Emily Caroline Chandler Hodgin

Emily Caroline Chandler Hodgin (April 12, 1838 – November 13, 1907) was an American temperance reformer. She was one of the leaders in the temperance crusade of Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1872, and was a delegate to the convention in Cleveland, Ohio, where the crusading movement developed into the organization of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). After that, she began the work of organizing forces in neighboring parts of Indiana. She became president of the WCTU in her own county and secretary of the State temperance association. She greatly aided the cause from the lecture platform, for though a member of the Society of Friends, she availed herself of the freedom accorded to the speaker in meetings.

Early life and education Emily Caroline Chandler was born in Williamsport, Indiana, April 12, 1838. Her father, Hon. Robert A. Chandler, who was of German descent, emigrated from New York to western Indiana while it was yet a wilderness. He was a self-made man and a scholarly lawyer. The mother was cultured and a member of the Dodd family, of Orange, New Jersey.

Hodgin had the advantage of the best schools of Williamsport and her father's large library. Accepting her father's doctrine that every one should learn to be self-supporting, she taught school at an early age, and paid her own way through the Illinois Normal University (now Illinois State University), graduating in 1867, and making a record as a strong student, especially in mathematics. In religion, she was a member of the Society of Friends and availed herself of the freedom accorded to the women of that church to "speak in meeting".