The Women Who Would Make Aberdeen Dry
A Sunday mass meeting and a state W.C.T.U. leader restart the local temperance crusade.
An enthusiastic temperance mass meeting was held in the Methodist church last Sunday at 3 o'clock p.m., at which Rev. Mr. Joslyn presided, and Rev. John R. Thompson of the Presbyterian church, Rev. Mr. Wolfe of Seattle, and Mrs. Schaffer, state president of the W.C.T.U. for Washington, made addresses. Mrs. Elston and Rev. Mr. Joslyn each sang a solo and the three Misses Joslyn a trio. Mrs. Schaffer called a meeting of the ladies for 3 p.m. next day at the Methodist church, at which time she reorganized the Aberdeen W.C.T.U., with Mrs. James Stewart as president and Mrs. Van Tassel, secretary.
“An enthusiastic temperance mass meeting was held in the Methodist church last Sunday at 3 o'clock p.m.”
Washington went dry in 1916, four years before national Prohibition, and meetings like this one built the pressure from the pews up. The W.C.T.U. sold temperance as protection for homes and women, while also teaching women how to organize, speak, and wield public influence before they could vote. Aberdeen's saloon economy and the reform fight over it remain part of the city's downtown history.
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