Carrie Nation

"For the fictional rock band, see The Carrie Nations (fictional 60s rock band)"

Carrie A. Nation (November 25,1846–June 9, 1911) was a member of the temperance movement—which opposed alcohol in pre-Prohibition America—particularly noted for promoting her viewpoint through vandalism. On many occasions, Nation would enter an alcohol-serving establishment and attack the bar with a hatchet. She has been the topic of numerous books, articles and even a 1966 opera by Douglas Moore, first performed at the University of Kansas.

Nation was a large woman nearly 6 feet (180 cm) tall and weighing 175 pounds (80 kg). She described herself as "a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn't like,"cite book |last=McQueen |first=Keven |others=Ill. by Kyle McQueen |title="Offbeat Kentuckians: Legends to Lunatics" |chapter=Carrie Nation: Militant Prohibitionist |year=2001 |publisher=McClanahan Publishing House |location=Kuttawa, Kentucky |isbn=0913383805 ] and claimed a divine ordination to promote temperance by smashing up bars.

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, but "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.

Early life and first marriage

Carrie Moore was born in Garrard County, Kentucky.cite book |last=Nation |first=Carry |title=The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/crntn10.txt |format=TXT |accessdate=2007-01-13] She was in ill health much of the time; her family experienced several financial setbacks and moved several times, finally settling in Belton, Missouri.

Many of Nation's family members suffered from mental illness. Her mother went through periods where she had delusions of being Queen Victoria, and young Carrie often retired to the slave quarters as a result.

In 1865, she met Dr. Charles Gloyd, and they were married on November 21, 1867. Gloyd was by all accounts a severe alcoholic. They separated shortly before the birth of their daughter, Charlien, and he died less than a year later in 1869. Nation attributed her passion for fighting liquor to her failed first marriage to Gloyd.

econd marriage and call from God

Carrie acquired a teaching certificate but was unable to make ends meet in this field. She then met Dr. David A. Nation, an attorney, minister and newspaper editor, 19 years her senior. They were married on December 27, 1877. The family purchased a 1,700 acre (690 ha) cotton plantation on the San Bernard River in Brazoria County, Texas, but both knew little about farming and the venture was unsuccessful. Dr. Nation became involved in the Jaybird-Woodpecker War and as a result was forced to move back north in 1889, this time to Medicine Lodge, Kansas, where David 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 Women's Christian Temperance Union and campaigned for the enforcement of Kansas' ban on the sales of liquor. Her methods escalated from simple protests to greeting bartenders with pointed remarks like "Good morning, destroyer of men's souls", to serenading saloon patrons with hymns on a hand organ.

Dissatisfied with the results of her efforts, Nation began to pray to God for direction. On June 5, 1900 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. 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 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 a raid in Wichita her husband joked that she should use a hatchet next time for maximum damage. Nation replied, "That's the most sensible thing you have said since I married you".

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. [cite web |url=http://www.kshs.org/exhibits/carry/carry4.htm |title=Paying the Bills |publisher=Kansas State Historical Society |accessdate=2007-01-13] In April of 1901 Nation came to Kansas City, Missouri, a city known for its wide opposition to the temperance movement, and smashed liquor in various bars on 12th street in Downtown Kansas City. [ "Mrs. Nation Fired in Police Court: Judge McAuley Assesses the Joint-Smasher $500 and Orders Her out of Town," "The Kansas City World", April 15, 1901] She was promptly arrested, fined $500 ($11,500 in 2006 dollars), and ordered by a judge to leave Kansas City and never return. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9401E5D71E38E733A25755C1A9629C946097D6CF&oref=slogin "Mrs. Nation Barred from Kansas City," "The New York Times", April 16, 1901] ]

Later life, death, and memorial

Nation's anti-alcohol activities became well known, with the slogan "All Nations Welcome But Carrie" becoming a bar-room staple. [cite web |url=http://www.kshs.org/exhibits/carry/carry7.htm|title=Carry A. Nation: A National and International Figure |publisher=Kansas State Historical Society |accessdate=2007-08-22] She published a biweekly newsletter called "The Smasher's Mail", a newspaper titled "The Hatchet", and later in life exploited her name by appearing in vaudeville, selling photographs of herself, charging to lecture, and marketing miniature hatchets. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9804E7D6153FE433A2575AC1A96E9C946097D6CF MRS. NATION AT ATLANTIC CITY.; She Only Sold Souvenirs and Took a Bath, and People Were Disappointed] "New York Times" August 19, 1901, Wednesday Page 2 (preview)] [ [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9804E7D6153FE433A2575AC1A96E9C946097D6CF MRS. NATION AT ATLANTIC CITY.; She Only Sold Souvenirs and Took a Bath, and People Were Disappointed] "New York Times" August 19, 1901, Wednesday Page 2 (PDF)]

Nation applauded the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901 because she believed that he secretly drank alcohol and that drinkers always got what they deserved. [ [http://www.zianet.com/maxey/reflx335.htm A Bulldog For Jesus: Reflecting on the Life and Work of Carrie A. Nation] ]

Near the end of her life, she moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where she founded the home known as Hatchet Hall. A spring just across the street from the house is named after her.

She collapsed during a speech in a Eureka Springs park and was taken to a hospital in Leavenworth, Kansas. She died there on June 9, 1911 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Belton City Cemetery in Belton, Missouri. The Women's Christian Temperance Union later erected a stone inscribed "Faithful to the Cause of Prohibition, She Hath Done What She Could."

Her home in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, the Carrie Nation House, was bought by the Women's Christian Temperance Union in the 1950s and was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1976.

Works about Nation

*"The Use and Need of the Life of Carrie A. Nation" (1905) by Carrie A. Nation
*"Carry Nation" (1929) by Herbert Asbury
*"Cyclone Carry: The Story of Carry Nation" (1962) by Carleton Beals
*"Vessel of Wrath: The Life and Times of Carry Nation" (1966) by Robert Lewis Taylor
*"Carry A. Nation: Retelling The Life" (2001) by Fran Grace

ee also

*Temperance movement
*Women's Christian Temperance Union

References

* [http://www.kshs.org/exhibits/carry/carry1.htm Carry A. Nation: The Famous and Original Bar Room Smasher] - Kansas State Historical Society
* [http://texashistory.unt.edu/search/?q=carry+nation&t=fulltext Photos of Carry Nation] - Fort Bend Museum, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
*gutenberg author|id=Nation+Carry+Amelia+(1846-1911)|name=Carry Nation

External links

* [http://www.carrynation.org CarryNation.org]
* [http://www.kshs.org/cool2/hammer.htm Carry Nation's hammer, Kansas Museum of History]
* [http://www.kshs.org/cool/coolpurs.htm Carry Nation's purse, Kansas Museum of History]
* [http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1900/cn/cn8.htm Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation]