Matilda Carse

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Matilda Bradley Carse was born on November 19th, 1835 near Belfast, Ireland, part of a Scotch-Irish merchant family. Educated in Ireland, Carse immigrated to Chicago in 1858. Later, she married a successful railroad manager and fellow Irish immigrant, Thomas Carse. His death in 1870 left her a wealthy widow with an independent income, which she used to benefit local charities and welfare work. Her mission in life was determined soon afterward, when the youngest of her three sons was killed by a drunken drayman. After this incident, Carse became a determined and outspoken leader of the temperance movement in Chicago and nationwide. She joined the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1874, becoming the president of the Central Chicago WCTU 1878.

Her first major business venture was the Women’s Temperance Publishing Association (WTPA) in 1880. It was an independent stock company composed entirely of women—an organization that represented Carse’s commitment to temperance, business and the woman’s movement. The WTPA published WTCU books and pamphlets to support temperance movement reform movements. Carse’s business acumen made the WTPA a success. At its height in 1890, it employed over one hundred employees, mostly women, and published the largest women’s paper in the world, the Union Signal. Carse wrote articles for the Union Signal, a WCTU weekly organ, detailing the mission and work behind her greatest project, the Temperance Temple.

Carse’s legacy was the office building she planned and funded in the center of Chicago’s financial district to benefit the WCTU. Known as the Temperance Temple, it was designed as a meeting place for the CCWCTU, after their agreement with the local YMCA was cancelled. Carse’s vision for the building went far beyond a union meeting-place, however: as plans developed, the Temple became a headquarters for the WCTU as well as an office building, whose rents would provide income for the WCTU’s operations. In this way, the building would not only be a symbol for the temperance movement, but also a fundraiser for the WCTU that would increase its “power and autonomy”. However, it was, from the onset, Carse’s personal project: it was not financed or managed by the WCTU, but by Carse herself. She incorporated and acted as the (self-appointed) trustee for the Women’s Temperance of Building Association (WTBA), which oversaw donations and sold stocks to finance the Temple. She sold $600,000 in stock to Chicago businessmen and capitalists, and $300,000 in bonds to her fellow WCTU members. Using these funds, and under the direction of Carse, the Temple was completed in 1893.

A large part of the controversy surrounding the Temperance Temple was created by Carse’s own personality and her position as a woman in a male-dominated sphere. In order to succeed in the business world, Carse had to be outspoken, stubborn and aggressive, traits that were considered masculine and hard to reconcile with the traditional image a Christian woman. By participating in a masculine activity like business, Carse left herself vulnerable to attack from both outside the WCTU as well as from within its ranks. Carse’s insistence on bringing the WCTU into the commercial/business sphere led some in the organization to worry that worldly considerations such as money and leases were undermining their mission. Ironically, Carse’s competence in securing the land and overseeing the construction of the building cast doubt on her ability to lead the project, as WCTU members increasingly viewed her activities as speculative and incompatible with a Christian women’s organization. Doubts about the project and about Carse herself as the woman in charge made funding difficult, and, despite initial success, the building soon became a losing investment for the WCTU and Carse.

The troubled project came to an end largely due to an adverse business climate following the panic of 1893. Though much of the controversy about the Temple had centered on Carse as a woman, her fate was not unique among businessmen who took on similar ventures at that particular time. The problem was not Carse’s management skills, rather it was a depression that ruined many of her lessees, and a building cycle that created a surplus of office spaces in the city. Unable to pay off the mortgage, the WTCU officially disaffiliated itself from the building, which became the property of the Field-Columbian Museum. It was demolished completely in 1926. The failed venture had put enormous strain on the WCTU, not only because of the financial loss but because of disputes over the mission of the union. Carse resigned from her presidency of the WTPA, attempting to restore unity to the WCTU through mediation and compromise.

After the failure of her Temperance Temple, Carse continued to be committed to charity work. She served as president of the CCWCTU until 1913 and was the first woman on the Chicago Board of Education. She retired to New York in 1913], dying four years later at the age of 82. She is remembered as a founding member and important leader of both the temperance and women’s rights movements.

[edit] References

  • Lender, Mark Edward, ed. (1984), “Matilda Carse”, Dictionary of American Temperance Biography: From Temperance Reform to Alcohol Research, the 1600s to the 1980s, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, pp. 82-83 
  • James, Edward T., ed. (1971), “Carse, Matilda Bradley”, Notable American Women, 1607-1950; a bibliographical dictionary., vol. 1, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press