Carry A. Nation

Carry A. Nation, born Nov. 25, 1846 in Garrard County, Kentucky, spelled her name both Carrie and Carry, and later in life used only Carry because "carry a nation" became part of a slogan, "Carry a nation from the darkness of drunken bestiality into the light of purity and sobriety." She died June 9, 1911 in a hospital in Leavenworth, Kansas. Her marker (see the pictures) was donated by the Women's Christian Temperance Union and it bears the inscription, "Faithful to the Cause of Prohibition, She Hath Done What She Could." She was best known as a temperance agitator, and her photo with a hatchet is well known. (She used the hatchet as a tool to break up saloons.) She married an alcoholic, Dr. Charles Gloyd, in 1867 who died several months later. In 1877 she married David Nation whom she divorced in 1901. In 1889 she moved to Kansas, which was a dry state where saloons were illegal. Any citizen could destroy liquor, furniture and fixtures in any place selling intoxicants, so starting in 1900 she armed herself with a hatchet (click on the pictures to see her with one) and wrecked saloons throughout Kansas. She was arrested many times, imprisoned, fined, clubbed, and shot at. She was well known throughout the U.S. Her autobiography is in the blog. Her autobiography is short, but long for a blog; give it a minute or so to load.