Marguerite Scaife Zeigler (1872-1909), Women's Prohibition Activist

Seventeen years before women were granted the right to vote they organized and found a way to enter politics and have their voices heard about laws that directly affected their happiness and way of life. 

1903 Women’s Prohibition Petition

The ladies of Longview Appeal to the voters…

We the undersigned ladies of Longview, desire to speak a word to the voters of Gregg County before the pending question is settled at the polls.  Of course we are aware that the men must do the voting to make the laws, but we believe we have a right to be heard on the question, because the women must live under the laws that are made by the men.  It is an admitted fact that the women and children are the chief sufferers from the saloon business, and this being true it seems only fair that their interests should be consulted in this election.  We live day by day in sight and within sound of the Longview saloons, and we see the evils that they do.  We see young men continually tempted to drink and older men going to ruin.  We have seen troubles and heartaches heaped upon our sisters because men wanted to make money selling whiskey.  Happy homes in Longview and Gregg County have been blighted and broken up because of the whiskey traffic, and it seems to grow worse and worse.  You  may say it is not a woman’s business, but they never ask if it is going to bring trouble upon the women when they go to sell it.  We have to hear the oaths and blasphemies of drunken men when we go upon the streets of our town.  The law of the land considers the business so bad that a woman cannot visit one of these places.  There is not a saloon man who will suffer his wife or his daughter to enter his own place of business.  If it is this bad we believe it wrong to license it by law.  We know that the saloons are the deadly enemies of our homes and our loved ones.  We ask the voters of Gregg County to consider us when they come to vote, and we believe they will.  We know that there are men who always curse when a woman says anything about the whiskey traffic, and from such as these we ask no favors and expect none, but we appeal to high minded and honorable men to think of us and the homes we represent when they go to cast their votes.  Believing you will do this and praying God’s blessing on you all, we leave the matter for you to decide.

Some of the signers of this petition are as follows: 

Mrs. Jno. Zeigler  [Marguerite V.  Scaife Zeigler, Great-Grandmother of Mike Hilliard]

Marguerite Vivian (Scaife) Zeigler

Miss Zeigler  [Romania “Minnie” Zeigler, Great-Great-Aunt of Mike Hilliard]

Romania "Minnie" Zeigler

Mrs. Killingsworth  [Noviline Poag Killingsworth, wife of Albert A. Killingsworth. Albert is the 2nd cousin 3 times removed of Mike Hilliard]

Miss Fannie Echols  [step-daughter of Maria Alabama Zeigler Echols Alabama is the Great-Great-Aunt of Mike Hilliard]

There were 347 Longview women who signed this petition and all of the names are listed in the article which can be found on the Gregg County TXGenWeb Project website.

The temperance movement was a social movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages.  Its intent was to promote complete abstinence (teetotalism) and emphasize alcohol’s negative effects on people’s health, personalities, and family lives.  The movement wanted the passage of new laws that either regulated the availability of alcohol or the complete prohibition of it. 

The name “teetotaler” came from the capital “T”s that were written next to the names of people who pledged complete abstinence.

Surprisingly, in 1845 there was a law in Texas that banned saloons altogether! Not surprisingly, the law was never enforced and was repealed in 1856.

Just so you know - this is not a personal opinion nor am I advocating any movement.  I found the article on the petition while researching the Zeigler family in Longview, Texas and was surprised to find that some of Mike's ancestors had taken part in a historically political movement.  I enjoy sharing some fun and interesting little bits of trivia about our ancestors that show some of their character and not just dates and places.  Hope to share more again soon!

Sources:

Gregg County TXGenWeb  http://txgenwebcounties.org/gregg/Government/1903WomenPetition.html

K. Austin Kerr, “Prohibition,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 30, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/prohibition.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Wikipedia contributors, "Women in the United States Prohibition movement," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Women_in_the_United_States_Prohibition_movement&oldid=963379838 (accessed August 30, 2020).

Is My Husband Also My Cousin?

This will be a short story but I thought it was too funny not to tell.

My grandfather had a most unusual first name for a boy, especially since he was the only boy with ten sisters.  His name was Bloomer Edward Martin and for reasons I think anyone can understand he was called "Jack".  He was the third child so maybe it helped a little that he wasn't also the baby.  I was researching to find how he got such an unusual name when I found that he had a second cousin by the name of Holland Bloomer Tunnell.  They were both born in 1902 in Van Zandt County, Texas but my grandfather was the oldest by six months, so it appears that Holland Bloomer may have been named after Bloomer Edward.  Why would anyone give this name to their son unless it was a family surname?  I still don't know how he got his name because I have been unable to find the name anywhere else in the family.

Bloomer Edward and Holland Bloomer both married in 1922, just four months apart.  Holland Bloomer Tunnell married Rubye Higby in 1922 in Smith County, Texas.  Rubye's parents were Charles H. Higby and Mary "Mollie" Killingsworth.  Mollie Killingsworth was born in Gregg County, Texas and her grandfather was John Sweet Killingsworth, born in Bibb County, Alabama.  He was married to Emmeline Abney, also from Bibb County, Alabama.   I immediately recognized the Killingsworth and Abney surnames because I had researched them for my husband's ancestry!  Needless to say, I couldn't wait to make the connection between these two East Texas families.

Emmeline Abney was the sister of my husband's 3rd great grandmother.  The Abney and Killingsworth families migrated together, with a couple of other families, by wagon to East Texas around 1850.  As it turns out Holland Bloomer Tunnell, my 2nd cousin, 2 times removed married my husband's 3rd cousin, 2 times removed.  So....nothing to worry about as this makes us pretty far removed from each other.

I thought of the article "I Think I am My Own Cousin", by Lorine McGinnis Schulze on The Olive Tree Genealogy blog when I made this discovery.  It's surprising how many times one finds in their research that two brothers from a family would marry two sisters in another and other unusual situations where a woman might marry her husband's brother after becoming widowed.  It was a much smaller world way back when, and East Texas still is a small world.  My mother once told me that there was a boy she wanted to date when she was in high school but my grandfather wouldn't allow it.  Mama couldn't understand why her father wouldn't let her and argued that he was a very nice gentleman and from a good family.  After a while and a bit of frustration, Granddaddy finally ended it by saying, "Because I'm afraid we might be related!".