Woman of the Century/Olive Moorman Leader

2279947Woman of the Century — Olive Moorman Leader

LEADER, Mrs. Olive Moorman, temperance reformer, born in Columbus, Ohio, 2Sth July, 1852. OLIVE MOORMAN LEADER. In her early childhood her parents moved to Iowa, but she returned to her native State to finish her education. As a child her ambition was to become an educator, and all her energies were directed to that end. For thirteen years she was a successful teacher. She became the wife, in 1880, of J. B. Leader, and removed to Seward, Neb. She was identified with school work in Seward, Lincoln and Plattsmouth successively, and, removing to Omaha, she began, in connection with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, active work in the temperance cause. She introduced the systematic visiting of the Douglas county jails. She was one of the first workers among the Chinese, being first State superintendent of that department In 1887, removing to Dakota Territory, she labored indefatigably for its admission as a prohibition State. During her three years' residence in Dakota she was State superintendent of miners' and foreign work in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. In 1889 she returned to Nebraska and settled in Chadron, her present home. She has been for two years superintendent of soldiers' work in Nebraska, and has been for twelve years identified with the suffrage cause. She is an adherent of Christian Science and a strong believer in its efficacy, having, as she firmly believes, been personally benefited thereby.