Ghost Stories: Mrs. Foraker, Temperance leader

Ladies and gentlemen, as we continue our chat with Highland County native son Hugh Fullerton in the year of our Lord 1919, I ask the legendary journalist about another famous name in Hillsboro history.

“Mr. Fullerton, could you please tell us a little bit about Mrs. Margaret R. Foraker?” I inquire.

He smiles as he leans back in his chair and says, “Among the leaders developed during the early days of the crusade was Mrs. Henry Foraker, one of whose sons, Joseph B. Foraker, afterward was governor of and senator from Ohio. Mrs. Foraker was a serious, almost solemn-looking woman and as quiet and home-loving a woman as ever knitted away a long winter evening by the fireside. Prior to the crusade she had been a church member, but not a very active worker.”

“Can you give us an example of her leadership during the crusade?” I ask.

“One snowy morning, the women marched up the street and started for Jake Uhrig’s place,” Mr. Fullerton recounts. “Jake saw them coming, locked the doors and pulled down the blinds. The women halted in front of the place and hesitated. It seemed useless to pray before a closed saloon, but Mrs. Foraker, carrying a rug, marched up the steps, placed a rug on the top step and, kneeling upon it, placed her lips close to the door and prayed through
the keyhole.”

“That seems rather strange,” I interject.

“The spectacle was so ludicrous that, in spite of themselves, some of the crusaders laughed, and as they marched away, one asked: ‘Why did you do it? It looked so queer,’” Mr. Fullerton says. “‘Well,’ said Mrs. Foraker calmly, ‘when a man locks a door on a woman’s prayers, he is apt to have his ear at the keyhole to hear what she has to say about it.’”

“So, did he hear what she had to say about it?” I inquire.

“Evidently, Jake had his ear at the keyhole because before night he offered to go out of business if he would be insured against his loss,” Mr. Fullerton answered.

“That seems to be a reasonable request,” I interject. “So what happened?”

“The women agreed to buy his stock and fixtures,” he says. “The next night the whisky, gin and wine were piled in the wide public square and burned, while the crusaders ranged around the fire and sang. The glassware and moveable stuff was purchased, decorated and sent all over the world as souvenirs of the crusade. Jake’s silver-mounted cognac bottles are in Lady Henry Somerset’s home in England and Frances Willard used Jake’s bung-starter as a gavel at meetings of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.”

(OK, I’ve never heard of a bung-starter, so I had to look it up. Basically, it’s a small wooden mallet used for opening barrels of booze … and has been described as the barkeeper’s favorite weapon. But let’s get back to the interview…)

“I bet that was quite the spectacle, booze burning and singing around the fire in uptown Hillsboro,” I surmise.

“Yes, the surrender of Uhrig broke the resistance of the saloon men,” Mr. Fullerton states. “The crusaders, suspecting all was not well, had picketed the back doors of the Ward-Bales places, and the men gave up.”

All the liquor sellers in Hillsboro had surrendered except for one, Mr. William Henry Harrison Dunn.

As we return to the present, I thought I’d point out that Mrs. Margaret Reece Foraker was born this month close to two centuries ago, on March 1, 1820. She was the daughter of David Reece (1787-1841) and Sarah Weyer Reece (1787-1849).

Both her parents were born in York County, Pennsylvania, settled in Rainsboro in Highland County, and are buried in the Stringtown Quaker Cemetery in Highland County. In fact, the village of East Monroe in Highland County was laid out by David Reece, who has been described as a farmer, lawyer, politician, land speculator and a very good surveyor, on Nov. 20, 1815.

Margaret Reece Foraker passed away on July 28, 1899 at the age of 79 and is buried beside her husband, Henry Stacey Foraker (1815-1898) in the Hillsboro Cemetery.

Let’s pause for now, and we’ll continue next week.

Steve Roush is a vice president of an international media company and a columnist and contributing writer for The Highland County Press. He can be reached by email at roush_steve@msn.com.