Temperance Debate
In 1885 an Elmira chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was organized with Helen Chapel Bullock as president. The WCTU provided women a means for organized political action at a time when they could not exercise the right to vote. In addition to fighting the effects of alcohol consumption—poor health, domestic abuse and poverty—temperance advocates joined in the fight for prison, health, education, and labor reform. Most importantly, the WCTU pressed for women’s suffrage, believing that if women could exercise the right to vote, they would ensure the passage of laws that would bring about the reforms they desired.
The Gilded Ideal
Many prominent Elmira citizens were active in the temperance movement during the Gilded Age. In 1877 a group of women founded an organization to provide food and clothing to the families of those who had taken the temperance pledge. Eventually this organization extended its aid to all poor families in Elmira. Helen Bullock secured the appointment of the city’s first police matron, Mrs. Esther D. Wilkins, who was responsible for caring for the women and girls who were brought to the police station. In 1890 Bullock founded The Anchorage, a refuge for troubled young women who were otherwise scorned by society.
The Tarnished Reality
Not all Elmirans supported the effort to restrict the consumption of alcohol. Many citizens found it to be an attack on their personal freedom; saloon-keepers and brewers saw it as an effort to deprive them of their livelihood. Some men who publically supported the WCTU did not practice temperance in their private lives. At times, the WCTU expressed nativist sentiments, blaming immigrants and the poor for the problems that plagued society and proposing women’s suffrage as a way of countering the votes of the uncivilized masses.
