Martha McClellan Brown: Prohibition Leader

Martha McClellan Brown was a highly effective leader in advancing the temperance movement.

Martha McClellan was born in 1838 in Baltimore. She was orphaned by age eight. Martha and her sister were raised by a neighbor. At age 18 she married the Rev. W. Kennedy Brown. Shortly after, she began college and graduated from Pittsburg Female College in 1862.

Independent Order of Good Templars

In 1861 she joined the Independent Order of Good Templars. This was a fraternal group modeled after the Masonic Order. It was dedicated to total abstinence from alcohol.

Brown advanced quickly in the Order and became prominent. Among other activities, she edited the Templar Visitor. That was a magazine published by the Order. She and her husband also published their own temperance newspaper, Alliance Monitor.

Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

In 1874, Martha Brown led the founding of a state-wide women’s temperance society in Ohio. The same year, she and two other women formed a nation-wide women’s temperance group. It was the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

Prohibition Party

Martha Brown also served the Prohibition Party in important positions. In so doing, she advanced the temperance movement.

Martha McClellan Brown held a Ph.D. and L.L.D. degrees. (The latter is always an honorary degree.) She served as professor and vice-president at the Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati from 1882 to 1892.

Brown’s husband was president of the college during that time. It was one of the oldest women’s colleges in the US. But like many other colleges, it was not financially strong. In the last year of Rev. Brown’s presidency it closed. The court sold the real estate for taxes. The remaining assets became part of Ohio Wesleyan University.

Martha McClellan Brown completed three lecture tours in Great Britain promoting temperance. That was in 1881, 1891, and 1911. She died in 1916. Therefore, she never lived to see National Prohibition (1920-1933).