The local chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was organized in Galesburg in 1874. The women arranged massed meetings, gospel meetings and lectures to attract young and old to their cause. Miss Mary Allen West enrolled 500 children in the Band of Hope. An oath to abstain from all forms of alcohol for life was administered. The children were barely old enough to understand the words of the pledge.

By 1878 a tidal wave of interest in temperance swept Knox County. People wore ribbons on their lapels to indicate they had taken the oath of temperance. The WTCU opened a coffee room on Prairie Street (where a good many of the drinking establishments were located) to serve those who had given up the life of intemperance. Townships in the county organized clubs to support the cause. The leaders conducted lyceums and musical programs to attract young people to the meetings in the hope they would pledge to give up drinking alcoholic beverages. District school houses in each township were the centers of these activities.

Carl Sandburg was born in 1878, and a few years later, as a lad, took the oath at the City Mission. The oath didn’t stop him from tasting the contents of the barrels and bottles stored in the cellar of Dr. Harvey Craig’s drugstore on Main Street. Part of Carl’s job was to refill containers for the pharmacist to use in dispensing prescriptions. He liked the 20-year-old rum, but whiskey wasn’t to his taste.

Later in life Sandburg developed an appreciation for fine Scotch whiskey. When he visited friends around the country during his travels, they would be sure to have a bottle or two on hand to accompany the conversation they were bound to have with the poet. On occasion, Sandburg would have a bottle in his shopping bag luggage to share with his hosts. Temperance could not hold him in its thrall.