Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/725

684 she quickly made the pioneer of the state. When a state's secretary was needed Miss Ellen Morris was unanimously chosen and installed at headquarters. Her success in every position she held in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was due to the careful attention she gave to details and the exact fulfillment of her service.

Mrs. Josephine Ralston Nichols, a popular lecturer, was attracted to the temperance movement by an address delivered in Maysville, Ky., her home, by Lucretia Mott. She was soon drawn into the movement and added to her lectures a number devoted to temperance. The scientific aspect of the work received her special attention and some of her lectures have been published by the Woman's Temperance Publishing Association. Her greatest triumphs, however, have been won in her special department as superintendent of the exposition department of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, where she worked for years, beginning in 1883. In state and county fairs all over the country she aided the women in making them places of order, beauty, and sobriety instead of scenes of disorder and drunken broil. In many cases she entirely banished the sale of intoxicants either by direct appeal to the managers or by securing the sole privilege of serving refreshments and in all cases banners and mottoes were displayed, and cards, leaflets and papers and other literature given away. So general was the satisfaction that several states passed laws prohibiting the sale of intoxicating drinks on, or near the fair grounds. In 1885 the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Indiana made her its president, but she continued her practical work for the national society, extending and illustrating knowledge of the aims of the cause. Mrs. Martha B. O'Donnell's work for temperance was accomplished through the society of Good Templars. It was most effective and she became president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of her county in New York State. Having long been identified with the independent order of Good Templars she began in 1868 the publication of the Golden Rule, a monthly magazine in the interest of this order. In 1869 she was elected one of the board of managers of the Grand Lodge of the state of New York. In 1870 she was elected grand vice-templar and was re-elected in 1871. At her first attendance in the right worthy grand lodge of the nation she was elected right grand vice-templar. Interested deeply in the children she was the moving spirit in securing the adoption of the "Triple Pledge" for the children's society connected with the order. She had charge of introducing the juvenile work all over the world. Her activity in this direction led her to visit Europe as well as many parts of the United States and always with success. Late in her life she became president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of her own county and passed many quiet years at her home in Lowville, New York.

Mrs. Hannah Borden Palmer, of Michigan, accompanied her husband to the front in the Civil War, camping with his regiment until the muster-out in September, 1865, and returning home she was elected president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Dexter, Michigan. Under her guidance this union organized a public library and reading room in the town. It was mainly through her efforts, too, that a lodge of Good Templars was organized in Boulder.