From collection Candidates
Lucy Gaston was a Prohibition party candidate for University of Illinois Trustee in 1896. She did not win the race. Gaston was a temperance worker, but was known through the mid west as a leader in the campaign against tobacco and cheap cigarettes. Gaston's parents were also noted reformers and abolitionists. In 1893 Gaston moved to Harvey, Illinois and became the first woman editor of a local newspaper, the Harvey Headlight. She later became the editor and co-publisher of a rival newspaper, the Harvey Citizen. Later Gaston became the editor of the national newspaper, the Christian Citizen. After meeting WCTU leader Frances Willard, Gaston redoubled her efforts in temperance work.