As I was reading about Prohibition and the Temperance Movement and it’s impact on agriculture, I came across a tough-looking woman, Carry Nation. She was a fighter for the cause, gaining a reputation for entering saloons and bars and breaking the liquor bottles with a stick or an axe. The axe then became her signature weapon and she posed in photos with the axe although it is claimed she more often used a lead pipe.

Carry Nation grew up with an alcoholic father and a mother who suffered from mental illness. She felt that alcohol and drunkenness were a scourge and she wanted to save people from its effects.

You can read more details about her life all over the internet, but the account from History.com is one I recommend. Interestingly, a YouTube channel I follow for quilting this week added a tutorial on how to make a “Carrie Nation Quilt.” You can watch that video here if you are a quilter.

This will be part of a lecture I’m giving during our “Not Just Farmers” course through GRIP in June 2024. I hear that the course is sold out! (Thanks to those who have signed up!)