Carry Amelia Nation

Caroline Amelia Nation (November 25, 1846 – June 9, 1911), often referred to as Carrie, Carry Nation, Carrie A. Nation, or Hatchet Granny, was an American and a radical member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol consumption before the advent of Prohibition. Nation is noted for attacking alcohol-serving establishments (most often taverns) with a hatchet. She married David Nation in 1874. She was previously known by either her birth name, Carrie Moore and, after her first marriage in 1867, as Carrie Gloyd. Nation was known as "Mother Nation" for the charity and religious work she did. Like many in the temperance movement, she considered drunkenness a cause of many of society's problems. She attempted to help people in prison. In 1890, Nation founded a sewing circle in Medicine Lodge, Kansas to make clothing for the poor as well as prepare meals for them on holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 1901, Nation established a shelter for wives and children of alcoholics in Kansas City, Missouri. This shelter would later be described as an "early model for today's battered women's shelter". In her autobiography, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation (1908), she also strongly opposed Freemasonry. Nation was also concerned about tight clothing for women; she refused to wear a corset and urged women not to wear them because of their harmful effects on vital organs. She described herself as "a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn't like", and claimed a divine ordination to promote temperance by destroying bars.