Doyle, Mary Stephens
Temperance Fighter ~ 1829-1892
Mary Stephens was born on January 23, 1829, in Equesing Township, Halton County. She studied to be a teacher and in 1851 went to Owen Sound to start a private school.
She married Richard J. Doyle, an entrepreneur. The Stephens and the Doyles were very active in the Disciples of Christ Church; strongly in favour of temperance, an unpopular sentiment at the time. Mary Doyle founded the Women’s Prohibition Society in 1874. That society became known as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the first branch in Canada. The society was dedicated to the chief concerns of suffering arising from the liquor trade. She became president of the Society and was involved in petitioning against the granting of saloon licenses. The Dunkin Act, The Scott Act, The Local Option Act, The Ontario Temperance Act and The Liquor Control Act were all influenced by the persistent campaigns of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. They held meetings in homes, halls, and churches, but as membership grew it became apparent that they needed a special building. After house-to-house canvassing for donations, they raised enough to purchase the vacant Congregational Church in Owen Sound, as a meeting hall. Mary Doyle became known as the “Mother of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in Canada”. She was described as a woman of “…poise, wisdom and gracious Christian character.” After her death in 1892, two of her daughters opened the Seldon House, a Temperance hotel, a quiet well-run pleasant place for travellers of a sober nature.
Additional information: Sharon Cake Ed. Eminent Women of Grey County, Grey County Historical Society, Richardson, Bond, Wright Ltd., Owen Sound, 1977.
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