Tuttle, May Thompson, 1849-1916

Eliza Jane Thompson was a leader in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She was born in 1816, the daughter of Rachel Woodrow Trimble and Allen Trimble, an Ohio governor and politician. She was educated in Cincinnati, and, in 1837, she married James Henry Thompson. The couple had eight children. Her eldest son, Allen Trimble Thomas, left a promising career in the ministry as a result of his drinking, which is believed to have hastened his early death. For twenty-five years, "Mother Thompson" was hailed as a beloved leader of the WCTU, although her position was largely ceremonial due to her advanced age. She died in 1905.

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union had its origin in a series of speeches in December 1873 on the destructive power of alcohol by Dr. Dio Lewis in Fredonia, New York, and Hillsboro and Washington Court House, Ohio. Typically quiet women in those towns began protesting outside of saloons by praying and singing hymns in hopes of convincing saloonkeepers of the evil of their ways. Eventually, the crusade spread to all parts of the state. In some areas, the women were successful in closing saloons, but they also faced mobs and arrest in others. In November 1874, the National WCTU was formed in Cleveland.