Det Nationale Afholdsforbund was organized in the late 1880s or early 1890s to promote temperance among Norwegians in the upper Midwest, particularly Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and the Dakotas where it had state and local chapters. The Wisconsin chapter was centered in either Barron or Eau Claire where it operated the Fremad Publishing Company and produced the Norwegian temperance weekly Reform. Other local chapters were spread throughout the state. Annual meetings were held in June of each year in various Midwestern cities and the union participated in an annual or biennial Total Abstinence Congress unusually held in Minneapolis.
