Lucy Wood Butler

Not to be confused with Lucy Wood Butler (1841-1921), American author.

Lucy Wood Butler (also known as, Mrs. Allen Butler; February 18, 1820 – March 17, 1895) was a 19th-century American pioneer temperance leader.^[1][2][3] She was the first president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) of New York.^[4] Butler's financial means enabled her to give her time to charitable works.^[5]

Lucy Wood Butler
Born	(1895-03-17)March 17, 1895. Greenbush, Rensselaer County, New York
Died	March 17, 1895(1895-03-17) (aged 75)

Biography

Lucy Wood was born in Greenbush, Rensselaer County, New York, February 18, 1820.^[1]

She was educated in the public schools, and studied music at Albany, New York.^[1]

In 1841, Miss Wood married Allen Butler, and soon afterward removed, with her husband, to Syracuse, New York where she lived for more than 50 years, and was prominently identified with many charitable and benevolent institutions. She was a member of the Park Presbyterian Church in that city.^[1]

Butler was always devoted to temperance work; and after organizing a local union for this purpose, which led to the first State convention of temperance women, she was elected president of the newly formed W.C.T.U., a position which she retained for five years. She was present at Cleveland, Ohio, and assisted in forming the National W.C.T.U. After serving some years as president of the State W.C.T.U., Butler was compelled by ill-health to withdraw from active work, but always remained a member of the local union and assisted in its operations.^[1]

In addition to serving as State President of the Temperance Work in her State, and Chair of the Juvenile Work for the National W.C.T.U. (1877),^[6] she was president of the Presbyterian Woman's Society of Syracuse, of the Old Ladies' Home Association, and of the Foreign Missionary Society. She led a large infant class in Sunday-school for 20 years.^[5]

Lucy Wood Butler died March 17, 1895.^[1]

References

1. Cherrington, Ernest Hurst (1925). Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem. Vol. 2. American Issue Publishing Company. p. 469. Retrieved 15 December 2022 – via Internet Archive. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
2. Willard, Frances E. (1883). Woman and Temperance. p. 634. Retrieved 15 December 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
3. Graham, Frances W.; Gardenier, Georgeanna M. Remington (1894). Two Decades: A History of the First Twenty Years' Work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the State of New York. Press of R.J. Oliphant. pp. 27–28. Retrieved 15 December 2022 – via Internet Archive. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
4. Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1895). Report of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union ... Annual Meeting. Woman's Temperance Publishing Ass'n. p. 30. Retrieved 16 December 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
5. Daniels, William Haven (1878). The Temperance Reform and Its Great Reformers: An Illustrated History ... with Over Twenty Portraits of the Chief Reformers, and Characteristic Selections from Their Best Writings and Addresses. Nelson & Phillips. p. 364. Retrieved 15 December 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
6. Stevenson, Katharine Lent (1907). A Brief History of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Evanston, Illinois: The Union Signal. p. 29. Retrieved 15 December 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.