Social movements and the symbolism of public demonstrations: the 1874 Women's Crusade and German resistance in Richmond, Indiana

Journal of Social History, Spring, 1999 by James Clyde Sellman

Table 2

Richmond Church Membership and Reported Weekly Attendance, by
Denomination, 1879

                           Number of         Total         Weekly
                         Congregations      Members      Attendance

Roman Catholic                2             2,200         1,850
Lutheran                      2             1,182           965
Methodist                     6               839           855(a)
Society of Friends            5             1,045           632(b)
Presbyterian                  2               474           370
Christian Church              1                35           280
Episcopal                     1               150           162
Baptist                       2               152           131(c)
German Evangelical            1                35            35
Swedenborgian                 1                15            15

Total                        23             6,127         5,295

Sources: based on a survey of Richmond church membership summarized
in "Richmond Churches," Telegram, February 20, 1879, p. 3, c. 3.

a. Also includes the "colored, German and Sevastopol" Methodist
churches.

b. Also includes "the Friends at Earlham College" with 170 members
and an average of 120 in weekly attendance.

c. Includes both the "white" and "colored" Baptist churches.

By and large, these social and religious initiatives reflected the efforts of women. Since the 1850s, evangelical women had found themselves largely excluded from the center of abolition and temperance activism, as reform tactics shifted away from moral suasion to the quintessentially male realms of ballot and bullet, that is, politics and warfare.(44) In response, women invested themselves even more heavily in the benevolent and religious work that still remained within their purview.(45) These evangelical women were thorough going and extremely earnest, as is clear in the following advice from Richmond Quaker and Earlham College instructor Mahala Jay. In an 1865 address to the school's female literary society, Jay called upon her listeners to:

find a work to do in hastening the coming of God's kingdom on earth by recognizing his children in all you meet, in the lowliest and least lovely of the race. Your first lessons in this, your first practice, may be taken without going among the Hindoos or Hottentots, or even among the freed men of your native land, but here in your very midst, the poor and the stranger and the uncultivated, the unhappy in temper and the unlovely in form may be presented to you in less striking but not therefore in less real character.(46)

Many Quaker and Methodist women acted on such advice, and the result was a flurry of evangelizing and institution building. Thus for at least a decade prior to the start of the Crusade, evangelical women and German residents - two groups marginalized by local political realities - two to perceive one another as adversaries or targets of opportunity.

Table 3

Ethnic Composition of Richmond, by Ward, 1870

                  South Side        North Side               Overall
                 1st      4th      2nd      3rd     5th

Native Born      40%      49%      65%      90%      79%        59%
White            27       43       65       90       71         53
Black            13        6        -        -        7          6
Foreign Born     62       51       35       10       21         41
German           56       39       14        -        -         27
Irish             -        6       19        -       21         10
Other             6        5        2       10        -          4
Total          102%(*)   100%     100%     100%     100%       100%
N =              48       77       43       21       42        231

* Total exceeds 100 percent because one black head of household,
born in Canada, was here included as both Black and Other Foreign
Born.

Source: Random sample of households, stratified by ward, drawn from
the manuscript population schedules of the Ninth Census.
Table 4

Ethnicity of Retail and Wholesale Dealers in
Alcoholic Beverages, Richmond,
February-March, 1874

Ethnicity of Owners(*)

Native:                           8
Irish:                            3
German:                          23
Total:                           34

* In the absence of census information, estimated on the basis of
surnames.

Sources: Daily Independent and Telegram, February 19, 1874, to
March 18, 1874; and Richmond city directories for 1872 and 1874:
City Directory, Richmond, Indiana, 1872-73 (Indianapolis, 1872);
City Directory, Richmond, Indiana, 1874-75 (Indianapolis, 1874).
These city directories are available in the Reference Section of
Morrison-Reeves Library, Richmond, Indiana.