Margaret Ray Wickens (August 3, 1843 – November 24, 1918) was an American public affairs organizer and social reformer. She served as national president of the Woman's Relief Corps (W.R.C.). Eloquent, Wickins was called the "Golden-tongued orator of the Woman's Relief Corps". Her executive abilities during the years that she was actively engaged in W.R.C. advanced the organization's patriotic work. As an orator, philanthropist and industrial worker, Wickens had no peer. She served as president of the Kansas State Assembly of Rebekahs, and was active in the temperance movement, filling the role of district president of her Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) for several years. She was a teacher, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and a prominent Good Templar. In her later years, she held a number of state positions in Illinois.
Early life
Margaret Ray Brown was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, August 3, 1843. Her father, Thomas Brown, was a native of County Dublin, Ireland. Her mother was Judith Bennett, of Cumberland County, New Jersey, a descendant of the Bennetts of Mayflower and Revolutionary fame. Margaret was the older of a family of two daughters.
In 1854, the family moved to Henderson, Kentucky. Their aboliltonist sentiment was strong, and their house became a station on the Underground Railroad. For having aided needy African American fugitives, Mr. Brown was imprisoned in Frankfort, Kentucky for three years, and his family were compelled to remove to the North. In 1857, he was released and joined his family in Indianapolis. There he was honored by a public reception, in which William Lloyd Garrison and other prominent men participated. In 1859, the family removed to Loda, Illinois and two years later, Thomas Brown enlisted in the Tenth Illinois Cavalry, but he was not strong enough to enter the service, and he was obliged to remain at home.
Margaret taught in the Loda high school, where her sister, Harriet, was also employed. She did all she could do to aid the Union cause during the civil war. She organized aid societics, assisted in the distributing of supplies, helped in the hospitals and did everything in her power to ameliorate the condition of the sick and suffering.
Career
In 1864, she married Thomas Wiley Wickens (d. 1893), and they removed to Kankakee, Illinois. They had five children.
Wickens was a temperance advocate from childhood. She joined the Good Templars in Indianapolis, and was one of the first members of the Illinois W.C.T.U. In that order, she worked for prohibition legislation in Kansas. She served as district president of her union for several years and went as delegate to the national convention in Minneapolis.
In 1876, the family removed to Sabetha, Kansas, where she gained prominence in public affairs.
She was, in 1885, elected Department President of the Kansas W.R.C.; reelected in 1886. During her term as the second president, her department grew from 59 to 149 organized corps in two years. She attended the national convention in San Francisco, and was there appointed national inspector, which position she resigned in order to care for her State department. She served her department two years as counselor, as a member of the department and national executive boards. In the St. Louis convention, she was elected a member of the executive board. In 1891, she was made a trustee and general agent for the United States of the National Grand Army of the Republic Memorial College at Oberlin, Kansas. In Detroit, August 5, 1891, she was elected National Senior Vice-President of the W.R.C. In October of that year, she was elected State president of the Rebekahs of Kansas.