The Non-Partisan Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was organized on March 13, 1888, by women who believed that neither their influence nor their dues and contributions should be used to sustain partisan organizations. The Oberlin WCTU was an auxiliary to the state and national organizations, which had previously endorsed a third party (prohibition) and woman's suffrage. Because these women believed that partisanship narrowed the influence of the WCTU and retarded its temperance work, they began this second organization. [See the Oberlin Weekly News, March 3 and 15, 1888, for information about the founding]. The activities of the nonpartisan group, which lasted until August 1924, were similar to those of the WCTU. Active members included Mrs. Olds, Mrs. Phinney (the state president), Mary Burton Shurtleff, Fannie J Bedortha, and Mrs. S.M. Cole.

William E. Bigglestone’s unpublished "[preliminary] Guide to the Oberlin College Archives", which was prepared on individual entry sheets in a three-ring binder during the early 1980's; and, Guide to Women’s History Resources in the Oberlin College Archives, Roland Baumann, ed. (1990)