LIBRARY

Open: Monday, Wednesday & Friday from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M.

[Researchers may utilize this facility by appointment. Books will not be checked out.]

RESEARCH QUERIES

(Names withheld)

June, 2005 - "First I wanted to thank you for all your help last Monday. I'm thrilled to have found those yearbooks! Also, I wanted to ask if I could visit your library again next Monday (and perhaps do some photocopying.)? If this is a bad time--no problem. Just let me know what is convenient for you. best regards." [A UCI graduate student.]

January, 2006 - "I have recently come across a profound question amongst my ponderings. Please help me by filling my mind with your wisdom and experience. Please help me aquire a better understanding for the term, "WCTU". What is this? and please describe the subject matter thoroughly, and its relation towards prohibtion in the 1920's. I am so happy I found your organization, you have all truely enriched my life and inspired my to become a better individual. Thank you with all of my heart." [private research]

April, 2006 - "I am a graduate student in the History, PhD program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I am currently investigating possible historical dissertation topics and am very interested in pursuing studies about the WCTU As my past research is based in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era California (roughly 1875 to 1920), I am restricting my search to the California WCTU's activities. I previously researched the campaign by the League of Women Voters (known in the 1910s as the California Civic League) to close San Francisco's vice district by passing the "Red-light Abatement Act" of 1913 and 1914. The California's WCTU president initiated the legislation. For that reason, I am hoping to find a primary source material (correspondance, primarily) between the WCTU and the the California Civic League in San Francisco. Or, I am hoping to just find an interesting campaign of the WCTU's to focus my dissertation on. I would be interested in finding out how the archival material is organized, if there is any material on the WCTU's participation in closing the vice-district in San Francisco, or what information is available on the WCTU from the oldest material to about 1920. Thank you tremendously for your assistance. It is much appreciated."

November, 2006 - "I am working on a research paper and was wondering if you would be able to give me the names of the ladies who belonged to the WCTU in Santa Monica, CA around 1885 / 1890. Thank you for your help!" [private research]

March, 2008 - "I am a PhD Candidate with the University of Oklahoma History Department. I am currently conducting research for my dissertation about woman's suffrage in the American West and would like to be able to examine the link between the suffrage and temperance movements of the late 19th and early 20th century. Would you be able to tell me what kind of sources you have available or point me in the right direction as to where I can find more information? Thank you in advance for your help."

July, 2008 - "In my work, Santa Cruz Spirituality, I have included a brief history of the WCTU in Santa Cruz County. Last year I was in Evanston, Illinois and was permitted to search the archives there, but my time was limited. Among other documents, the early issues of the Union Signal had pertinent articles, and I copied as much as I could from them. Los Angeles is much closer to Santa Cruz than Evanston. Therefore I wonder if you have a complete set of the Union Signal which I might consult." [private research]

August, 2008 - "I’m a graduate student at the University of Washington and I’m working on a dissertation involving, at least in part, the interrelationship between temperance advocates and California Indians in the later half of the 19th century. On a broader scope, I am looking at how white reformers “discovered” the plight of California Indians and how their work among native communities helped or hinder the revitalization of Indian identity.

My interest in temperance workers and Indians in California was raised when I ran across information about the WCTU of California’s establishment of Department of Indian Work as well as the activities of Dorcas J. Spencer [Northern Calif. WCTU], one of the state union’s vice presidents (before the split). I’m hoping that, as you seem to hold the only existing WCTU archive in California, that you may have some records of the WCTU’s Indian activities or copies of local WCTU publications (like the Pacific Ensign) that may talk about the union’s work in that area. Or, perhaps you could direct me to another resource?"

August, 2008 - "I have a research enquiry that I would appreciate advice on - I am tracing the history of a particular family who emigrated from England in 1890 and lived at what was then Prospect Park outside the city limits of the time and now a part of East Hollywood . The family were very involved in temperance and abstinence campaigning groups in England and it has seemed to me possible that they continued to be committed to the cause in the States too.

I am wondering if there are surviving records/ accounts of WCTO events in the Prospect Park/ Eagle Rock/ Glendale areas - it is evident that from the Los Angeles Times women from there were involved in WCTU ad that there was some crossover of membership between WCTU, and organisations like the Kings Daughters, etc.

One final thought I have about my research at the moment is that I know a keen and active member of WCTU in the era I am interested in - the 1890s - was Mrs Emma Cash, wife of the Revd Elijah Cash who was a Congregationalist minister and founded a number of churches at that time.
Elijah Cash died soon after the turn of the century and his widow married again and went off east. But when she was widowed in turn again, she returned to Los Angeles and celebrated her 100th birthday and lived to be about 106 - there was certainly a celebration from WCTU when it was her 100th.

Have you in the library any membership records and other archival data from the 1890s? . . . . I am a Methodist minister in England and used to researching and would welcome the chance to talk with someone who might have an overview of the work at that time in the Los Angeles area?" [private research]

January 16, 2009 - The UCI graduate student requested more library time to further her research project to completion.

March 28, 2009 - "Early research indicates the [Redondo Beach Public Library] library started as a sailors' reading room, founded and operated by the WCTU in 1893, and was subsequently turned over to the city to become the first public library there in 1895. I would be very interested in any sources, particularly records of meetings, copies of annoucements, or any other material pertaining to the involvement of the WCTU or its individual members in that effort. . . . I have a PhD in history, and am currently working on a paper about the history of the Redondo Beach Public Library for a
class on the history of libraries through the San Jose State University Masters of Library and Information Science program."

March 28, 2009 "I am wondering if you have any information on an early member of the WCTU, Eliza Ann Heisler, died March 16, 1915 in Long Beach Ca. In a brief notice in the Long Beach Press it mentions that the members of the WCTU would meet at Patterson and McQuilkin Funeral parlor on March 18, 1915 to attend Mrs. Eliza Heisler's service. She had roots in PA, Ill, and IA. Eliza Ann is the sister to my Great Grand Mother and I would like to know more about her and/or where she might be buried."

April 17, 2009 - A UCLA history professor inquired about using our library for research on a book she is writing concerning the "early 20th Century WCTU involvement with jails". She returned with a research assistant. The research assistant arrived daily for several weeks.

August 20, 2009 - "I am a graduate student studying International History through Columbia University and London School of Economics. I am working on a history of women's shelters/family violence programs and in my preliminary research I found that in 1887 the San Diego Union (which I believe is part of the WCTU) had a women's refuge in 1887. Is there a collection that pertains to the San Diego Union in this library? Or any other relevant collection?"

August 21, 2009 - "Dear Madam, I live in Wales in the U.K., and just received copies of the obituaries on my family, my great-grandmother Maria Cameron died in 1954 and is buried in the Pine Mountain Cemetery at Atascadero [San Luis Obispo County, CA], along with her husband James Cameron, son Robert J. Cameron,daughter Ellen Shlueter. It says on her obituary she was a member of the WCTU. Have you got any information on any of them as I am trying to trace if I have any living relatives in California, my mother is the only surviving grandaughter of Maria in Wales at 81years old. Yours Sincerely."

November 5, 2009 - "As a point of curiosity, I would like to know if you are now the repository for all the old WCTU records from former Unions in California? In early 2000 I fell heir to my mother's collection of WCTU material after she had been the president of her local Union for more than 20 years. Since the headquarters were no longer in Sacramento, I mailed the material to Fresno. Our town of Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, has one of the beautiful WCTU fountains on Main Street in our city Plaza. It works perfectly. Most people who knew of or belonged to the Tri-County WCTU in the 1940-1970 time range are long gone now and the Unions are only a vague memory.
Thank you for any information you can give."
Alice Sams Montgomery maunit@cruzio.com

March 1, 2010 - "I'm trying to find out information about my Aunt Cora (Moss) Hale. I was told she was one of the President's of the WCTU of Orange County but I have no further information."

Mrs. Coral Hale (1872-1941) was the President of Orange County WCTU four times: 1932, 1933, 1939 & 1940. She was a vice-president many times over the years, as well as other positions. She lived in Fullerton, Calif.

For appointments or additional information contact the: WCTU of So. California: Telephone - 213 383-5702 Email - wctusocal@sbcglobal.net.