The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999 Page: 49
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"The Lone Star State Surrenders to a Lone Woman"
spoke for one hour, and held the audience spellbound by her delivery."
When she and Anna Gordon left Marshall for Jefferson later that
evening, they left behind a newly formed local W.C.T.U. with more than
forty members pledged. After two appointments at Jefferson, Willard
made a brief stop at Clarksville for one lecture, and then on to Paris,
where she had visited the year before.9
It was at the invitation of the Paris union that Willard had added Texas
to her itinerary, and she was embraced by the community upon her ar-
rival. She renewed acquaintances, spoke with community leaders, visited
the home of Eben Dohoney, lectured twice to a house "full and running
over" despite the inclement weather, and recruited new members for the
local union, already the strongest in the state. Lamar County was one of
only four dry counties at the time of her visit, having enacted county-wide
prohibition by popular vote under the provisions of the state constitu-
tion, and the local W.C.T.U. was credited with getting out the vote on the
issue. From Paris, Willard and Gordon took the Texas and Pacific east to
Sherman. The rain had not let up and rivers and streams were overflow-
ing their banks throughout the country. Because of the danger of
washout, the train was running backward to protect the engineer and
fireman. Despite the hardships, Anna Gordon could report with satisfac-
tion to Willard's mother in Evanston that they were "traveling on through
the mud of this immense state planting the W.C.T.U. here and there,
and having tremendous meetings all along the line."'1
The press reports of Willard's lectures and organization activities con-
firm Gordon's optimism. Typical was the report of the correspondent
for the Sherman Courier-Chronicle, who after attending Willard's lecture
in that city, hailed it as "perfect, unanswerable, and cover[ing] every
part of the ground. ... Miss Willard could do no more for the temper-
ance cause here than all the committees, papers, and temperance tracts
in Christendom.""
" Union Signal (Chicago), Feb. 23, 1882; Galveston Daily News, Feb. 7, 1882 (quotation), Feb.
5, 1887; Texas Observer (Dallas), undated clipping in W.C.T.U. series, reel 13, scrapbook 15, p.
13; DazlyJimplecute (Jefferson), Feb. 6, 1882, ibid., p. 14. The choice of the Cumberland Presby-
terian church was likely a result of that denomination's greater willingness to allow for women's
participation in church affairs than most southern churches. See Ben M. Barrus, Milton L.
Baughn, and Thomas H Campbell, A People Called Cumberland Presbyterians (Memphis, Tenn.:
Frontier Press, 1972), 173-175, 279-280; and R. Douglas Brackenridge, Voices in the Wilderness:
A Hstory of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Texas (San Antonio: Trinity University Press,
1968), 130-131.
1o North Texan (Paris), Feb. 4, 1882, W.C.T.U. series, reel 32, scrapbook 15, p. 14; Frances
Willard, Woman and Temperance, or, The Work and Workers of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
(Hartford: Park Publishing Co., 1893), 574-579; Dohoney, An Average Amencan, 209-211; Texas
Trbune (Paris), Feb. 16, 1882 (1st quotation), W.C.T.U. series, reel 32, scrapbook 15, p. 14;
Denison Democrat, Feb. 8, 1882, ibid., p. 16; Anna Gordon to Mary Hill Willard, Feb. 14, 1882
(2nd quotation), ibid., reel 12, folder 14.
" Courser-Chronicle (Sherman), Feb. 12, 1882, W.C.T.U. series, reel 32, scrapbook 15, p. 15.1998
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 102, July 1998 - April, 1999, periodical, 1999; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101219/m1/74/?q=%22mex-tex%22: accessed July 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.