laura Dinslow, president; Miss Lizzy Perry, recording secretary; and Miss Carrie Chase, treasurer.



Site 12.1 Sources:

 

Agger, Lee. Women of Maine. Portland, ME: Guy Gannett Publishing Co., 1982.

 

Augusta, Hallowell, & Gardiner Directory 1894-95. Boston, MA: Littlefield Directory Publishing Co.

 

Giele, Janet Zollinger. Two Paths to Women’s Equality: Temperance, Suffrage, and the Origins of Modern Feminism. New York: Twayne Publishers (an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Macmillan) 1995.
  Schriver, Edward O. and Stanley R. Howe. “The Republican Ascendancy: Politics and Reform.” In Maine The Pine Tree State. Edited by R. W. Judd, E. A. Churchill, and J. W. Eastman, 370 - 390. Orono, ME: University of Maine Press, 1995.
  Wescott, Richard R. and Edward O. Schriver, “Reform Movements & Party Reformation, 1820 – 1861.” In Maine The Pine Tree State. Edited by R. W. Judd, E. A. Churchill, and J. W. Eastman, 193 – 216. Orono, ME: University of Maine Press, 1995.
  Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Online resource available at http://www.wctu.org/stevens.html. Accessed 9 September 2001.

The University of Maine