Anna Adams Gordon

Anna Adams Gordon (July 21, 1853 – June 15, 1931) was an American social reformer, songwriter, and, as national president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union when the Eighteenth Amendment was adopted, a major figure in the Temperance movement.Citation
last = Soderstrum
first = T. Jason
contribution = Anna Adams Gordon
year = 2003
title = Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia
editor-last = Blocker
editor-first = Jack S.
volume = 1
pages = 273
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=BuzNzm-x0l8C&pg=PA273&dq=%22anna+adams+gordon%22&lr=&sig=BbFfVhd__iOFv6p9nH0D_UZILHk
place =
publisher = ABC-CLIO
id =
isbn = 1-57607-833-7]

Biography

Early life

Gordon was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to James M. and Mary Clarkson Gordon, both Christian abolitionists. When she was three, her family moved to Auburndale. She went on to attend Boston High School, Lasall Seminary, and Mount Holyoke College. She spent a year abroad in San Sebastián with her sister, Alice Gordon Gulick, who had started a school for girls there in 1871.

Woman's Christian Temperance Union

In 1877, Gordon met Frances E. Willard at a Dwight L. Moody revival meeting, in the building where Willard was holding temperance meetings. Gordon's younger brother Arthur had died just days before, a traumatic event which had, as Willard later wrote, driven Gordon "Godward". The two became close friends, with Gordon continuing to play organ for Willard's meetings. Gordon eventually moved in to Willard's residence as her personal secretary. Gordon subsequently followed her employer on her travels through the United States, Canada and Europe, spending a year in England, mostly as the guests of Lady Henry Somerset.Citation
last = McWhirter
first = Luella F.
contribution =
year = 1915
title = Famous Living Americans, with Portraits
editor-last = Webb
editor-first = Mary Griffin
volume =
pages = 225-233
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=mcsCAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA225&dq=%22anna+adams+gordon%22&lr=#PPA225,M1
place = Greencastle, Indiana
publisher = C. Webb & Company
id = ] Modern scholars have speculated on the precise nature of the relationship between Gordon and Willard (who preferred to be called "Frank"), believing both to have been lesbians. [Citation
last =
first =
contribution =
year = 2004
title = Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in America
editor-last = Stein
editor-first = Mark
volume =
pages = 280
place = New York
publisher = Simon & Schuster
id =
isbn = 0-684-31264-6]

Gordon and Willard remained intimate friends until Willard's death in 1898, at which time Lillian M. N. Stevens became president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, with Gordon as vice-president. That same year, Gordon also wrote a memorial biography of Willard (expanded and reprinted in 1905). [cite book
last = Gordon
first = Anna Adams
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Frances E. Willard: A Memorial Volume
publisher = Women's Temperance Publishing Association
date = 1898
location =
pages =
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=vEkFAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22anna+adams+gordon%22+willard&lr=&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
doi =
id =
isbn = ] Upon Lillian Stevens' death in 1914, Anna Adams Gordon became president of the WCTU.

During the First World War, Gordon was instrumental in convincing U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to harden the federal government's policies against the manufacture of alcoholic beverages, most notably by criminalizing the use of foodstuffs to make alcohol. Later, in 1919, temperance organizations scored a major victory with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which fully established prohibition in the United States. After this success, the WCTU under Gordon's guidance began to turn more towards temperance enforcement, and causes peripheral to the temperance movement, such as citizenship for immigrants, women's rights in the workplace, and child protection.

In November 1922, she was elected president of the World Women's Temperance Union (WWTCU), and resigned her presidency of the national WCTU organization.

She died on June 15, 1931, in Castile, New York.

Works

During her career she was also president of the World League Against Alcoholism, and vice-president of the National Temperance Council, and vice-chairman of the Commission of Nineteen on the National Constitutional Prohibition Amendment. In addition to these and the WCTU, Gordon was also deeply involved in temperance work with the National Council of Women, the International Sunday-School Association, the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and the National Legislative Council, among others.

As a leader in the WCTU, Gordon was a staunch believer in the need to interest children in temperance at a very early age. To that end, she authored a number of books of stories, verse, and song aimed at children, as well as publications for adults. [cite book
last = Gordon
first = Anna Adams
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The White Ribbon Hymnal, Or, Echoes of the Crusade
publisher = Woman's Temperance Publishing Association
date = 1892
location = Chicago, IL
pages =
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=9tWs5chgu38C&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22anna+adams+gordon%22&lr=
doi =
id =
isbn = ] [cite book
last = Gordon
first = Anna Adams
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Songs of the Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union
publisher = Woman's Temperance Publishing Association
date = 1889
location = Chicago, IL
pages =
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=6d0RxNe5NikC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22anna+adams+gordon%22&lr=
doi =
id =
isbn = ] [cite book
last = Gordon
first = Anna Adams
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Toots, and Other Stories: Old Fashioned Stories and Jingles for New ...
publisher =
date = 1906
location =
pages =
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=pI8DAAAAYAAJ&printsec=copyright&dq=%22anna+adams+gordon%22&lr=&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0
doi =
id =
isbn = ] Sales of her books were said to have surpassed a million copies. Her temperance songs, in particular, became quite successful and were translated into a number of languages. She was also the editor of the "Union Signal", the news organ of the WCTU, and "The Young Crusader", the newspaper of the Loyal Temperance Legion, the WCTU's children's branch.

References