Carry Nation

Carry A. Nation
Photograph courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society

Meetings were held in Little Rock, Hope, Malvern, Clarksville, Hot Springs, Searcy, Morrilton, Camden, Paragould, Van Buren, Jonesboro, Fort Smith, Forrest City, Russellville, Pine Bluff, Monticello, Walnut Ridge, and Newport. Rallies always accompanied WCTU annual meetings, and the proceedings themselves typically began with the recitation of the WCTU prayer. Nationally known speakers like Carry A. Nation came to Arkansas to speak at these conventions. Carrying her famous hatchet and wearing a white ribbon, Mrs. Nation spoke to temperance chapters in Fayetteville and Mena in 1904 and in Hot Springs in 1905. She purchased 80 acres of land in Boone County near Alpena Pass in 1909, and in 1910 she purchased and restored a 14-room home in Eureka Springs, where she died in early 1911.

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