Elizabeth Putnam Gordon
{{short description|American temperance advocate, author, and editor}}
{{Use American English|date=October 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Elizabeth Putnam Gordon
| birth_date = November 25, 1851
| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date = November 30, 1933
| death_place = Castile Sanitarium, Castile, New York, U.S.
| other_names = Elizabeth P. Gordon
| occupation = {{hlist|temperance advocate|author|editor}}
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works = Women torch-bearers; the story of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
}}
Elizabeth Putnam Gordon (November 25, 1851 – November 30, 1933) was an American temperance advocate, author, and editor.{{cite book |last1=Willard |first1=Frances Elizabeth |author1-link=Frances Willard |last2=Livermore |first2=Mary Ashton Rice |author2-link=Mary Livermore |title=A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_of_the_Century/Elizabeth_P._Gordon |year=1893 |pages=326–27 |publisher=Charles Wells Moulton |chapter=GORDON, Miss Elizabeth P.}} {{Source-attribution}} She held positions of authority with the Massachusetts, National, and World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) organizations. Gordon was the author of Women torch-bearers; the story of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1924), a story-history of the W.C.T.U.'s fifty years of activity. It was the first time the entire history of the organization, records, documents and other data were gathered into one volume.
Biography
Elizabeth (nickname, "Bessie") Putnam Gordon was born in Boston, Massachusetts, November 25, 1851.{{cite web |title=Elizabeth Putnam Gordon 25 November 1851 – 30 November 1933 • KG5H-3VX |url=https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KG5H-3VX |website=ident.familysearch.org |access-date=13 October 2022}} She was the third daughter of James M. Gordon, who was for eleven years treasurer of the American Board of Foreign Missions, for twenty years cashier of the Columbia National Bank, and an honorary members of the white ribbon army. Three of his daughters were prominent in the councils of that society: Anna Adams Gordon,{{cite book |last1=Willard |first1=Frances Elizabeth |title=Writing Out My Heart: Selections from the Journal of Frances E. Willard, 1855-96 |date=1995 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-02139-8 |page=383 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yFnMGqzeauUC&pg=PA383 |access-date=13 October 2022 |language=en}} Alice Gordon Gulick, and Bessie. She was reared in the most conservative manner in a Congregational church.
Gordon attended Mount Holyoke College in 1872 but did not graduate.{{cite book |author1=Mount Holyoke College |title=General Catalogue of Mount Holyoke College, 1837-1924 |date=1924 |publisher=The College |page=137 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HinOAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA137 |access-date=13 October 2022 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}
Bessie was for seven years corresponding secretary of the Massachusetts W.C.T.U., and also served as one of its speakers and organizers. She served as Evangelist for the National W.C.T.U., and superintendent of School Methods for the World's W.C.T.U. She was the author of Women torch-bearers; the story of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1924), a story-history of the W.C.T.U.'s fifty years of activity. It was the first time the entire history of the organization, records, documents and other data were gathered into one volume.{{cite news |title="Women Torchbearers" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/314818258/?terms=Elizabeth%20Putnam%20Gordon&match=1 |access-date=13 October 2022 |work=Tampa Bay Times |via=Newspapers.com |page=14 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}
Gordon published a biography of her sister, Alice Gordon Gulick (1917), which included a poem dedicated to Gulick by Katharine Lee Bates.Elizabeth Putnam Gordon, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7k8XAAAAYAAJ&dq=Alice%20Gulick&pg=PA19 Alice Gordon Gulick: Her Life and Work in Spain] (Fleming H. Revell Company 1917). Gordon was also the author of The Story of the Life and Work of Cordelia A. Greene, M.D. (1925).{{cite book |last1=Gordon |first1=Elizabeth Putnam |title=The Story of the Life and Work of Cordelia A. Greene, M.D. |date=1925 |location=Castile, New York |publisher=The Castilian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rEabUxRzo08C |access-date=22 August 2022 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}{{cite news |title=Dr. Cordelia A. Greene Was Well Known Physician. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/78888134/?terms=Cordelia%20A.%20Greene&match=1 |access-date=22 August 2022 |work=New-York Tribune |via=Newspapers.com |date=29 January 1905 |page=1 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}
Elizabeth Putnam Gordon died at Castile Sanitarium, Castile, New York, November 30, 1933.{{cite news |title=RITES TO BE HELD FOR MISS GORDON |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/839147903/?terms=Elizabeth%20Putnam%20Gordon&match=1 |access-date=13 October 2022 |work=The Buffalo News |via=Newspapers.com |date=2 December 1933 |page=3 |language=en}}
Selected works
=Books=
- Alice Gordon Gulick (1917)
- Women torch-bearers; the story of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1924) ([https://archive.org/details/womentorchbearer00gord Text])
- The Story of the Life and Work of Cordelia A. Greene, M.D. (1925)
=Articles=
- "Municipal Election in Boston" (1889){{cite news |title=Municipal Election in Boston |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/279528884/?terms=%22Elizabeth%20P.%20Gordon%22&match=1 |access-date=13 October 2022 |work=Springville Journal |via=Newspapers.com |date=11 January 1889 |page=1 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}
- "Frances Willards' Widening Way" (1917){{cite news |title=W. C. T. U. MEETING. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/403996620/?terms=%22Elizabeth%20P.%20Gordon%22&match=1 |access-date=13 October 2022 |work=Montpelier Evening Argus |via=Newspapers.com |date=10 February 1917 |page=4 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} ([https://books.google.com/books?id=wfgbHAAACAAJ Text])
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Elizabeth P. Gordon}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Elizabeth Putnam Gordon}}
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Elizabeth Putnam}}
Category:20th-century American writers
Category:20th-century American biographers
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:Woman's Christian Temperance Union people
Category:American temperance activists
Category:20th-century American historians
Category:Mount Holyoke College alumni
Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century