No Shrinking Violets!

The women on the frontier took up the causes of the Victorian age like temperance and feminism with actual success.  Females were in short supply on the frontier, so when a man sought a wife he had to agree to such things as abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, bad language and gambling.  There was a popular ditty among pioneer women:
    
The man who drinks the red, red wine,
Will never be a beau of mine.
The man who is a whiskey sop,
Will never hear my corset pop!

The temperance movement grew on the frontier in the 1870s and 1880s as the female population grew.  The temperance crusade had its roots on the western frontier as Kansas' Carry Nation became world renown for her hatchet wielding visits to the salons on the Plains.

Women's rights were recognized on the frontier - women could own and control their own property and engage in trade without their husband's consent.  Wyoming lead the way in women's right starting in 1869, and was the first state to grant women the right to vote fifty years before it was added to the US Constitution.  When it was finally adopted in 1920, all but four of the western states had already allowed women's suffrage, while only two of the eastern states had recognized the right of women to vote.

Next time.  The Story of Sarah Sim
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 13, 1814,  Francis Scott Key pens a poem which is later set to music and in 1931 becomes America’s national anthem.   The poem, originally titled “The Defence of Fort McHenry,” was written after Key witnessed the fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the sight of a lone U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry at daybreak, as reflected in the now-famous words of the “Star-Spangled Banner”: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there."

Temperance in the West

The first temperance movement in the frontier was Kansas in the 1870s in Hays, Dodge City, and Albilene. Those sodbusters of the Plains didn't go for saloon life and all the rowdiness that went with it. The pioneer of the plains did his drinking privately in his barn :)

In the 1880's women joined the temperance movement in Topeka and Lawrence by annoying and angering most everyone in business. These women would sit outside the saloons and make lists of patrons and marched through the streets singing about these violators of sobriety. They also, of course, got thrown out of saloons on a regular basis.

The best known of these women prohibitionists was Carrie Nation.
Supposedly her first husband died of alcoholism and she devoted her life to fighting against it. In 1901, she reportedly smashed up 2 saloons and did considerable damage to both. She used a "hatchet to do God's work" by defacing artwork and threatening customers. She was an erratic, fanatic and claimed that the Lord appointed her to rid Kansas of the evil of alcohol. She was a frequent visitor to jail, but was seldom hurt or injured. She died in 1911 and was remembered as bringing "praise and considerable scorn on Kansas."

On March 10, 1881, Kansas offically banned alcohol and the first speakeasy was opened for business the following day. It was also reported that before the law was passed, citizens bought up extra supplies for weeks (for months if wealthy enough) to ensure that enough alcohol was in storage.

Prohibition lasted 2 decades without much effect...ending in 1901.