Woman of the Week

Editor and temperance reformer Julia A. Ames, who was born on October 14, is this week's Woman of the Week   

• To learn about her by viewing her item, please click on her image.  

• To read her biographical sketch in A Woman of the Century, please click on the highlighted page number to the left of her image.

Julia A. Ames, a gifted editor, orator, and temperance reformer, was born in Odell, Illinois, on October 14, 1860.  She graduated from Streator High School, Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, and the Chicago School of Oratory.

Julia spent much of her life in the Chicago area.  During her early efforts for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Julia worked closely with Levancia Holcomb Plumb. Frances Elizabeth Willard and Matilda B. Carse are just two other people in Julia's personal network. Matilda B. Carse gave Julia the nickname "Yolande," after she noted Julia's similarity to the heroine of an 1883 novel by William Black (A Young Woman Journalist, 39).

In addition to her efforts on behalf of temperance reform, Ames wrote for the Chicago Inter-Ocean and edited the Union Signal. She was a member of, and later the president of, the Woman's Temperance Publishing Circle of King's Daughters.

Julia passed away in Boston on December 12, 1891, after having become very ill while participating in a convention.  She was just thirty-one years old. Julia was buried in Riverview Cemetery in Streator, Illinois. The year after "Yolande's" death, The Woman's Temperance Publishing Association published A Young Woman Journalist: A Memorial Tribute to Julia A. Ames.