Mary Bynon Reese

Mary Bynon Reese (July 27, 1832 – February 8, 1908) was a leader in the U.S. temperance movement, serving as lecturer, organizer and evangelist for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Ohio, Washington state, and at the national level. She was the national WCTU superintendent of the Department of Narcotics and the World WCTU's Missionary to Japan. Reese was the poet laureate of Steubenville, Ohio.

Early life and education Mary Ann Bynon was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 27, 1832, of Welsh parents. While she was a child, the family removed to Wheeling, West Virginia. she removed to Steubenville, Ohio, where the greater part of her life was spent. While lecturing in Pittsburgh and visiting saloons with the representative women of the place, she was arrested and, with 33 others, incarcerated in the city jail, an event which roused the indignation of people and made countless friends for temperance. In 1886, she was made one of the national organizers and sent to the north Pacific coast, where her work was very successful, organizing unions in The Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. She met with Nez Perce and with lumbermen. Reese estimated that her travels covered more than , sometimes by wagon, stage, canoe, and horseback.

The Puget Sound area fascinated her, and, after a stay of nine months in the northwest, she removed in 1887 to Washington, where she resided in Chautauqua, Washington on Vashon Island, a few miles from Seattle, which she made her headquarters, as State and national organizer. While she had been frail for some time, Reese was ill only a week before she died in Everett, Washington, February 8, 1908.

The Loyal Temperance Legion of Everett was named in her honor.

Selected works Poems "Guardian Angels", 1874 "Little Babes of Bethlehem", 1900 "Sunrise on Mount Rainier", 1901

Hymn lyrics "A cry comes over the deep" "'Tis sweet to think, unheard" "Lizzie dies to-night." (Philadelphia, Daughaday & Hammond, 1861) This was written and composed expressly for Clarks School Visitor, poetry by Mary Bynon Reese, music by Stephen C. Foster. Above title the statement: 'A card was found among the effects of the wrecked steamer Hungarian, bearing the inscription 'Lizzie dies to-night.' First line: "Twas hard, our parting, mother dear."