Mary A. Hitchcock Wakelin

Mary Antoinette Barnes was born in the town of Rodman, Jefferson county, New York, April 28, 1834.[1][3] She was the only daughter of Lorenzo Dow and Urrilla Barnes. When she was eleven years old, her parents moved to Greenleaf, Wisconsin, then a new region with poor educational facilities in that part of the State where they settled.[1]

Much of her instruction was received at home, under the care of a governess,[1] though she was also educated in the public schools of Greenleaf.[4]

In religion, she was Baptist.[5]

At sixteen years of age, she began to teach.[1]

In 1852, she married Alfred Hitchcock. They had one son and one daughter.[1]

For some time after continued to teach. In 1857, her husband was ordained to the ministry and became not only an earnest teacher of the gospel, but a fearless advocate of temperance reform. When the Civil War occurred, they were living in Kansas, having moved to that State in 1859.[1]

Being imbued by nature and training with the most ultra Union and anti-slavery sentiments, she was enthusiastic for the cause and the soldier, ready to lend her aid in every possible way. At that time, many of the leaders passed through their town to Osawatomie, Kansas to form the Republican Party, and she housed and fed fifty of them in one night, among them Horace Greeley, and spent the hours of the night in preparing their food for the next day.[1]

As first assistant and county superintendent of schools, she and her husband divided Phillips County, Kansas, into school districts and started a number of schools. Afterwards removing to Fremont, Nebraska, where her husband accepted a pastorate, she became an enthusiastic member of the W.C.T.U., and, impressed with the idea that a State organization was necessary for its lasting influence, she was in 1874 the projector of the movement that resulted in the State organization.[1]

She subsequently removed to California, where Rev. Hitchcock died in 1878. Returning to Nebraska, she filled several positions in the W.C.T.U., becoming State president in 1888, and holding that office for six years. Since accepting the Nebraska State presidency in 1888, she traveled continually over the State, organizing unions, attending conventions, and delivering many talks.[1] She assisted in the great Prohibition campaign in Kansas.[4] I

She was called to Sioux City, Iowa, on account of the death of her cousin, George G. Haddock, the circumstances of whose untimely murder at the hands of a drunken man caused general indignation and horror. Over his dead body, she promised the sorrow stricken widow to devote the remainder of her life to the eradication of alcohol, and she fulfilled her promise.[2][1]

In 1894, she married Wilson Wakelin.[4]

At the time of her death, she held the position of State superintendent of Mothers’ Meetings.[4]

Mary A. Hitchcock Wakelin was murdered by her husband while she was sleeping at their home in Fremont, Nebraska, February 25, 1900. Shortly after, he committed suicide about a mile away at the cemetery where his first wife was buried. Mary had been ill for some time and was in a weakened condition physically. It had been common talk for some years that Wilson and Mary did not get along together;[4][6] the couple had quarreled over the division of property, Wilson being very rich.[7]

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