Adeline Myers Coburn, died 1887

Adeline Myers Coburn began her long involvement in community activism during the Civil War. After the war, she dedicated her life to the cause of temperance.

Born in New York, Adeline Myers married Stephen H. Coburn, a physician, in 1839. The couple moved to Akron in 1848.

Adeline Coburn's name first surfaces in Akron newspapers in 1861 when she was named one of the directors of the newly organized Soldiers Aid Society in the city. By 1862, she was elected vice president of the organization and in 1863 she was listed as president. The Akron Soldiers Aid Society was affiliated with the Cleveland Sanitary Commission. During the Civil War, the Akron women knitted mittens and socks for the soldiers. The Akron society contributed literally thousands of dollars worth of food and clothing to the war effort. The women packed food and other goods for the Army in a small room above a store on South Howard Street. The food and goods were shipped to the central organization located in Cleveland and then onto the hospitals that cared for the wounded soldiers. In addition, the organization raised much money by holding "dime parties," socials and dinners. Every month, the Beacon reported the happenings in the Soldiers Aid Society and invariably the name "Mrs. Dr. Coburn" was listed as a donor.

She also led Akron women in opposing imported goods by organizing and served as president of the Akron Auxiliary of the Ladies National Covenant during the Civil War. In 1865, she helped collect clothes for Freedmen.

By 1874 she was heavily involved with the temperance cause. Indeed, her involvement predates the organization of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) itself. In March 1874, Coburn signed the call for a temperance rally at the First Methodist Church. It was the rally that kicked off Akron's famous Temperance Crusade of 1874, where women went to the saloons of the city and prayed outside for the end of the liquor trade. By the end of the year, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was organized in Cleveland.

In 1874, Coburn was elected treasurer of the Summit County Temperance Convention; in 1877, she was Akron's delegate to the Ohio WCTU; in 1883, she was president of the Akron WCTU.

Although temperance clearly was the focus of her post-Civil War energies, Coburn also became involved with the Dorcas Society, serving as a work director in 1875, and the Ladies Rural Cemetery Association.

When Coburn died in 1887, she left one daughter Mrs. Jacob A. Kohler.

--Janelle Baltputnis