Carry Nation

Carry A. Nation (Carrie A. Nation) (Nov. 25, 1846 – June 9, 1911)

Carry A. Nation was a key member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Carry Amelia Moore was born in Garrard County, Ky., on Nov. 25, 1846. Her family moved several times before settling in Cass County, Mo.

Although her father signed her name as "Carry" Amelia Moore in the family Bible, she used the spelling "Carrie" through much of her life. She reverted to "Carry" to help promote her temperance activities. (1)

In 1880, Kansas became the first state adopt a constitutional amendment banning alcoholic beverages. In her autobiography's 1905 revised edition, "The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation," Nation said there was a "crisis" of enforcement of prohibition laws. (2)

The frustrated reformer turned to the hatchet.

While living in Medicine Lodge, Kan., she received a vision to attack saloons. (1)

She traveled to Kiowa, Kan. At Dobson Saloon she announced, "Men, I have come to save you from a drunkard's fate."

As astonished bartenders and patrons watched, she destroyed the saloon's bottles with rocks. She later wrote in her autobiography, "The first smashing was like the opening of a battle. The crashing glass sent a thrill through the community and resounded o'er the land a talisman of destruction to the liquor traffic. It set everybody to talking, even the public school children and students in all the higher institutions were profoundly interested. The press and the pulpit broke their silence and from all over the state came the echo. It was the firing of the signal guns." (2)

She then attacked two other saloons in Kiowa. Shortly later, a tornado heavily damaged the town, which Nation interpreted as a divine judgement on the community.

Two online exhibits have been developed by the Kansas Museum of History:

"Carry A. Nation: The Famous and Original Bar Room Smasher" addresses the reformer's life and times. It is a companion piece to "Sinners and Saints: Vice and Reform in Kansas." (1)

She retired to Eureka Springs, Ark. Her home became known as “Hatchet Hall.” Across the street from the house is a spring named for her.

Nation collapsed during a speech in an Eureka Springs park and was taken to a Evergreen Place Hospital in Leavenworth, Kan. She remained there in poor health until her death on June 2, 1911.died there on June 9, 1911. (2)

She is buried in Belton Cemetery, Belton, Mo. (Cass County), south of Kansas City. Her grave was unmarked for many years until the WCTU erected a gravestone with her name and the quote: “Faithful to the Cause, She Hath Done What She Could.”

A drinking fountain was built in her honor in front of Union Station in Wichita, Kan., across the street from the old Eaton Hotel, site of one of her first acts against alcohol. A story that "the fountain was destroyed a few years later when the driver of a beer truck lost control and ran into it" seems to have no substance, according to Jamie Tracy, curator of the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum. Tracy has researched the story and has been unable to locate any info on it.

Actually, when the train station closed, the drinking fountain was abandoned, and it gathered dust in a warehouse until it was moved to the small Naftzger Park, at the corner of Douglas and St. Francis streets.(4)

1. Kansas Historical Society, http://www.kshs.org/exhibits/carry/carry1.htm 2. "The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation," 1905 revised edition, Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1485/pg1485.html 3. Arkansas Department of Heritage 4. The Arkansas Encyclopedia