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“Hatchet Mary” is entirely a fictional character designed to display the active role women on the frontier played in shaping social and political conditions in the West. Hatchet Mary Vanderupp’s white ribbon is worn as a sign of her membership in the WCTU. Founded in 1874, the WCTU (Woman’s Christian Temperance Union) was once the nation’s largest organization of women. Although the WCTU energetically promoted the cause of Prohibition, it was never a single-issue organization and continues today to promote causes of interest and benefit to women. The Anti-Saloon League was formed in Ohio in 1893 and after a shaky beginning, under the skillful and stable leadership of Mr. Purley Baker, it became the most vocal and effective of the organizations supporting Prohibition. The American Patriot and The American Issue were the two most familiar and influential of its national publications. By 1917, Montana was a dry state, thanks primarily to the efforts of women like Mary."
I do like your image of St. Michael and the Sword and a fierce avenging Temperance Angel with a Hatchet though! The thought of such pious churchgoing gals singing hymns and hacking away with deadly earnest is quite the visual. They were sick and tired of their men reducing them to pitiful circumstances and the hatchet got some notice in the bars!
