Woman of the Century/Mary Bynon Reese

REESE, Mrs. Mary Bynon, temperance worker, born in Pittsburgh, Pa., 27th June, 1832, of Welsh parents. While she was a child, the family removed to Wheeling, W. Va.. where Miss Bynon had the advantages of a good seminary. Graduating in 1847, she became identified with the public schools of the Old Dominion, and for a time was one of three teachers in the only free school in the State, the Third Ward public school of Wheeling. That school was soon followed by others, in two of which she was employed. While yet a school-girl, she gave promise of poetic talent and wrote frequently for local papers. She was for many years a contributor to "Clark's School Visitor." After she became the wife of John G. Reese, she removed to Steubenville, Ohio, where the greater part of her life has been spent. During the Civil War her time was devoted to alleviating the sufferings of Union soldiers. Her pen was busy, and her best thought was woven into song for the encouragement of the Boys in Blue. She was poet laureate in her city, and New Year addresses, anniversary odes and corner-stone poems were always making demands upon her mind and pen. lust before the breaking out of the Ohio crusade, she removed with her family to Alliance, Ohio. MARY BYNON REESE.. She led the women of her city in that movement. While lecturing in Pittsburgh and visiting saloons with the representative women of the place, she was arrested and, with thirty-three others, incarcerated in the city jail, an event which roused the indignation of the best people and made countless friends for temperance. After the organization of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union she was identified with the State work of Ohio, as lecturer, organizer and evangelist. She was the first national superintendent of the department of narcotics In 1886 she was made one of the national organizers and sent to the north Pacific coast, where her work has been very successful. The Puget Sound country fascinated her completely, and, after a stay of nine months in the northwest, she removed in 1887 to Washington, where she resides in Chautauqua, on Vashon island, a few miles from Seattle, which she makes her headquarters, as State and national organizer.