Mary Jane Aldrich

Mary Jane Aldrich (, Johnston; March 19, 1833 – April 27, 1909) was an American temperance reformer, lecturer, and essayist of the long nineteenth century. She served as vice-president of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and president of the Iowa union. At the time of the division in the ranks of the WCTU, Aldrich, with the Iowa union, adhered to the non-partisan temperance work, and became evangelistic secretary of the Non-Partisan National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The Lineage Book of the Daughters of the American Revolution recorded her grandfather's name as Witter Henry Johnston, and her father as Milton Johnston. was born in Sidney Plains, New York, March 19, 1833. Her home was on a tract of land purchased before the Revolutionary War by her paternal great-grandfather, the Rev. William Johnson, a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian minister who, with her grandfather, Col. Witter Johnston, was in the Continental Army. Her father, Milton Johnston, was a farmer. Her mother, Delia Hull, was a well-educated and deeply religious woman. She had at least four siblings, three brothers and a sister. who represented the Iowa WCTU in its open opposition to political WCTU work.

In 1885, Aldrich declined re-election as president of the Iowa State union because she was unable to give to the work all the time it required.

She attended the convention held in Cleveland, Ohio, January 22–24, 1890, at which time the Non-partisan National WCTU was organized. As secretary of the department of evangelistic work, she was a member of the executive committee from its organization.

Later life The later years of Aldrich's life were spent in southern Missouri. Here, in 1905, failing health permitted only a quiet celebration of the golden wedding anniversary. In 1907, in bad health, Aldrich came with her husband and daughter to the old home in Sidney, and renewed her membership in the church of her childhood. She died in Sidney, April 27, 1909,