Carrie Nation - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For the fictional band, see The Carrie Nations
The Carrie Nations
The Carrie Nations are a fictitious all-girl rock 'n roll trio featured in the 1970 Russ Meyer cult film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. In the film, the band goes to Hollywood in order to try to achieve commercial success, only to get sucked into the seedy underbelly of the entertainment industry...

Carrie Amelia Moore Nation (November 25, 1846 – June 9, 1911) was a member of the temperance movement

Temperance movement

A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...

, which opposed alcohol in pre-Prohibition

Prohibition in the United States

Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...

America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. She is particularly noteworthy for promoting her viewpoint through vandalism

Vandalism

Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...

. On many occasions Nation would enter an alcohol-serving establishment and attack the bar with a hatchet

Hatchet

A hatchet is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade used to cut and split wood...

. She has been the topic of numerous books, articles and even an opera.

Nation was a large woman, almost 6 feet (182.9 cm) tall and weighing 175 pounds (79.4 kg) and of a somewhat stern countenance. She described herself as "a bulldog

Bulldog

Bulldog is the name for a breed of dog commonly referred to as the English Bulldog. Other Bulldog breeds include the American Bulldog, Olde English Bulldogge and the French Bulldog. The Bulldog is a muscular heavy dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose...

running along at the feet of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

, barking at what He doesn't like," and claimed a divine ordination to promote temperance by smashing up bars

Bar (establishment)

A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...

.

The spelling of her first name is ambiguous and both Carrie and Carry are considered correct. Official records say Carrie, which Nation used most of her life; the name Carry was used by her father in the family Bible. Upon beginning her campaign against liquor in the early 20th century, she adopted the name Carry A. Nation mainly for its value as a slogan, and had it registered as a trademark in the state of Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

Early life and first marriage

Carrie Nation was born Carrie Amelia Moore in Garrard County, Kentucky

Garrard County, Kentucky

Garrard County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is pronounced 'Gair-ad' with the third "r" silent. It was formed in 1797 and was named for James Garrard, Governor of Kentucky from 1796 to 1804. Its county seat is Lancaster. The population was 16,912 in the 2010 Census...

, to slave owners George and Mary Campbell Moore.
During much of her early life she was in poor health and her family experienced financial setbacks, moving several times and finally settling in Belton, Missouri

Belton, Missouri

Belton is a city in Cass County, Missouri, and part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 21,730.-Geography:Belton is at ....

in Cass County. In addition to their financial difficulties, many of her family members suffered from mental illness, her mother at times having delusions of being Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

. As a result, young Carrie often found refuge in the slave quarters.

During the Civil War, the family moved several times, returning to High Grove Farm in Cass County, Missouri

Cass County, Missouri

Cass County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. As of 2010, the population was 99,478. Its county seat is Harrisonville. The county was organized in 1835 as "Van Buren County", renamed in 1848 after Michigan U.S...

. When the Union Army ordered them to evacuate their farm, they moved to Kansas City. Carrie nursed the wounded soldiers after a raid on Independence, Missouri

Independence, Missouri

Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...

.

In 1865 she met a young physician who had fought for the Union: Dr. Charles Gloyd, by all accounts a severe alcoholic

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

. They were married on November 21, 1867, and separated shortly before the birth of their daughter, Charlien, on September 27, 1868. Gloyd died less than a year later, in 1869. She attributed her passion for fighting liquor to her failed first marriage to Gloyd. With the proceeds from selling the land her father had given her as well as from her husband's estate, Carrie built a small house in Holden, Missouri

Holden, Missouri

Holden is a city in Johnson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 2,510 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Holden is located at ....

. She moved there with her mother-in-law and Charlien and attended the Normal Institute in Warrensburg, Missouri

Warrensburg, Missouri

Warrensburg is a city in Johnson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 16,340 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Johnson County. The Warrensburg Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of Johnson County. It is home to the University of Central Missouri.-History:Warrensburg...

, earning her teaching certificate in July 1872. She taught school in Holden for four years but was fired from her job.

Second marriage and call from God

Carrie married David A. Nation, nineteen years her senior—an attorney, minister, and newspaper editor with children—in 1874. The family purchased a 1,700 acre (690 ha) cotton plantation on the San Bernard River

San Bernard River

-Origin:San Bernard River flows from its headwaters northwest of San Felipe, Texas to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico, some to the southeast of the source. Its principal tributary is Caney Creek. Along its course, it passes through portions of Austin, Brazoria, Colorado, Fort Bend, Matagorda...

in Brazoria County, Texas

Brazoria County, Texas

Brazoria County[p] is a county in the U.S. state of Texas, located on the Gulf Coast within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. Regionally, parts of the county are within the extreme southern-most fringe of the regions locally known as Southeast Texas. Brazoria County is among a...

. As neither knew much about farming, however, the venture was ultimately unsuccessful. David Nation moved to Brazoria to practice law. In about 1880 Carrie moved to Columbia to operate the hotel owned by A. R. and Jesse W. Park. Her name is on the Columbia Methodist Church roll. She lived at the hotel with her daughter, Charlien Gloyd, "Mother Gloyd" (Carrie's first mother-in-law), and David's daughter, Lola. Her husband also operated a saddle shop just southwest of this site. The family soon moved to Richmond, Texas, to operate a hotel.

David Nation became involved in the Jaybird-Woodpecker War

Jaybird-Woodpecker War

The Jaybird-Woodpecker War was a feud between two factions fighting for political control of Fort Bend County, Texas, just west of Houston. It occurred during the U.S...

. As a result, he was forced in 1889 to move back north to Medicine Lodge, Kansas

Medicine Lodge, Kansas

Medicine Lodge is the most populous city in and the county seat of Barber County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,009.-19th century:...

, where he found work preaching at a Christian church and Carrie ran a successful hotel.

It was while in Medicine Lodge that she began her temperance work. Nation started a local branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union

Woman's Christian Temperance Union

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the first mass organization among women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." Originally organized on December 23, 1873, in...

and campaigned for the enforcement of Kansas's ban on the sales of liquor. Her methods escalated from simple protests to serenading saloon patrons with hymns accompanied by a hand organ, to greeting bartenders with pointed remarks such as, "Good morning, destroyer of men's souls."

Dissatisfied with the results of her efforts, Nation began to pray to God for direction. On June 5, 1899, she felt she received her answer in the form of a heavenly vision. As she described it:
Responding to the revelation, Nation gathered several rocks – "smashers", she called them – and proceeded to Dobson's Saloon on June 7. Announcing "Men, I have come to save you from a drunkard's fate," she began to destroy the saloon's stock with her cache of rocks. After she similarly destroyed two other saloons in Kiowa, a tornado

Tornado

A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...

hit eastern Kansas, which she took as divine approval of her actions.

"Hatchetations"

Nation continued her destructive ways in Kansas, her fame spreading through her growing arrest record. After she led a raid in Wichita

Wichita, Kansas

Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...

her husband joked that she should use a hatchet

Hatchet

A hatchet is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade used to cut and split wood...

next time for maximum damage. Nation replied, "That is the most sensible thing you have said since I married you." The couple divorced in 1901, not having had any children.

Alone or accompanied by hymn-singing women she would march into a bar, and sing and pray while smashing bar fixtures and stock with a hatchet. Between 1900 and 1910 she was arrested some 30 times for "hatchetations," as she came to call them. Nation paid her jail fines from lecture-tour fees and sales of souvenir hatchets. In April 1901 Nation came to Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, a city known for its wide opposition to the temperance movement, and smashed liquor in various bars on 12th Street in Downtown Kansas City

Downtown Kansas City

Downtown Kansas City is the central business district of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. It is located between the Missouri River in the north, to 31st Street in the south; and from the Kansas–Missouri state line east to Troost Avenue as defined by officials of the...

. She was arrested, hauled into court and fined $500 ($13,400 in 2011 dollars), although the judge suspended the fine so long as Nation never returned to Kansas City.

In Amarillo

Amarillo, Texas

Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, Nation received a strong response, as she was sponsored by the noted surveyor W. D. Twichell

W. D. Twichell

Willis Day Twichell was a Texas surveyor and civil engineer, based primarily in Amarillo and later Austin, who surveyed 165 of the state's 254 counties.-Background:...

, an active Methodist layman.

Later life, death, and legacy

Nation's anti-alcohol activities became widely known, with the slogan "All Nations Welcome But Carrie" becoming a bar-room staple. She published The Smasher's Mail, a biweekly newsletter, and The Hatchet, a newspaper. Later in life she exploited her name by appearing in vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

in the United States and music hall

Music hall

Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

s in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

. Nation, a proud woman more given to sermonizing than entertaining, sometimes found these poor venues for her proselytizing. One of the number of pre-World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

acts that "failed to click" with foreign audiences, Nation was struck by an egg thrown by an audience member during one 1909 music hall lecture at the Canterbury Theatre of Varieties

Canterbury Music Hall

The Canterbury Music Hall was established in 1852 by Charles Morton on the site of a former skittle alley adjacent to the Canterbury Tavern at 143 Westminster Bridge Road, Lambeth. It was the first purpose-built music hall in London, and Morton came to be dubbed the Father of the Halls as hundreds...

. Indignantly, "The Anti-Souse Queen" ripped up her contract and returned to the United States. Seeking profits elsewhere, Nation also sold photographs of herself, collected lecture fees, and marketed miniature souvenir hatchets.

Suspicious that President William McKinley

William McKinley

William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...

was a secret drinker, Nation applauded his 1901 assassination as a tippler's just deserts.

Near the end of her life Nation moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Eureka Springs is a city in Carroll County, Arkansas, United States. Along with Berryville, it is one of the two county seats for the county. It is located in the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 2,350...

, where she founded the home known as Hatchet Hall. Ill in mind and body, she collapsed during a speech in a Eureka Springs park, and was taken to a hospital in Leavenworth, Kansas

Leavenworth, Kansas

Leavenworth is the largest city and county seat of Leavenworth County, in the U.S. state of Kansas and within the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area. Located in the northeast portion of the state, it is on the west bank of the Missouri River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...

. She died there on June 9, 1911,and was buried in an unmarked grave in Belton City Cemetery in Belton, Missouri

Belton, Missouri

Belton is a city in Cass County, Missouri, and part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 21,730.-Geography:Belton is at ....

. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union

Woman's Christian Temperance Union

later erected a stone inscribed "Faithful to the Cause of Prohibition, She Hath Done What She Could" and the name "Carry A. Nation".

Her home in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, the Carrie Nation House, was bought by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in the 1950s and was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark

National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

in 1976. A spring just across the street from Hatchet Hall in Eureka Springs is named after her.

In popular culture

In the 1955 episode of The Honeymooners, Ralph Kramden calls Alice "Carrie Nation" in anticipation of her "I-told-you-so" lecture after his debacle with spending counterfeit currency.
Nation was the subject of an eponymous opera
Carry Nation (opera)
Carry Nation is an opera in a prologue and 2 acts by composer Douglas Moore which is based on the life of temperance activist Carrie Nation. The work uses an English-language libretto by W. N. Jayme. The opera was commissioned by the University of Kansas in commemoration of the school's 100th...

by composer Douglas Moore which premiered in 1966.
The all-girl rock band in the schlock
Schlock
Schlock is an English word of Yiddish origin meaning "something cheap, shoddy, or inferior "In the field of science, "schlock" refers to shoddy or unreliable results....

film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a 1970 American schlock melodrama film starring Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, John LaZar, Michael Blodgett and David Gurian...

(1970) is called "The Carrie Nations."
Nation is mentioned in season 2, episode 11 of Archer
Archer (TV series)
Archer is an American animated television series created by Adam Reed for the FX network. A preview of the series aired on September 17, 2009. The first season premiered on January 14, 2010. The show carries a TV-MA-LSV rating....

, entitled Jeu Monégasque.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Early life and first marriage

Second marriage and call from God

"Hatchetations"

Later life, death, and legacy

In popular culture

See also

Further reading

External links