Picture courtesy of wikipedia.org
At Glenwood Cemetery (where her grave is located), Grove Street, Picton
Commemoration
Born near Cobourg of Methodist parents, Letitia Youmans, nee Creighton, was educated at local schools and at Burlington Ladies' Academy. In 1849, she moved to Picton and taught briefly at a girls' school. Deeply religious and believing that a well-ordered Christian family was fundamental to a prosperous, moral society, she viewed with alarm the threat presented to this ideal by intemperance. She became active in temperance reform and in 1874, formed a "Woman's Christian Temperance Union" in Picton. Quickly becoming a leader in women's agitation for prohibitory legislation, she traveled extensively organizing "unions" throughout Canada. Letitia Youmans was the first president of the W.C.T.U. of Ontario (1877-82) and of the Dominion organization (19883-89). She died at Toronto and was buried in this cemetery.
Background
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was one of the few organizations in colonial Canada in which women sought to mould the society in which they lived. While the primary goal was controlling the consumption of alcohol, they also sought to relieve poverty and to obtain the vote for women. The branch in Picton was the second in Canada.