GOOD TEMPLARS IN OHIO.
During the year the temperance order of Good Templars was introduced into the state and its lodges established in several of its cities and villages, so that towards the close of the year a state grand-lodge was organized at Alliance. The first lodge was instituted at Conneat, and the second at Mount Vernon.
This latter lodge was called Star of Hope lodge, and soon numbered among its members many of the leading Temperance men and women of the city. Mrs. Bloomer, for reasons already given, took great interest in the spread of this order. For that purpose she visited different parts of the state, and also several towns in Indiana, in some of which she instituted lodges, special authority having been given her for that purpose. She also occupied a prominent position in her home lodge, and had the pleasure as presiding officer of assisting to initiate into its mysteries Hon. William Windom, afterwards Secretary of the Treasury, and Hon. William F. Sapp, both of whom were residents of Mount Vernon, together with other prominent citizens. It cannot be doubted that the institution of this lodge, together with Mrs. Bloomer’s labors in the cause, had a controlling influence in the temperance work in Mount Vernon during the year 1854.
On leaving Mount Vernon, in December, Mrs. Bloomer published the following card:
“Star of Hope lodge in this city continues to prosper. Its members now exceed 150 and are constantly increasing. Its weekly meetings, which are very fully attended, are deeply interesting and we hope are productive of great good to the cause. Our association with the members of this lodge has been pleasant and agreeable, and we shall part with them with real regret. Our wish and prayer is that Star of Hope lodge may long continue to hold its weekly meetings, and that its members may never falter in unwavering fidelity to their pledges. When far away we shall often refer to hours spent in their lodge-room during the last year as among the pleasantest passed in Mount Vernon.”
THE LILY SOLD.
But another change now came to Mrs. Bloomer. Her husband in July had sold out his interest in the Western Home Visitor to his partner, Mr. E. A. Higgins, and both his connection and that of Mrs. Bloomer with the Visitor then ceased, except that the former continued to aid Mr. Higgins for a few months in its editorial management. This, of course, made no change in the publication of the Lily. In September, Mr. Bloomer made an extensive tour in the West proceeding as far as western Iowa and Nebraska. After looking the ground carefully over, he determined to locate at Council Bluffs, on the Missouri River, in Iowa, and made purchases of property at that place. In relation to this change of residence and the disposition of the Lily, Mrs. Bloomer in reply to a statement that her paper had died of “fun poked at it” wrote in 1890 as follows:
“My husband after leaving the Visitor determined on locating in this far-away city (Council Bluffs), then three hundred miles beyond a railroad. There were no facilities for printing and mailing a paper with so large a circulation as mine, except a hand press and a stagecoach, and so it seemed best for me to part with the Lily. Finding a purchaser in Mrs. Mary A. Birdsall, of Richmond, Indiana, I disposed of the paper to her and it was removed to that city. Mrs. Birdsall published it for two or three years and then suffered it to go down, from what cause I never knew. But this much is true, it did not die of ‘fun poked at it.’ It had long outlived fun and ridicule and was highly respected and appreciated by its thousands of readers. It had done its work, it had scattered seed that had sprung up and borne fruit a thousandfold. Its work can never die. You say rightly that the Lily was the pioneer journal in the Northwest for woman’s enfranchisement. Other journals have taken its place, and the movement has gone steadily forward and nears its final triumph.”
The above was written about 1890.