Ida B. Wise (July 3, 1871 – February 16, 1952) was an American temperance activist, best known as the primary author of the Sheppard Bill in 1916 that imposed

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

She was a member of the

Disciples of Christ The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th ...

, and was ordained as a minister, but she never served as a pastor to a congregation. She served as president of the

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

Woman's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far ...

(WCTU) before being elected president of the national WCTU.

Early years and education

Ida Belle Wise was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and raised in

Hamburg, Iowa Hamburg is a city in Fremont County, Iowa, Fremont County, Iowa, United States, that is the most southwestern city in Iowa, hugging the borders of Missouri to the south and Nebraska to the west. It is situated between the Nishnabotna River, Nish ...

. She graduated from the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

Career

After completing her education, she taught for fourteen years. Wise joined the WCTU in 1891. By 1900, she was a district president in the Iowa WCTU. In 1913, she became president of the Iowa WCTU. She served as president of the Iowa WCTU for 20 years In 1930 before becoming president of the national WCTU. President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

appointed her to the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection. In 1940, Wise was appointed by President

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

to the White House Conference on Children in a Democracy. Wise married twice. In 1889, she married James A. Wise. The couple had one son who lived to adulthood. After the death of her first husband in 1892, Wise married Malcolm Smith in 1912. She is known as both Ida B. Wise and Ida B. Wise Smith. A member of the

, Wise taught Sunday school from the age of 12. In 1923, she was ordained as a minister, but she never served as a pastor to a congregation. Although Wise's primary cause was temperance, she also supported women's suffrage and child welfare work. Beginning in 1933, she served as editor-in-chief of National WCTU's ''

The Union Signal ''The Union Signal'' (formerly, ''The Woman's Temperance Union'' and ''Our Union'') is a defunct American newspaper. It was the organ of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (National WCTU), at one time, the largest women's organizati ...

''. She was a semi-vegetarian. Wise was inducted into the

Iowa Women's Hall of Fame The Iowa Women's Hall of Fame was created to acknowledge the accomplishments of female role models associated with the U.S. state of Iowa, and is an endeavor of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women (ICSW). History In 1972, the state of ...

in 1977.

References

External links

Ida B. Wise Smith

Ida B. Wise
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wise, Ida B. 1871 births 1952 deaths American temperance activists People from Fremont County, Iowa University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Presidents of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union 20th-century American newspaper editors American women newspaper editors