- She was born Carrie Amelia Moore on Nov. 25, 1846. Her father was a slave-holding plantation owner in Kentucky. Her mother had mental problems, which may explain some of Carrie’s future actions.
- She got married at age 21 to an alcoholic doctor who had served in the Union Army. They soon separated because of his behavior. She was pregnant at the time and gave birth to a daughter. He died soon after her birth. Her first husband’s alcohol abuse greatly influenced her.
- She became a teacher and remarried to David Nation, but her first marriage continued to eat at her. She claimed to have had visions and became very religious. She formed a local chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She was attracted to its goal of ending spousal abuse due to alcoholism. The WCTU was dedicated to prohibiting alcohol, but her state of Kansas had plenty of saloons, in spite of being dry. God urged her to take direct action. She became his yapping bulldog, as she described herself.
- On June 7, 1900 she went from singing hymns outside saloons and taunting bartenders as they arrived to rock throwing. At six-foot tall, she was an intimidating figure. She began her “hatchetation” period by throwing rocks in saloons in her town of Kiowa, Kansas. A subsequent tornado was taken as a sign of God’s approval.
- She became a celebrity when she attacked the bar at the Carey Hotel in Wichita. She used a hatchet this time and did thousands of dollars of damage. The resulting press coverage convinced her that she had found her way of fighting for prohibition. She traveled to other cities and attacked other saloons and gave speeches. She was arrested over thirty times and used her speaking fees and sales of souvenir hatchets to pay her legal bills and fines. Around this time, she changed her name to Carry Nation so she could use the slogan “Carry A. Nation for Prohibition”.
- She spent some time on the vaudeville stage and even went to Great Britain where she appeared in music halls. Her “act” consisted of preaching and did not go over well. Some of the things she railed against were fraternal orders, tobacco, foreign foods, shorter skirts, nude paintings in saloons, and corsets, which she argued were harmful to internal organs.
- Some Prohibitionists felt she did more harm than good for the cause. When Pres. McKinley was assassinated, she applauded because she believed he was secretly a drinker.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/carry-nation-smashes-bar
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carry-Nation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Nation
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