The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in November 1874, by Frances E. Willard and delegates from seventeen states. The Union's motto is “For God and Home and Every Land,” and its goals are “the protection of the home, the abolition of liquor traffic, and the triumph of the golden rule in custom and law.” Willard became the organization's first president, and under her direction, the WCTU grew to number 10,000 local chapters in addition to county, state, and national Unions. Many of the WCTU's goals appeared to have been accomplished with the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919; however, the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 reversed the victory. Other WCTU targets have included gambling and the use of tobacco, and the efforts of the organization have concentrated on temperance education in the communities and schools, through newspaper ads and publicity, speakers and programs, and school essay and poster contests. In addition, the WCTU presently concerns itself with the problems of drug addiction and narcotics, as well as with alcoholism.
The Wisconsin Woman's Temperance Alliance was organized in Milwaukee on October 20-21, 1874. The organization became an affiliate of the National WCTU at a convention in Madison in 1880, and its name was changed to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Wisconsin. Susan B. Steel of Appleton was the first president.
