The drunkard shall come to poverty

My three-greats grandmother, Ellie Stoneroad Patterson, was quite devout. Sprinkled throughout her papers are many references to her lord and savior; she taught Sunday School, worried after her pupils’ souls, and generally fretted about living as morally pure a life as possible.

In 1858, at the age of 16, she (along with, presumably, the rest of her Sunday School), signed a pledge as a member of the Band of Hope, vowing never to use intoxicating drinks.

I suppose she would feel great shame over her descendants’ wicked ways.