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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 02510 6524
Gc 977.1 ST49M STEWART, ELIZA DANIEL', 1816- 1908. MEMORIES OF THE CRUSADE
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/memoriesofcrusad00instew
Very Truly your Mother Stewart,
MEMORIES
OF THE CRUSADE
A
THRILLING ACCOUNT
OF THE
GREAT UPRISING OF THE WOMEN OF OHIO IN 1873, AGAINST THE LIQUOR CRIME.
BY
MOTHER STEWART,
THE LEADER ..
" Peace hath her victories No less renowned than war." -MILTON.
(SECOND EDITION.)
r/78. 06 St 4m
COLUMBUS, OHIO: WILLIAM G. HUBBARD & CO. 1889.
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
$ 7.50
1
Can.
1230997
TO MY EVER DEAR SISTERS OF THE CRUSADE WHO STILL REMAIN IN THE FIELD, AND TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE WHO HAVE RECEIVED THEIR DISCHARGE AND GONE HOME, ARE THESE MEMORIES OF THE CRUSADE LOVINGLY DEDICATED BY
THE AUTHOR.
٢
P
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1888, By MISS MATTIE CAMPBELL,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
First Steps in the Temperance Work .- Modest Beginnings .- Notes of the War. - The Ever Present Saloon .- Influence on the Students of the University .- An Appeal to Ministers and Professors. - Resolution carried into Ministe- rial Meeting.
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CHAPTER II.
War Closed .- Disastrous Effects of the Drink upon Soldiers .- My first Work in the Temper- ance Cause in Springfield, Address at Allen's Hall .- Visiting the Court-room, Address the Jury and Win the Case .- Appeals for Help from Drunkards' Wives. - Received first Bap- tism in my Peculiar Field of Labor .- Second Case in Court .- Letter from a Drunkards' Wife .- A Drunkards' Reply. 27
CHAPTER III.
In Court, Presence of Ladies, Exciting and Affecting Scenes .- Verdict of Jury for Plain- tiff .- Case Appealed. 53
CHAPTER IV.
Committee of Ladies Visit Council with Peti- tions .- First Mass-meeting at Lutheran Church. -Call to Osborn, Organization of the First Woman's Union. - Visit a Saloon on the Sab- bath .- Second Mass-meeting .- Crusade opens in Fredonia and Jamestown, N. Y .- God's Answer to the Scoffing Philistine. 60
CHAPTER V.
The Uprising at Hillsboro and Washington C. H .- Scenes and Events as Narrated by the Press 92
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
Progress of Work in Springfield. - Fermented Wine .- Springfield Organization .- Presenta- tion of Plan of Work .- Pledge Presented in Church and Sunday-school .- A Strong De- mand that Men Shall Vote for only such as will Enforce the Laws. 105
CHAPTER VII.
Glad News Pouring in. - Uncertainty of its Suc- cess in Large Places .- Discouraging Advice. -First Visit to a Saloon-keeper. - Visit from Reporter of Cincinnati Commercial .- Letting out of Troubled Waters .- Views of Mr. Brown, Cincinnati Gazette Reporter, on the Springfield Situation .- Further Report of Hillsboro. ...... 119
CHAPTER VIII.
Further Reports of Washington C. H .- Wilming- ton takes up the Work .- New Vienna. - Waynesville .- Franklin 140
CHAPTER IX.
Organizing a Band and Moving out .- Visiting the Lagonda House, Addressing the Throng on the Street .- Report and Sketches by J. R. Chapin, of Frank Leslie's .- Mass-meeting .- Reports of the Crusade .- Scene at Spangs. -Incident .- Arrival of Dr. Lewis and Van Pelt 160
CHAPTER X.
Second Visit to Osborn, Leading out the Band. -Spread of the Work. I86
CHAPTER XI.
Morrow .- Trial of the Crusaders .- Greenfield .-- Xenia. - First Surrender and Exciting Scenes. -- South Charleston. - London. - Athens ...... 205
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
Enlisting the Children .- Marysville .- Columbus Convention, Resolutions and Plan of Work .- Sprinkle of Politics 226
CHAPTER XIII.
Moving into New Headquarters .-- Liquor Men's Petition to Council .- Westville Organized .--- Middletown. -- Bellefontaine. - Kenton ; Chil- dren's Meeting. - Sidney. - Marion. - Ash- land .- Letter from the Sick-room .-- Letter from the Penitentiary 246
CHAPTER XIV.
Chillicothe. - Visit to Emmet House .- Liquor Men's Meeting. - McArthur. - Marietta .- Children's Home. - Women on Picket Duty. -- Gallipolis. 270
CHAPTER XV.
Working Men's Mass-meeting. - Called to a Serious Experience .- Somerset. - Story of Major B .- Clark County Organization .- Ex- citing Election .- Called to Pomeroy .- Mid- dleport. - Ironton .- Dayton. - Story of the White Hyacinth 293
CHAPTER XVI.
Constitutional Convention at Cincinnati .- Call to Bucyrus .- Visit the Convention .- Pitts- burgh. - Fairmont, W. Va .- Return to Pitts- burgh. - A Thousand Women on the Street .-- Crusaders Watching the Legislators .- Smug- gling Liquor .- Crusading a Beer Wagon ...... 315
CHAPTER XVII.
Mt. Vernon. - Troy. - Eaton. - Delaware. - Cedarville .- Incident at Newark, Prophecy. Urbana .- Lagonda House .- Bucyrus; Second Visit .- Outrages upon the Crusaders. - White- ley's Speech
334
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Cleveland, Another Sore Trial .- Cincinnati Cru- saders Arrested. - Pittsburgh Crusaders Im- prisoned; Riot Averted. - Chicago Mob .-- Portland, Oregon .- Cleveland Mob. - Cali- fornia Outrages .- Political Aspects of the War 36I
CHAPTER XIX.
First State Convention at Springfield .- Work in the State. - Defeat of License .- At Perrys- burg .- Tiffin .- Franklin .- London 387
CHAPTER XX.
Meeting of Committee at Delaware .- Mixing up in Politics .- Call to Chicago .- Reports of Meetings .- Big Rapids, Michigan .- Jackson, Michigan. - First National W. C. T. U. - Appeal and Plan of Work .- Benefits of the Crusade .- Reports of the First Six Months Work in Springfield .-- Enumeration of Benefits of the Crusade 407
CHAPTER XXI.
Tales of the War .- Incidents and Anecdotes, Amusing and Pathetic. 438
CHAPTER XXII.
Work in Virginia. - Waterford. - Lincoln .- Hamilton .- Leesburg. - Blue Ribbon Move- ment. - Col. Realf -Franklin, Ind .- Louis- ville. - Chattanooga, Tenn 484
CHAPTER XXIII.
Atlanta, Ga. - Cold Water Templars. - First Public Meeting in Dr. Height's Church, Organize First Union .- Dr. Norcross' Church. -First Colored Union at Storrs' Institute .- Griffith .- Macon .- Forsyth -Chattanooga .- Reports from Members of Committee .- Bloody Copiah. - Retrospection and Summing up ..... 510
PUBLISHERS' STATEMENT
In presenting this book to the public, the publishers desire to say :-
Ist. As to its merit : It is thrillingly interesting in its matter, and deeply instructive in its lessons. Its style is easy and natural-good English, enriched by vigorous Anglo-Saxon. It contains some imperfec- tions-the perfect book has not yet been published. But the manner and matter of this book are such as to make it worthy of a place in every public or private library.
2nd. As to the subject "The Crusade:" There has perhaps not occurred during the present century, if during any century since the first of the Christian era, any movement that has been more wonderful in its phenomena and its operations, and extensive in its general results, than the " Woman's Temperance Crusade." It was the cradle of new views of Home and its relations to Government, and a thousand statutes have been modified, or repealed, or made new, as the result of the influences started in the Crusade. Millions of people have changed their views on the position of woman. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union has been organized, with 200,000 members and more than thirty depart- ments of work for women. Hundreds of avenues for the employment of women have been opened, largely as the result of discussions which grew out of the Crusade. So that in stores and business estab- lishments alone, we presume there are a million places occupied by women and girls now that were occupied by men before the Crusade. We can only hint at the results of the Crusade in this statement. To write a complete history of such a warfare in all its ramifications cannot be done. Many have attempted to " write up the Crusade." Some have done it poorly and some well, but we claim that for
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PUBLISHERS' STATEMENT.
two reasons-viz .: her extensive personal experience in the work and knowledge of the subject, and her ability to present the facts, no one is better fitted to write a good account of the "Crusade" than Mother Stewart. It is sufficient to add, we think, she has done her work well.
3d. The "Leader." Why do we call Mother Stewart the "Leader?" There were many leaders- every town had its leader-and there were those who went from town to town to speak and pray and organize and lead the women. Yes, we admit it ; God quickly made Captains and Colonels and Com- manders out of timid women, who had never known their powers till God called them out. But in Ohio there was an old pioneer school teacher, with great faith, large brain and invincible purpose and wonder- ful endurance, who was already in the field and had been for years, doing what she could, who by natural endowments and divine call took her place as a Deborah to lead the hosts. And while other leaders visited a few towns and did a good work, our author dashed along the lines of forces through Ohio from the lake to the river, and from the East to the West, everywhere, Sheridan-like, inspiring the forces by her presence, and firing the multitude with her speeches. When the liquor men telegraphed from Pittsburgh through the Associated Press to all the papers: "The Crusade is dead"- quickly a fast train took Mother Stewart from Ohio more rapidly than Sheridan's black horse bore him to meet his defeated troops; and quicker than Sheri- dan's troops rallied to victory, did the praying women of Pittsburgh and Allegheny follow Mother Stewart down the street to the public park, and while she addressed them the wires flashed the message to all the dailies : " A thousand women are on the march with Mother Stewart." Her silvery hair and clarion voice stirred the multitudes in other States and in Scotland and England. Hence the
public press called her " the leader." Frances E. Willard called her "the leader." Hence we called her the leader because she was the leader.
4th. Our duty. The temperance people owe a debt of gratitude to all the old leaders that have
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PUBLISHERS' STATEMENT.
stood the exposure and abuse that comes to those who do the pioneer work. Very few of the temper- ance workers ever got adequate pay for their services. Mother Stewart was among the poorly compensated and was a liberal giver. Now she is the old soldier, broken down in the long struggle. The government pensions its veterans. No hero of bloody carnage ever so well deserved a pension or a monument, as she who has stood in the van, and by her ability, her intelligence, courage and life, helped to remove the enemies of home and of women. Mother Stewart has been a prohibitionist from the start, and has suffered much for the cause. At one time, when Mother Stewart had every power of body and mind and heart absorbed in this mighty struggle with the enemy of our homes, financial disaster was added to the already over-burdened soul. One with less courage and faith than she would have forsaken the public duty and attended to personal interests. But she heeded it not. Even the venomous tongue of slan- der assailed her, but, while it almost crushed her tender, sensitive heart, she hid her great agony from the world and hasted on, crying piteously to her Savior to shield her while she continued the tem- perance battle, saying but little in defense of self and much in defense of Temperance, but little in defense of her home, and everything in defense of your home and mine. A more self-sacrificing heroism the world seldom sees.
Reader, you and I owe to Mother Stewart a debt of gratitude. This generation owes Mother Stewart more than it can pay. The next generation will hardly be able to pay the debt they will owe for the vantage ground held by them because of the battles fought by Mother Stewart and her compeers. Will temperance people show their gratitude by purchas- ing her book ? The profits go to her, and it is hoped the sales will support her declining years. Let all who feel an interest in the matter send for an agency for it, to Mother Stewart, Springfield, Ohio, or to
THE PUBLISHERS.
SKETCH OF MOTHER STEWART,
By the Editor of the Daily Republic of Springfield, O .*
OTHER STEWART is a remarkable woman and she has had a remarkable career. She is one of those individuals who seem to have been born to meet the demands of special emergen- cies. Mother Stewart was possessed of qualities which enabled her to become eminent in two great public crises-first, during the war, when she became prominent in her earnest and very effective work in the line of relieving the needs of Union soldiers in hospital and in the field. She was a mother, indeed, to thousands of soldiers, who gave her the title which she has honorably borne ever since. It was, how- ever, in the great and spontaneous uprising and crying appeals against the wrongs and hurt inflicted by the liquor saloons, which moral revolt was known as "the Crusade," that Mother Stewart performed a work which gave her a personal fame on both conti- nents. She was one of the first of the world's women to raise the banner of revolt, and so great was her zeal, and so robust and boundless her courage, that she accompanied her prayers and her marchings upon the streets with an attack-with the gospel in one hand and the law in the other-upon the saloon-keepers themselves.
Mother Stewart, with her keen, flashing eyes, and her glistening white hair, was always a striking figure on the platform, and her clear, ringing tones reached the remotest person in her immense audiences. She
* Knowing that there were few persons who knew Mother Stewart better than the proprietor of the Springfield Republic, we suggested to him the propriety of his giving us a little sketch of her. He cordially responded with this striklug and worthy tribute .- PUBLISHERS.
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SKETCH OF MOTHER STEWART.
had the capacity to so put the enormity of the liquor traffic and the harm and suffering it causes, before audiences as to fire the hearts of the people. The writer had the honor to call Mother Stewart a " Wendell Phillips in Petticoats," and the phrase followed her around the world, for Mother Stewart was called from America to Europe, and aroused public sentiment in various parts of England, Scot- land and Ireland. While on a tour in Europe- which I made afterwards-I found her well spoken of by leading philanthropists and reformers, as a woman who had increased popular sentiment in behalf of the great cause of total abstinence. For whatever partisan political sentiments my honored friend utters, she alone is responsible. I did my best to keep her in the Republican ranks!
Mother Stewart is a Western woman, of Revolu- tionary stock. Colonel Guthery, one of the old Revolutionary heroes, and among the earliest settlers of the Northwest Territory, and founder of Piketon, Ohio, was her grandfather. She was early left an orphan and is emphatically a self-made woman as the term goes, but more truthfully, as I have intimated in the foregoing, a woman endowed for a special work. In the very adverse circumstances of those early days, she acquired a good education, and a good part of it was acquired at home by the blazing wood fire, en- livened by frequent application of the "shell bark " or " pine knot," and as advantages improved, by the " tallow dip." She acquired quite a reputation as one of the first educators of early times. It was said to be enough for her students applying for a county certificate, to bring an indorsement from Mrs. Stewart, to secure success. From her maternal ancestry she inherited her fearlessness and hatred of wrong, and from her father, who was a Southern gentleman, in the sense used sixty and seventy years ago, she inherited her high sense of honor. From both parents she obtained a mixture of Scotch-Irish that gives her the sturdy traits of the one and the humor of the other.
CLIFTON M. NICHOLS.
Springfield, O., April 20, 1888.
PREFACE.
T WAS to me a very pleasant coincidence that, on my sixty-fifth birthday, April 25th, 1881, I received a very kind note from Mr. C. M. Nichols, editor of the Springfield (O.) Republic, say- ing that in the issue of that day he would ask me editorially, in behalf of the public, to write my biography, mentioning my work during the war, the Crusade, and my work in Great Britain. In his editorial he said :
" In behalf of our citizens we hereby ask our dis- tinguished townswoman, Mother Stewart, that she give to the public her autobiography, with a full history of her career during the war; of the birth, progress and culmination of the Crusade, with an accurate and detailed account of the part she took in it; and a detailed history of her reception and work in England, Scotland and Ireland, and of her work after her return to this country.
" Mrs. Stewart should undertake this work now, while she is in full possession of all her faculties, and is able to do the matter full justice.
" It should be made into a book of good size, should be illustrated and then sold by subscription.
"We have no doubt a list of people who would want the book could be made up in a short time, in this city and in the State, sufficiently large to justify its publication. The work could be written, illustrated, printed, bound and put on the market in this city, and go forth as a Springfield book.
" Mrs. Stewart has done good service in the Total Abstinence cause on both continents, and a record of her work should be made up and preserved."
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PREFACE.
I felt very grateful to Mr. Nichols and the citizens on whose behalf he made the request, and fully in- tended to respond by preparing such an account as he indicated. I felt especially flattered at the sug- gestion that it be made a "Springfield book." Noth- ing could have given me greater pleasure. It was with this thought, when I did begin the work, that I gave more space and a more minute account of the temperance work in my own city than I otherwise might have done; and more than may seem necessary or just to the general reader.
But besides this, we of Springfield do claim priority in the great woman's temperance uprising, though not originally in the form recommended by Dio Lewis. Our work had opened with sufficient sensa- tion and enthusiasm to attract the public attention and that of the press over the country; and Dio Lewis, always eager for an opening to present his theory of dealing with the saloon, said, when on his way to Ohio, that he was going to learn what we of Springfield were doing.
Some two years later, Prof. D. W. DeLay, now of Kansas, made a similar request, backed by many others, as he said, very generously offering to take charge of the publishing, and relieve me of any care or solicitude in the matter.
There has also been a general wish expressed by the temperance friends that I would write the story of the Crusade, knowing my position in it would enable me to give it from personal observation and participation.
But the calls for help in the field continued to come, and the need seemed so great that I could not see my way clearly as yet to entirely abandon the
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PREFACE.
field. The time came, however, that failing strength admonished me that my day for active work was well-nigh past; and then I discovered, too, that I had made a mistake in not heeding Mr. Nichols' sug- gestion to undertake and prosecute the work while in full possession of all my faculties. The overstrain of years of hard work had been a severe tax on the nerves, and the mind was growing weary. The task has consequently been one of a good deal of labor ; and the result comes far short of the standard in liter- ary merit that I could wish, and that I am vain enough to believe I could have more nearly attained, if I had not delayed so long. The delay also so changed the circumstances as to make it impossible to carry out the original plan of publication.
Then, when I entered upon my experience in the Crusade, spite of my effort to keep it in reasonable limits, omitting so much that I desired to give (the fact is, of that wonderful story "the half can never be told"), I was obliged to leave all other matter for a future day. If this volume, which I submit to my friends with a great deal of modesty, shall find favor in their eyes, I shall feel encouraged to follow it with "The Crusader in Great Britain."
CHAPTER I.
First Steps in the Temperance Work.
CANNOT remember when I was not an abstainer. Having in my young girlhood made a profession of religion, and united with a church that by its Discipline forbade the use of all intoxicants, and living in a community where the use was a rare exception, I had neither inclination nor temptation for their use. In my own home we have never used or kept them, ex- cept in the camphor bottle, and when this was to be filled, my husband would take the bottle to the druggist and have the gum put in with the alco- hol, to avoid the appearance of evil in carrying a bottle of unmedicated liquor home.
We have long since learned that even the bottle of camphor is not an absolute necessity in a well regulated household, or at least that it is called into requisition scarcely once in a twelve-month.
But, in whatever direction my mind and heart were turned in Christian work, I found the liquor question continually thrusting itself forward as a serious and continual hindrance in all Christian effort. The results of the traffic were everywhere apparent and the evil was rapidly growing.
(2)
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MEMORIES OF THE CRUSADE.
In our pleasant little town, nestled down in a curve of the Hocking river, and surrounded by a low range of hills, was located the Ohio State University, the oldest of our many educational institutions in the State. It had, in bygone years, had a fine patronage, and had sent forth many a young Samson and David to valiant service in the world's great battle-fields, and we were still proclaiming the merits and advantages of the O. U., inviting parents to bring their sons to our University. " Place healthful." "Com- munity intelligent, moral, temperate." "Moral and spiritual welfare of your sons jealously guard- ed," etc., etc.
And the good, confiding parents did send their sons, not a few of them, and we manufactured them into drunkards; or what was equivalent, we tolerated the liquor saloon among us, which did the work in a more finished style than we would have been likely to, and sent them back to the parents with the blighting appetite fastened upon them, entailing a lifelong battle, or an early con- quest of the remorseless foe.
Why, I wonder, in the name of common sense, do not college and university towns see to it that liquor is kept out of their limits for self- ish interest, if for no more exalted reason ? Such towns generally receive their main support from the institution of learning. Why cannot the people see that whatever contributes to the pros- perity of the college, bringing students, must result in their own advantage, and that nothing
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MEMORIES OF THE CRUSADE.
can so commend an educational place to parents as a sober, temperate community, a Prohibition town? Is it not liquor blindness that afflicts the people ?
It was not supposed to be the duty of the Faculty, nor of the Trustees, nor the mer- chant, nor the doctor, certainly not the law- yer, nor even the minister, to raise a voice or to interfere with the liquor seller; it might create enemies and injure popularity.
We did, indeed, make some little show occa- sionally of stirring up the question, by way, possibly, of quieting a too vigilant conscience.
I remember one such occasion, when some of the more thoughtful citizens called a meeting and discussed the subject in somewhat serious, if not practical fashion. But to the close observer it was noticeable (and an assurance that no prac- tical results could follow) that certain gentlemen made themselves very prominent, showing with much legal lore what was and what was not law, advising "moderation," "not too hasty," "not too rash," and when a resolution was offered looking like business, they always managed to negative or table it
At length, however, a very nice petition was drawn up and circulated for signatures, addressed to the gentlemanly and considerate saloon-keep- ers, setting forth that the public sentiment was not in favor of their business, and would they not be so obliging as to give it up?
But upon its being presented to one of these
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MEMORIES OF THE CRUSADE.
gentlemen, he ran his eye carefully down the col- umn of names, then remarked in a rather puzzled manner, " Well, yes, but how is this? many of these names are among my best customers." Another coolly replied, as he set his hat back at an independent angle, "You talk about public sentiment. I tell you I have public sentiment on my side. It is the almighty dollar that wins, and I am going to have it."
Poor fellow! he thought he was on the winning side, but he did not win the almighty dollar, though he did make drunkards of his boys, one of whom was miserably crushed on the railroad, while in his pocket was the bottle which he had learned to love in his father's saloon.
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