“Tremble, King Alcohol, We Shall Grow Up”
Loyal Temperance Legion Child’s Pledge Card: Front Cover
The Loyal Temperance Legion (LTL) of Moorhead, Minnesota, was a branch of a national temperance organization for children ages six to fourteen.[i] In Moorhead, the LTL had formed out of The Band of Hope Movement, a temperance society which began in England in 1847, and became a national organization formed by a Baptist minister from Leeds named Rev. Jabez Tunnicliff in 1855.[ii]
“1870 Band of Hope Member’s Card.” The National Library of Wales.
How the Band of Hope movement arrived in the Red River Valley is worthy of an in-depth, historical study. Nevertheless, the Loyal Temperance Legion officially began in 1886 and was maintained as a branch organization within the WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union), a national women’s temperance group which is still active today. The WCTU focuses on the context of religion and social reform, promoting women’s rights, missionary work and total abstinence from drugs, tobacco, and alcohol.[iii]
One of WCTU’s primary founders, Frances Willard, saw the need for developing a children’s abstinence organization in 1874 to teach “children in Sabbath schools and public schools the ethics, chemistry, and hygiene of total abstinence.”[iv] Perhaps this was due, in part, to the success and influence of Rev. Tunnicliff and the recent success of the English temperance movement. However, the Loyal Temperance Legion as a formal organization, was developed by Mary A. Livermore, former President of the Massachusetts WCTU in about 1880.[v]
Loyal Temperance Legion Pin, cir. 1900
The Moorhead branch and Minnesota LTL has a special connection to WCTU and Prohibition history. According to one source, the LTL had…
“…existed under many local names, but at the National Convention held in Minneapolis in 1886 it was decided to give these organizations a uniform plan of work under the name of “Loyal Temperance Legion.” This organization consisted in each State of as many divisions as there are districts or counties, the local societies of each division being known as Company A, Company B, etc., according to the time of formation.”[vi]
Loyal Temperance Legion Child’s Pledge Card: Back Cover
Children in the Loyal Temperance Legion had to sign a pledge and take an oath “forswearing intoxicating liquor, tobacco, and profane language.”[vii] Their slogan was “Tremble, King Alcohol, We Shall Grow Up.”[viii] Often, children would wear a blue ribbon as a tradition beginning in the late nineteenth century—and by doing so were deemed members of the “Blue Ribbon Army.”[ix] Children would receive a diploma upon graduation from the LTL upon turning 14 years old.[x]
Anna Adams Gordon, Loyal Temperance Legion Advocate and WCTU President (1914-1925), Editor of The Young Crusader, Library of Congress.
Additionally, the LTL published a newspaper entitled The Young Crusader, edited for a brief time by WCTU President (1914-1925) Anna Adams Gordon.[xi] Gordon advocated for children’s education of temperance at a “very early age.”[xii] Activities of the LTL for children included day camps, rallies, and the organization also held oratorical and musical contests, which helped to advocate for the WCTU’s desire to “fight for a clear brain.”[xiii] At one time, it was a national celebration of American youth on July 21st to gather and have some of these contests and rallies about temperance and abstinence on Loyal Temperance Legion Day.[xiv]
Sources
[i] Historical Note. Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Minnesota records. Minnesota Historical Society. http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00106.xml (accessed 10/16/2016).
[ii] Marles, H. 1865. The Life and Labours of the Rev. Jabez Tunnicliff, Minister of the Gospel at Tall Lane Chapel, Leeds, and Founder of the Band of Hope in England. London: W. Tweedie. pp. 213–210.
[iii] “National Women’s Temperance Union.” WCTU.com https://www.wctu.org/home.html (accessed 10/16/16).
[iv] Gordon, Elizabeth Putnam. 1924. Women Torch-Bearers; The Story of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Evanston, Ill: National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Pub. House. Pgs. 33-34.
[v] Ibid. pgs. 43-44.
[vi] Pickett, Deets, Clarence True Wilson, and Ernest Dailey Smith. 1917. The Cyclopedia of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals. Pgs. 269-270.
[vii] Engelhardt, Carroll L. 2007. Gateway to the Northern Plains: Railroads and the Birth of Fargo and Moorhead. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Pgs. 178-181.
[viii] Ibid, p. 180.
[ix] “The Newsboys’ Dinner To-Day,” The Times (Philadelphia, PA), July 5, 1886.
[x] The Minneapolis Journal. (Minneapolis, Minn.), 21 Sept. 1901. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045366/1901-09-21/ed-1/seq-15/
[xi] “Past Presidents.” WCTU.com https://www.wctu.org/past-presidents.html (accessed 10/16/16).
[xii] McWhirter, Luella F., Webb, Mary Griffin, and Edna Lenore Webb, ed. 1915. Famous Living Americans, with Portraits. Greencastle, Ind: C. Webb & Co. p. 233.
[xiii] Gordon, Elizabeth Putnam. 1924. Women Torch-Bearers; The Story of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Evanston, Ill: National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Pub. House. Pgs. 33-34, 40.
[xiv] Ibid. pg. 198-199.
Image Credits
“1870 Band of Hope Member’s Card.” The National Library of Wales. http://www.llgc.org.uk/en/ (accessed 10/16/2016).
“1900 Loyal Temperance Legion Pin.” Oldpoliticas.com http://www.oldpoliticals.com/lot-13962.aspx (accessed 10/16/2016).
“3719: LOYAL TEMPERANCE LEGION Child’s Pledge against alcohol, tobacco, profanity.” Ebay.com http://www.ebay.ie/itm/3719-LOYAL-TEMPERANCE-LEGION-Childs-Pledge-against-alcohol-tobacco-profanity-/351847710056?hash=item51ebc1fd68:g:lGoAAOSw-itXsP8X (accessed 10/16/2016).
“Anna Adams Gordon.” Library of Congress. http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c12007/
Digital ID: (b&w film copy neg.) cph 3c12007 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c12007
Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-112007 (b&w film copy neg.) (accessed 10/16/2016).
