Carry A. Nation was a woman who changed the course of Kansas history. In 1880, Kansas adopted a constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale of intoxicating beverages, except for medicinal purposes. The shopkeepers in Kansas violated the law and Carry asked God to use her to save Kansas. She began her crusade against alcohol by smashing her first saloon with ricks and bricks in 1889, in Kiowa, Kansas. After closing all the saloons in Barber County, she went to Wichita where she used an iron rod strapped to her cane to break up the saloons and their contents. She was thrown in jail and was labeled “the hatchet lady” by newspaper reporters. Then the hatchet became her weapon to attempt to enforce the prohibition laws.
