Former schoolteacher Harriet Hobart with her husband, Chauncey Hobart, and several of his colleagues and others in Minnehaha Falls, Minnesota. Photo credit: MNopedia.

Many fine classroom teachers have worked tirelessly on social causes. One of these was Harriet Hobart, a teacher who championed the causes of women’s suffrage and temperance.

Harriet was born on Jan. 1, 1825, in Northern Ireland. She was just 18 years old when she immigrated to the United States in 1843. As a young woman, Harriet launched a highly successful career as a professional educator in New York City. In a career that spanned 25 years, Harriet spent 10 years as a classroom teacher and another 15 years as a teaching principal.

In April, 1868, Harriet relocated to Red Wing, Minnesota, where she married a recently widowed Methodist Episcopal minister, Chauncey Hobart. Chauncey had already built an impressive career serving Methodist parishioners in Illinois and Wisconsin frontier towns before landing in Minnesota.

In addition to her work as an educator, Harriet dedicated her considerable energies to social causes. Viewed by her colleagues as an effective leader and speaker, the former teacher became president of the Minnesota Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), a post she held for 17 years. During this time, Harriet urged the WCTU to work on women’s rights, specifically women’s suffrage, a cause for which she worked tirelessly for the rest of her life.

Sadly, Harriet passed away on Feb., 17, 1898. She was 74 years old. Alas, she did not live to see her work completed, but Prohibition and Women’s Suffrage made great gains during the 20 years following her passing. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1919, banned the making and sale of alcohol, although the amendment was repealed in 1933. The Nineteenth Amendment, which secured the right to vote for women, was ratified in 1920.

To read more about Harriet Hobart, see this article about her published by Alchetron.