Carry Amelia Nation

Born Carry Amelia Moore in Kentucky on November 25, 1846, she later became famous as Carry Nation, though her name is often also written as Carrie Nation. She spent part of her early life in Missouri and eventually settled in Kansas, where she became deeply involved in the temperance movement, which argued that alcohol was destroying families and communities.

Around 1900, she drew national attention for attacking saloons with rocks, bricks, and eventually a hatchet while praying or singing hymns. She was arrested many times, but the arrests only increased her fame. Supporters saw her as a fearless reformer; critics saw her as extreme. Either way, she became one of the best-known faces of the anti-liquor crusade in America.

Nation also lectured widely and wrote about her cause, using her celebrity to push for moral reform and stricter enforcement of liquor laws. She died in Leavenworth, Kansas, on June 9, 1911, years before national Prohibition began, but her image as the hatchet-wielding champion of temperance has remained part of American history ever since.