Women's Christian Temperance Union

The National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in November of 1874. It grew out of the "Woman's Crusade" of the winter of 1873-1874. Initial groups in Fredonia, New York, and Hillsboro and Washington Court House, Ohio, after listening to a lecture by Dr. Dio Lewis, were moved to a non-violent protest against the dangers of alcohol. Normally quiet housewives dropped to their knees in pray-ins in local saloons and demanded that the sale of liquor be stopped. In three months the women had driven liquor out of 250 communities, and for the first time felt what could be accomplished by standing together.

The WCTU remains an active organization today.

The Fargo chapter of the WCTU met in a building on the northwest corner of Eighth and Front Streets. It overlooked the western portion of NP Park. The Building is shown in the photograph above from the State Historical Society of North Dakota Museum Collection 0463-02. I am not sure of the date of the image.