The temperance movement and Dayton's 'whiskey candidate'
An 1878 Puck cartoon pokes fun at prohibition politics in Ohio. Source: Library of Congress © Copyright 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney Annie Wittenmeyer had high hopes for Dayton in the first week of April, 1874. After a month of activism, temperance crusaders here had a chance of seeing a pro-temperance candidate become the Gem City’s next mayor. What she didn't want to see was the ascent of a type of person she loathed—a former beer brewer and a saloonist—and one of German heritage, no less. The “whiskey candidate,” she called him. I touch on Dayton's mayoral election of 1874 in my upcoming book Dayton Beer . But here are a few details and graphics I just couldn't squeeze into my history of brewing in the Miami Valley. Annie Wittenmeyer. Source: History of the Woman’s Temperance Crusade . Wittenmeyer was a native Ohioan who became a national leader of the temperance movement. Born Sarah Ann (“Annie”) Turner (1827-1900) on the Ohi...