Lillian May (Early) Mitchner
Born: Adel, Dallas County, Iowa. April 10, 1862. Married: Charles Washington Mitchner, White County, Indiana, on March 30, 1883. Died: Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, August 15, 1954. Buried: Newton, Harvey County, Kansas.
Lillian May Early was born to Joseph Carr and Mary Ann (Talboys) Early, in Adel, Dallas County, Iowa, on April 10, 1862. Soon after her birth, the family moved to Lafayette, Indiana, where Lillian attended the public school. She married Charles Washington Mitchner, in White County, Indiana, on March 30, 1883. Several family members soon relocated to Kansas. Lillian and Charles moved to Newton, Harvey County, Kansas, where their son Elbert was born in 1884, and Jay was born the following year. Charles was a grocer and cattle trader, and a partner in his brother Thad Mitchner’s restaurant and confectionery. Joseph and Mary Ann moved to Winfield, Cowley County, Kansas.
Lillian was persuaded by a close friend to become active with the Kansas Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. She told the Hutchinson News-Herald in 1938, “I never wanted to start in temperance work—I just wanted to be a good home missionary society worker. But I did go into it and I have done my best, and I have had a wonderfully happy life in it.” She was elected a district president with the Kansas WCTU in 1901. A friend of Carry Nation, Mitchner paid a visit to the activist when she was jailed in Topeka in 1901. She recalled Nation’s greeting, “You didn’t ever expect to see me in jail, did you, dear?”
The Mitchner family relocated to Baldwin, Douglas County, around 1905 where Charles was elected mayor. Lillian served as editor of Our Messenger, the WCTU publication. She was elected president of the Kansas WCTU at the statewide convention in 1910. One of Mitchner’s goals for the convention was to devote attention to equal suffrage. Attendees voted to made equal suffrage the state WCTU’s principal work until passage of an amendment. During the suffrage campaign in 1912, Mitchner represented the WTCU when she spoke across the state to influence voters to support the amendment.
She was a leader in the founding of the Kansas Council of Women in 1911 that became the Woman’s Kansas Day Club. The organization devoted its efforts to causes impacting women like suffrage end education. The Mitchner's eventually moved to Topeka. Mitchner was appointed superintendent at the Girls’ Industrial School at Beloit, serving from 1917 to 1920.
She was involved in raising $25,000 for a patriotic fund to send field kitchens to the front during World War I and to help hospital mothers travel to Camps Funston and Riley. Mitchner considered entering the race for U.S. senate in 1918, but ultimately decided not to run. She continued to push for enforcement of the tobacco laws. Mitchner commented in 1922 “There is another thing that I am getting tired of and that is that every old tobacco user in the state seems to think I want to reform him. The fact is life I too short for anything of that kind . . . The state law has prohibited the sale of cigarettes. Many persons think this means to minors only. But there is no age limit in the cigarette law . . .” She joined efforts to raise $30,000 for a WTCU jubilee fund in 1924.
Lillian (Early) Mitchner died in Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, on August 15, 1954.
Entry: Lillian May (Early) Mitchner
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: December 2024
Date Modified: December 2024
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
