The American Origins of the Temperance Movement in Ontario, 1828-1850

Abstract

In 1828, the first temperance society in "Old Ontario" was organized in Bastard Township in the Johnstown District; soon after, societies were formed at Beverly, Ancaster and Stoney Creek. Then, with astonishing swiftness, temperance associations mushroomed into existence all across the province, so much so that by 1832 the corresponding secretary of the Montreal Temperance Society, R. D. Wadsworth, was able to report the existence of about 100 societies in Upper Canada.1 A decade later, it was estimated that the province had spawned upwards of 386 societies with a membership of perhaps 60,000.2