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Register of the Lockeford (Calif.) Charitable & Temperance Papers, 1860-1895
Mss112
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Title: Lockeford (Calif.) Charitable & Temperance Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1860-1895
Collection number: Mss112
Creator:
Extent: 1 linear ft.
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
Stockton, CA 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Lockeford (Calif.) Charitable & Temperance Papers, Mss112,
Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
The first temperance society in the Lockeford area, The Dashaways, was established there
at the instigation of Dr. Dean Jewett Locke in the late 1850s. This society had been
founded by Frank Whitney, a San Francisco fire chief, and An Illustrated History of San
Joaquin County (1890) asserts that Dr. Locke had been a San Francisco member since 1850.
The impetus for founding a local chapter may have derived from a rash of alcohol-related
killings that had taken place in the Lockeford area in 1855. The Dashaways are
represented in this collection by one songbook. Their order was supplanted in January
1860 by the creation of the Live Oak Division no. 29 of the Sons of Temperance.
Most of the material in this collection relates to the activities of the Live Oak
Division of the Sons of Temperance. It consists of minutes and account books of the
order, correspondence, and published materials such as by-laws, tracts, and rituals.
The Lockeford division of this national temperance organization, was launched in 1860 by
John Griffith, Dr. Dean Jewett Locke, and Dr. William Kerr. The group began with nineteen
members, and, at their second meeting, six women were brought into the regular order.
A second chapter, New Era Division no. 71, was founded in 1861 at Athearn's School near
present-day Clements. This group is represented in the collection by an 1861 minutebook.
The New Era Division was probably absorbed into the Live Oak Division in 1862. Also
represented by minutes in the New Era minutebook is the U.S. Sanitary Commission's
Soldier's Aid Society of Lockeford, which flourished briefly in 1864-65.
The Live Oak Division met irregularly in the Lockeford Granary Hall, where they heard
pro-temperance speakers, disciplined back-sliding members, and debated questions such as
whether gambling ought to be condemned by their membership. At one meeting the Division
passed a resolution forbidding the use of medications containing alcohol.
The Sons of Temperance also functioned somewhat like a fraternal order. They sang and
chatted, undertook charity work, sported uniforms at community celebrations, and assisted
members when they suffered illness, injury, or business reverses. The Lockeford
organization lasted for five years.
In 1865 a chapter of the Independent Order of Good Templars replaced the Sons of
Temperance. The Order of Good Templars operated in Lockeford as Rescue Lodge no. 115 for
more than thirty years. This group included children in its activities. The juvenile
auxiliary organization was known as the "Band of Hope." This group is represented in the
collection by a volume of minutes (1868-1870). By 1874 most of the members of the Good
Templars were juveniles. The adult organization is represented in this collection by a
songsheet.
In 1889 Lockeford women established a chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
This organization was sufficiently active between 1891 and 1895 to operate a reading room
in Luther Locke's butcher shop. The group sponsored speaking contests to popularize its
views and organized a children's auxiliary. The WCTU is represented in this collection by
a printed report (1892).