Elizabeth Tipton Stanley

Elizabeth Tipton Stanley (1858–1940) was an American educator, temperance reformer, and suffragist. Born in Tennessee, she taught in that state and in North Carolina. Stanley had a great desire to enter foreign missionary work but this was discouraged by her parents. Removing to Indiana, Stanley became involved in the temperance and suffrage movements. She served as President of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of Indiana, and was the only woman who managed a Keeley Institute in her day. Her father was Col. J. W. H. Tipton. She was of English and German ancestry. Her paternal great-grandfather was William Tipton, who was one of Lord Culpeper's British company of soldiers who settled in Virginia at the close of the American Revolution. He and his descendants were historic characters in Virginia, Tennessee and Indiana. A brother of William, John Tipton, settled in Indiana and Tipton County, Indiana bears his name. Jacob, another brother, made his home in the Shenandoah Valley. John Tipton, son of William, settled early near Knoxville, Tennessee, where he had large estates. His son, Colonel J. W. H. Tipton, was born on the east Tennessee homestead and was educated for military life. He was a colonel in the Mexican–American War, fought at the Battle of Cerro Gordo and Vera Cruz, and was among the American forces that captured Antonio López de Santa Anna's carriage, treasury and wooden leg. On his return to civil life, he married Katrina Freschour, and was an extensive stock raiser and dealer until his death. His wife was a daughter of George Freschour, a son of Hans Freschour, the emigrant, who was born near Wurtemberg, Germany, and came to the U.S. about the latter part of the eighteenth century. He located in east Tennessee, where his descendants were numerous. Mrs. Stanley was the fifth of the eleven children of her parents. and she organized the Willard Memorial Union of Franklin County, Indiana in 1898. On June 8, 1898, the temperance people of Franklin County organized a Loyal Temperance Legion, naming it Ross Stanley Legion, in honor of the young Stanley child who died. and for ninetheen years, from 1920 to 1939, she served as Indiana State President. She spoke in the principal cities of Indiana and of practically all of the other States in the U.S., and she represented Indiana at many of the national and world conventions of the WCTU.

Stanley lectured on behalf of the WCTU. She spoke in every county in Indiana, and every state in the U.S., except two.

She was a director of Taylor University, and was represented on the extension force of Purdue University.

Stanley represented the Franklin County district at the national WCTU convention at Atlanta in 1891 and at the one held at Seattle in 1899. She was an official delegate from Indiana to the Fifteenth International Congress Against Alcoholism, held at Washington, D.C., in 1920, and to the International Convention of the World League Against Alcoholism, held at Toronto, Canada, in 1922.

Personal life The Stanley family had four children, Grace Tipton, Earl Norris, Zac J., and Ross Stanley.

Elizabeth Tipton Stanley died near Liberty, Indiana on April 17, 1940, at the age of 81.