Ida B. Wise

Ida B. Wise (July 3, 1871 – February 16, 1952)[2] was an American temperance activist, best known as the primary author of the Sheppard Bill in 1916 that imposed prohibition on Washington, D.C. She was a member of the Disciples of Christ, and was ordained as a minister, but she never served as a pastor to a congregation. She served as president of the Iowa Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) before being elected president of the national WCTU.

Ida B. Wise
BornJuly 3, 1871
Philadelphia
DiedFebruary 16, 1952
Clarinda, Iowa[1]
OccupationTemperance activist

Early years and education

Ida Belle Wise was born in Philadelphia and raised in Hamburg, Iowa.[3] She graduated from the University of Nebraska.[3]

Career

After completing her education, she taught for fourteen years.[3] Wise joined the WCTU in 1891.[2] By 1900, she was a district president in the Iowa WTCU.[2] In 1913, she became president of the Iowa WCTU.[2] She served as president of the Iowa WCTU for 20 years In 1930 before becoming president of the national WCTU.[4]

President Herbert Hoover appointed her to the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection.[4] In 1940, Wise was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt to the White House Conference on Children in a Democracy.[4]

Wise married twice. In 1889, she married James A. Wise.[3] The couple had one son who lived to adulthood. After the death of her first husband in 1892, Wise married Malcolm Smith in 1912.[3] She is known as both Ida B. Wise and Ida B. Wise Smith.

A member of the Disciples of Christ, Wise taught Sunday school from the age of 12.[2] In 1923, she was ordained as a minister, but she never served as a pastor to a congregation.[2]

Although Wise's primary cause was temperance, she also supported women's suffrage and child welfare work.[3] Beginning in 1933, she served as editor-in-chief of National WCTU's The Union Signal.[5] She was a semi-vegetarian.[1]

Wise was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1977.[4]

References
  1. Mrs. Ida Wise Smith, Former President of WCTU, Dies at 81. Evening Star (February 17, 1952).
  2. Hudson, David; Bergman, Marvin; Horton, Loren (2009-05-01). The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa. University of Iowa Press. ISBN 9781587297243.
  3. Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada. American Commonwealth Company. 1914-01-01. p. 759. ISBN 9780810340183.
  4. "Ida B. Wise Smith | Iowa Department of Human Rights". humanrights.iowa.gov. Retrieved 2017-04-08.
  5. Jimerson, Randall C.; Blouin, Francis X.; Isetts, Charles A. (1977). Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Temperance and Prohibition Papers. University of Michigan. pp. 368–69. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
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