Mary Jewett Telford (1839-?):
Mary Jewett Telford, of Grand Junction, Colorado, was a leader of the state Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and a suffrage activist. As a delegate, she attended the national convention of the Prohibition Party, and in 1894 was nominated for the state assembly by members of the Prohibition Party from Mesa County. At the state party convention, however, she was selected to run as the party’s candidate for lieutenant governor.
Party Affiliation:
Prohibition
Photograph:
“Mary Jewett Telford,” in Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, A Woman of the Century (Buffalo: C. W. Moulton, 1893; reprinted, New York: Gordon Press, 1975), volume 2, page 707.
Resources:
“On the Eve of Election,”Woman’s Journal (November 10, 1894), pp. 353-54.
“Mary Jewett Telford,” in A Woman of the Century (1893; reprinted, New York: Gordon Press, 1975).
Mary Jewett Telford, “Tom” in St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks (1880), [Google Books]
Mary Jewett Telford, “Militarism versus Patriotism,” Union Signal 22 (December 24, 1896), p. 3.
Mary Jewett Telford, “Christian citizenship plans and further plans,” National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
Additional notes:
Telford was married July 8, 1864 to Civil War veteran Jacob Telford. She served as matron of a general army hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to her work for the WCTU, the Woman’s Relief Corps (auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans organization), and the Woman’s Board of Missions, Telford spent time as a teacher. She was also one of a group of Colorado women who believed that temperance and suffrage should go hand in hand. According to historian Suzanne M. Marilley, from the first issue Telford made her temperance publication, Challenge, also a pro- woman suffrage newspaper. (Woman Suffrage and the Origins of Liberal Feminism in the United States, page 153).