History of Freeport, (Stephenson County) Illinois United States of America

Biographies:

Mary Gow Charlton Edholm - A Biography

Mary Gow Charlton Edholm, reformer, was born in Freeport, lll., Oct. 28, 1854; daughter of James Bovard and Lucy (Gow) Charlton, and granddaughter of John London and Mary (Murdock) Gow. She was graduated at Monmouth (Ill.) college in 1874, and at once began to contribute articles on woman suffrage and temperance to periodicals. In 1878 she was married to Osborn L. Edholm, a journalist. She continued her work, writing for the Phrenological Journal, the Christian Instructor and other papers, and editing a daily temperance column in the Omaha News. In 1886 she removed to Oakland, Cal., and shortly afterward was elected official reporter and superintendent of the California Woman's Christian Temperance Union. At the Boston convention of the World's W.C.T.U., in 1891, she was appointed superintendent of press, and in less than two years published several hundred columns of original matter in over 1000 newspapers. In 1891 she was appointed reporter of the Florence Crittendon missions. At the international federation of women's press clubs at Boston, Mass., in 1891, Mrs. Edholm was made secretary. At the World's W.C.T.U. convention in London in 1895 she was appointed by Frances Willard and Lady Henry Somerset as the superintendent of the newly created department Florence Crittenden missions. After that time she prosecuted rescue mission work, mostly by public addresses, throughout the United States and in parts of England, France. Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Canada. She was for some time editor of The Christian Home, Oakland, Cal., and is the author of: Traffic in Girls, and Florence Crittendon Missions, which had a large sale. In 1894 Mrs. Edholm began to speak on The Traffic in Girls and in three years her meetings resulted in raising $25,000 for rescue mission work.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor