ugh which they passed
before reaching manhood and womanhood.

In 1832 she was married to James McNeil, of Carlisle, and together they
enlisted under the Washingtonian movement to fight the demon drink.
About a month after her marriage she became a Christian, and, with a new
heart, God gave her the desire to be of use to others, and she offered
herself to the Lord to care for homeless children. Although she has
never been blessed with children of her own, yet the mother heart has
not been empty. In 1868 she with her husband moved to Fredonia,
Chautauqua county, New York, with eight homeless children to be put to
school. Two years later her husband, who was a member of the State
Temperance Society, died, and in this same year one of her dear girls
died.

In 1873 she entered the list of crusaders, and became a member of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, organized December 22, 1873. This
union has continued to be the leading union in the county, holding
weekly meetings, and loyal always to county, state, and national
organizations. Mrs. McNeil was the first county president, and for the
past seventeen years has been the local president in Fredonia. Although
now past eighty-two years of age, yet at the twenty-first annual
convention she led the "Crusaders' Hour" with great acceptance.

[Illustration: MRS. ESTHER McNEIL.]

PROLOGUE.

When history shall have recorded the events of America's nineteenth
century, prominent among them will be the "Woman's Crusade," a movement
whose strength, please God, will not be spent until the last legalized
saloon has disappeared from this fair land.

Hillsboro, Ohio, claims the birthplace, and December 23, 1873, as the
birthday of this momentous event. True, from this place and day the
influence deepened and widened, spreading to other localities with
wonderful rapidity; but to Fredonia, Chautauqua county, New York, is
accorded the honor of inaugurating the work, December 15, 1873. How was
this brought about? The story in brief is this:

On Saturday evening, December 13, Dr. Dio Lewis, of Boston, had
delivered a popular lecture in Fredonia, and upon invitation of the Good
Templars remained to deliver a temperance lecture at a union service
Sunday night. The audience was large, but there was no indication of
unusual results from the meeting. The speaker presented the truth so
forcibly, and recommended plans of procedure so practical, that the
audience caught his spirit.