Carry Amelia Nation

She could have been anyone's grandmother, this woman on the train bound for Topeka. A reporter from upstate New York did not paint a flattering image of her: "Short and dumpy of figure, rather than tall and commanding; nervous and flighty of manner rather than calm and impressing...." Emporia's William Allen White made similar comments about this short and rotund character. But she had created such a stir in other Kansas towns that Topeka, on January 26, 1901, awaited her arrival with mixed emotions. Carry A. Nation was coming to the capital city.

In the previous eighteen months Carry Amelia Nation, driven by her faith and a belief that alcohol destroyed families, had begun a campaign to close down saloons or "joints" that operated in spite of state law forbidding their existence. At home in Medicine Lodge, she tried to work within the law in closing the joints. Eventually she came to believe stronger measures were needed, and on June 6, 1900, Carry traveled alone to Kiowa and destroyed several joints by smashing what she could with her cane, stones and bricks.

On December 27, 1900, Carry struck again, this time smashing the elaborate bar in the Hotel Carey (now the Eaton Hotel) in Wichita. With fellow prohibitionists joining her, Wichita would be treated to further raids on saloons in the next few weeks. While in that city, she took up the tool that was forever linked to her-the hatchet. After taking an invitation to go to Enterprise to close another saloon, it was time for Topeka to receive a visit from Mother Nation.

Topeka was a logical choice for a visit from Carry. As the state capital, the legislature had just come into session. With several joints operating in the city-including the Senate Saloon, often patronized by legislators-the point of alcohol illegally being served in the capital city would generate publicity. In addition, the Kansas State Temperance Union was gathering in Topeka for its annual state convention. This assured a gathering that was somewhat sympathetic to Carry's cause, if not necessarily her actions.

Carry's train arrived in Topeka just past 6:30 p.m. on January 26. She was recognizable to the crowd that gathered by her appearance-a full-length black dress, with a white ribbon bow at her neck (a temperance symbol), black cotton stockings, square-toed shoes, and a fringed gray shawl. A black poke bonnet covered her head. Many gathered hoping they might see Carry Nation in action, smashing a joint, and indeed she was led to several where she warned the owners to close their "murder shops." No "hatchetations," as the smashings had come to be known, took place, but there was one inglorious moment. The wife of one joint-keeper hit Carry on the side of the head with a broom, knocking the bonnet off. It was reported that as Carry bent over to pick up the bonnet, the jointist's wife "smote her upon that portion of the anatomy which chanced to be uppermost."

Two days later Carry met with the governor, William Stanley, at his state house office. The meeting did not go well. Carry pled her case for an enforcement of the laws of the state, but Stanley could give her no assurances and would refer her only to the Attorney General. Unhappy with Stanley's seeming inaction, at one point Carry pointed to a black eye she had received at Enterprise days before and said, "Governor, you gave me that black eye." After listening to her statements, a rattled Governor Stanley told her, "You are a woman, but a woman must know a woman's place. They can't come in here and raise this kind of disturbance."

On January 31 Carry, with a large group of supporters, marched to lower Kansas Avenue to visit the joints and talk with the owners. Tipped off that she was coming, the jointists threw up barricades in front of their businesses. Upon arriving and seeing the barricades with the jointists peering out from behind them, Carry laughed and called to the men, "Aren't you going to let your mother in, boys? She wants to talk with you."

The following scene was amazing. Carry spoke gently to the jointists, and gradually they came out from behind the barricades to hear what she had to say. She urged them to close their joints, and made it clear through calm and polite words that she was determined to see them closed. But there were no hatchetations that day. She wanted them to think about what alcohol did to families, and hoped they would close their businesses and abide by the law.

Almost another week passed before Carry and her "Home Defenders," as her supporters came to be known, smashed their first joint, the Senate Saloon. More would soon follow. Citizens in other Kansas towns took up the cause and moved to close down the joints, using Carry Nation as their inspiration. Carry herself would spend the remaining ten years of her life traveling around the country, Canada, and the British Isles for the cause of prohibition. She would also campaign against smoking and gambling, for the cause of woman's suffrage and matters of women's health, hoping her efforts would "Carry A. Nation." She did not live to see prohibition become the law of the United States in 1919, but by her own chosen epitaph, "she hath done what she could."

She was an unlikely leader. No one on the train that January evening would have imagined what this grandmotherly figure might accomplish.