Over the years this column has dealt with the temperance movement on several occasions.
Most of the communities in Wellington County have had an active temperance group at one time or another. The earliest ones date from the early 1850s, and were based in the older settlements of that era: Guelph, Fergus and Elora.
The earliest of the temperance groups were local, independent organizations. National and international groups soon became dominant, and the local organizations became chapters of those large organizations. There were a number of them, beginning with the Sons of Temperance in the 1850s.
Later came the Good Templars of Temperance, the Prohibitory League, the Anti-Saloon League, and Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
Over time, the groups became increasingly strident, and achieved some success with local options. In Wellington, their success came first in Peel and Maryborough Townships.
Eventually the groups pushed for provincial and national plebiscites. Their success peaked in the early 1920s, but by the end of that decade alcohol began its return, starting with the sale of beer.
The earlier groups, though, were much less militant than those of the early 20th century. Most were associated with one of the protestant churches. Methodists and Baptists were the most enthusiastic in their anti-alcohol activities. The ministers of both those churches, for example, were active in the Elora Temperance Society in the early 1850s.
The notable development of the early 1850s was the successful effort by some residents of the State of Maine to push their legislature to approve the first prohibitory law in North America. Maine became officially dry in 1851. The example inspired groups across North America to push for similar legislation. In some areas they found success, but in Maine the law was not popular. There were some violent riots there over the law, and it was overturned in 1855.
The idea of compulsion was a controversial one in the 1850s. The majority of temperance groups did not want legislation, but rather sought to persuade the public to drink less. The groups in Wellington County seem to have had some success at this. But sometimes there was controversy.
In Elora, for example, some members of the Elora Temperance Society wanted to push for “The Maine Law” in Ontario. Members who sought a more moderate course left and formed the Elora Friendly Society, which favoured persuasion and a program of social activities without alcohol.
For the early temperance groups, a friendly social setting was as important as the message. They offered alternatives to an afternoon and evening of drinking in the saloon or at home.
Most importantly, temperance groups welcomed both men and women on equal terms. Few other groups or societies followed such a policy. Temperance groups were often the only organizations in a community that permitted men and women to socialize freely. Even church groups usually maintained separate social groups for men and women.
Outside Guelph, Fergus and Elora, there were some in temperance in the newer towns and townships, but rarely sufficient to foster thriving groups. A large portion of the early settlers were young single men, who enjoyed meeting with one another for rounds of drinks after long hours of solitary work clearing and cultivating their farms.
But there were a few exceptions. One of those was a temperance group formed in Arthur Township in 1853, when that township was still in its pioneer phase.
The Arthur group had its founding meeting at Ebenezer Chapel in Kenilworth. That church was something of a multi-denominational affair at the beginning, with various travelling ministers occupying the pulpit when they were in the area. The Kenilworth Methodist Church was later built on the property.
The first meeting was organized by William Cushing, but he never held an executive position with the group. Duncan McKinnon served as secretary, and his minutes are the sole record of the group’s founding and activities.
There were 33 people at the founding meeting, and another 24 joined the group subsequently. Over the life of the organization, four members were expelled for outrageous public displays of drunkenness.
At a meeting in early 1854 William Cushing proposed a resolution that members refuse to attend any public function where liquor was served. That proposal was turned down soundly by the members. Undoubtedly, most believed that following the proposal would make them social pariahs in the community, where liquor was an expected beverage at barn raisings, harvest bees and social affairs.
At a meeting on April 3, speaker Rev. H. Reid addressed the meeting on the advantages of joining the Sons of Temperance, which had recently established a chapter in the village of Arthur. Gilbert Todd, who had been one of the first teachers in Arthur Township, also addressed the meeting. He emphasized that the Sons of Temperance had skill and much experience in reclaiming drunkards.
Members of the group greeted the proposal with enthusiasm. They passed resolutions to support the new group in Arthur Village, and to have their own group made a chapter of the Sons of Temperance as soon as they could secure a charter.
That meeting was the last one recorded in the minute book. Presumably, they succeeded in becoming a chapter of the Sons, or perhaps joined the existing group in Arthur. No records of the Arthur chapter of the Sons of Temperance seem to have survived. The original Arthur Township group had enjoyed a life of barely six months as an independent society.
Like most of the temperance groups, the Sons of Temperance was American in origin. It was founded in 1842, and quickly spread across the continent. By the early 1850s there were some 5,000 chapters.
The group required a two-dollar initiation fee, a requirement that surely impeded recruitment. That sum equalled three or four days wages to a working man. Membership itself was a further three dollars per year. Some of the money went to a life insurance scheme that paid $30 on the death of a member.
By the late 1850s the Sons of Temperance was in a steep decline, and never recovered its membership numbers or influence. As well, interest in the temperance movement itself declined in the late 1850s and 1860s, only to enjoy a major revival in the 1870s.
The pioneer Arthur group, known officially as the Temperance Society of Arthur Township, had a set of bylaws, approved at its first meeting. New members had to be approved by a majority of existing members. The officers were a president and a secretary, elected for six-month terms.
Members breaking their pledge to drink no liquor were to be reprimanded by the chair for the first offence, receive a public rebuke for the second, and suffer expulsion for the third. Meetings were to be called every four weeks. The opening and closing of every meeting was to include hymns and prayers.
The minutes of the society also include the full membership list of the society. Of the 57 names recorded, 27 were women. That is a surprisingly high percentage for a group at that point in history. It appears that many of the women were the only representatives of their families. Perhaps some were seeking help in dealing with a hard-drinking husband, father or brother.
An analysis of the membership list would be a fascinating study. I leave that for an ambitious local historian or perhaps a history student to undertake.