Kansas WCTU/Mary Evelyn Dobbs Collection

Manuscript Collection No. 170

• Introduction
• Biography
• Scope and Content
• Contents List

Introduction

The collection of the Mary Evelyn Dobbs papers reflects the activities and concerns of the Kansas Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (KWCTU) during the years 1885-1940 and Dobb’s part as corresponding secretary of that organization (1907-1939). The papers reveal some of the inner workings of the KWCTU as well as their impact and involvement in Kansas political and social life. Of course, the main focus of the collection is prohibition, both before, during and after its federal enactment and then repeal. Because of Kansas’s reputation as a dry state, many studies of the national Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, or of prohibition, devote some attention to the state. The KWCTU, along with the Kansas Anti-Saloon League, the Kansas State Temperance Union and other temperance organizations, was instrumental in the enactment of prohibition in Kansas. Their concerns were not limited to prohibition, however, and the papers also reflect the KWCTU's and Mary Dobb’s interest in anti-cigarette and narcotics legislation, child welfare, motion picture censorship, Americanization, women’s suffrage, morality, prison reform, parliamentary procedure, the peace movement and care for the elderly. There are no restrictions on the use of the collection.

The collection consists of correspondence received from or sent by Dobbs to members of the KWCTU throughout Kansas, meeting minutes, court decisions, printed material, reports, resolutions, contracts, and financial records. Although the earliest material in the collection dates from 1885, the bulk of the material is from the late 1920s through the 1930s.

Unfortunately, there is no record explaining how these papers came to the Historical Society. From the papers themselves, it was decided that they had to be those of Mary Dobbs, produced and collected during her tenure as corresponding secretary of the WCTU from 1907 to 1939. As she was also the executive secretary of that organization, and in charge of its headquarters, her papers reflect the broad scope of the KWCTU’s activities.

Biography

The Kansas Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was organized at a camp meeting at Bismark Grove near Lawrence in 1878, with the first convention being held in 1879. They adopted the badge of the national organization—the white ribbon “symbolic not only of purity and peace, but it includes all correlated reforms that center in the protection of the home.” It took part in the Kansas constitutional prohibition amendment campaign in 1879-1880. The organization also lobbied in favor of a law passed in 1885 which required prohibition or temperance teaching in schools. Members participated in chautauquas in Ottawa, Winfield and Cawker City. The KWCTU did not confine itself to issues related to alcohol. It worked against white slavery and began the Girls’ Industrial School, which it later turned over to the state.

After the turn of the century, the KWCTU began supporting two native temperance workers in Africa, Americanization work in the mining camps of Southern Kansas near Pittsburg, maintained a home for elderly women in Kansas City (the Carry A. Nation Home), sent field workers to unorganized territories to organize new unions, worked with both prisoners and military men in the state, and concerned itself with issues surrounding tobacco, narcotics and motion pictures.

The Kansas WCTU was organized around the local union. If there were multiple local unions in a county, a county union could be formed. The county union held two meetings a year and reported to the state organization, which held an annual convention. Before 1915, local and county unions were also organized around the congressional districts of Kansas, but these were disbanded in that year. The state and local organization was organized into departmental work. These departments changed from time to time but they concerned themselves with such issues as child welfare, Sabbath observance, prison reform, social morality, legislation, non-alcoholic fruit products, anti-narcotics, and parliamentary law. The organization also sponsored state and local units of the Young People’s Branch (YPB) for teenagers fourteen years old and over and a Loyal Temperance Legion Branch for children between the ages of six to sixteen.

The KWCTU produced its own periodical, Our Messenger. The Union Signal was the national WCTU publication.

Mary Dobbs was corresponding secretary of the Kansas Woman’s Christian Temperance Union from 1907 to 1939 and as such she handled the official correspondence of the organization. She was also in charge of the state headquarters. Her papers reflect the work and organization of the KWCTU as well as her own role in it.

Mary Evelyn Dobbs was born in Marion, Kansas, on November 29, 1870. Her father was a farmer and minister as well as a strong prohibitionist. Her mother was a teacher before her marriage and had an interest in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Dobbs graduated from high school in Marion in 1889 and then attended Emporia State Normal School in 1901 and Fairmount College at Wichita in 1912. For eleven years she was a teacher, also becoming involved in KWCTU work.

In 1897, Dobbs was elected president of the third district of the Kansas Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, a position she held until 1907 when she was elected corresponding secretary of the Kansas WCTU, serving in that position for thirty-two years (until November of 1939) when she resigned due to poor health. Dobbs was also executive secretary of the KWCTU and was in charge of its headquarters in Wichita and later in Topeka. She served as a lobbyist for the KWCTU at the state legislature and was frequently a delegate to the national WCTU meetings. She was also a trustee of the KWCTU Carry A. Nation Home for elderly women in Kansas City, Kansas.

Activities and organizations other than the K WCTU in which Dobbs was involved, and which are evident in these papers, include being a trustee of the Kansas State Temperance Society, member of the Kansas Children’s Code Committee of 1922-23, member of the Equal Suffrage Association, member of the Kansas State Historical Society (information on the Shawnee Indian Methodist Mission is in Box 6, Folder 7) and a member of College Hill Methodist Episcopal Church in Wichita. Dobbs also had an interest in parliamentary law and was author of the Kansas Voter’s Manual (1913) and served as parliamentarian of the KWCTU. Dobbs died in 1943.

Scope & Content

The collection encompasses the years 1885-1940, however the bulk of the material covers the 1920s and 1930s. The only materials in the collection before 1907 (the year Dobbs became corresponding secretary of the KWCTU) are the records of the districts that were disbanded in 1915, which Dobbs asked to be sent to her for preservation.

While processing the collection, it was determined that the original order of the correspondence must have been according to subject, with a general file of correspondence concerning routine organizational matters. As much of that original order has been preserved as possible. The collection has been organized into nine series: General Correspondence, Papers concerning the Carry A. Nation Home, Papers concerning Frances Willard Memorials, Papers concerning Motion Pictures, Organizational Records (Unbound), “Permanent Records” (Bound Organizational Records), Printed material Accompanying the Manuscripts, Financial Records and District Record Books.

Because of the subject arrangement, materials concerning one subject may have a bearing on materials filed elsewhere. The collection is small enough, however, that this should not be a handicap to the researcher. Another problem concerns the women's tendency to put the carbons of letters sent out on the backs of other carbons, letters or handouts. Photocopies of correspondence have been made where necessary to facilitate cross referencing between letters sent and received. The researcher should be alert to information typed, printed, or written on the back of the manuscripts being examined, as not all of that is photocopied and filed elsewhere.

The record of the Kansas Woman’s Christian Temperance Union contributes to an understanding of the temperance movement, especially in Kansas. It also provides a perspective on women’s role in Kansas during 1885-1940, especially within the middle class. Evidence of the continuing influence of progressivism and the WCTU’s involvement in the movement toward cultural uniformity through the 1920s and 1930s is clear in the KWCTU’s interests, which were not confined to alcohol.

However, the complete record for the KWCTU for 1885-1940 is not here. There are large gaps in the correspondence and some matters of a more trivial nature (such as the search for Frances Willard memorials) are well documented while other concerns (such as suffrage) are hardly documented at all. Except for the district record books, there are no continuing minutes of meetings or conventions. Nevertheless, the correspondence which does survive for the 1920s and 1930s gives a fairly good overview of the organization’s activities and influence. Further research can be continued in the records of other temperance organizations which the manuscript department holds (Prohibition-History, Temperance-History) and in the material held on the Kansas Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in the Society’s library.

Contents List

Series Descriptions

The General Correspondence series concerns the routine organizational matters of the Kansas WCTU. It includes correspondence about speakers, field workers, meetings and local unions. A few histories of the organization and of temperance work in Kansas appear in the letters.

The Frances Willard Memorials series details the ways in which the WCTU memorialized Frances Willard. Frances Willard (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898) was a founder and president (for nineteen years) of the national WCTU and the founder and president of the World’s WCTU. The Kansas WCTU honored her memory in a variety of ways. In 1915, they were instrumental in passing a bill in the state legislature which called for setting aside one-fourth of the school day on September 28 in the public schools “for instruction and appropriate exercises relative to the history and benefits of the prohibitory amendment to the constitution and the prohibitory laws of the state of Kansas.” The KWCTU then provided literature and suggested programs to the schools on that day each year.

The national WCTU set aside February17 as a “red letter day” and urged every local union to observe that day with an appropriate program and then take an offering. This money would then be used to distribute free literature on the benefits of Prohibition.

Special emphasis was placed on honoring Frances Willard’s memory as the centenary of her birth approached in 1939. An educational fund was established—Kansas eventually purchased multi-poster machines (“mechanical men”) for exhibit purposes with their portion of the fund. Although previous inventories of memorials to Willard had been done, another inventory was taken in which Kansas participated. Mary Dobbs appointed Alice K. McFarland to be State Chairman for Willard Memorial Records. She searched for memorials to represent the state on a map being prepared through the auspices of the national WCTU which would depict Willard memorials throughout the nation. McFarland conducted the search during March through May of 1938, building on the work of previous surveys.

This series consists of printed material on Frances Willard, school programs and correspondence concerning the centenary of her birth and the search for Willard memorials.

The Carrie A. Nation Home series concerns the KWCTU’s home for elderly women. Originally the B. N. Simpson home, this house was purchased by Carry Nation and transferred to the Associated Charities of Kansas City, Kansas on September 21, 1901. It was named the Kansas City Home for Drunkards’ Wives and provided a shelter for the families of alcoholic fathers and husbands. This was to be the first of several Carry Nation homes across the nation. At some point between 1901 and 1918, however, the home was abandoned. On October 3, 1918, the Kansas WCTU formerly accepted the deed to the property from the Associated Charities. The KWCTU then established it as a home for their elderly members who had no other home.

The records consist of correspondence to and from Mary Dobbs concerning the home from March 5, 1923 to January 20, 1934. Dobbs was a trustee of the home and these years may represent the time she served as trustee. The records also include copies of the minutes of meetings which concerned the home, copies of agreements which the women signed before becoming residents and other miscellaneous documents, mainly from the 1930s. Also included in the papers is an annual report of the Wichita Home for the Aged for March 1934, and printed materials which accompanied the manuscripts.

A manuscript in box 1, folder 6 describes the different superintendents of the home. Four women occupied the position of matron of the home for more than only a few months: Mrs. S. C. South was the first superintendent (from January 27, 1919 to November 1919—a room of the home was furnished in her memory in the 1930s); Mrs. E.S. Wilkenson was superintendent from Feb. 10, 1920 to October 1, 1923; Mrs. Margaret A. James served from March 2, 1925 to April 1926; and Mrs. Minerva Russell began as superintendent on December 1, 1929 and was still serving in 1937, when that manuscript was written. Most of the correspondence is with Mrs. Minerva Russell when it concerns the superintendent of the home.

The fourth series consists of correspondence and printed material concerning motion pictures. The KWCTU perceived that there was a lack of morality in the movies. In order to resolve this issue, they favored a proposed federal regulation of the industry. The KWCTU was also concerned with the sanctity of the Sabbath and lobbied against Sunday movies in Wichita in 1930, and in the state in 1933. On the other hand, they recognized the influence of the film media and were anxious to utilize the format to further their own work. The national WCTU produced films, along with other production companies and temperance organizations, which advocated prohibition. These were especially useful to them during prohibition as they endeavored to “hold the line” and work against repeal.

Organizational records which were unbound are in the Organizational Records (Unbound) series. These were arranged by subject. This correspondence includes letters and pamphlets from the Constitutional Sesquicentennial Commission in Box 3, Folder 6. Some papers were in a binder entitled “Permanent Records.” These are in the Bound Organizational Records (“Permanent Records”) series. The original file labels for these papers have been preserved. The papers are from the 1920s and 1930s. The Miscellaneous Printed Material series consists of printed material which accompanied the manuscripts. Financial Records are in the Financial Records series, which consists of papers in files and bound volumes.

The District Book series holds the record books of the districts of the KWCTU. The KWCTU was organized at the congressional district level until 1915, when the districts were disbanded and Mary Dobbs asked that these books be sent to her for preservation. The oldest material in the collection is contained in this series.

Nancy Garner
Lela Barnes Intern
August 1985

Box List

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