Lucie Tyng

Lucie Brotherson Tyng (1835 – 1905) was ahead of her time in many ways. As an advocate for social change, Tyng was an early suffragist, an early leader in the WCTM (the Woman’s Christian Temperance Movement), and a dedicated supporter of education for all.

A community-minded woman, Lucie was born in Elmira, New York in 1835 and settled in Peoria in 1851. At age sixteen Lucie married grain merchant Alexander Griswold Tyng with whom she had ten children. (Only four survived childhood.) – Yet despite Lucie’s domestic commitments, she devoted much of her life to improving her community – specifically the public school system.

Tyng was the first woman to be elected to the school board, known as the Board of School Inspectors, and was the first woman to serve as its treasurer, a post she held until her death. In her honor, the Peoria Public School Board built and opened in 1915 a new elementary school named after Lucie B. Tyng (which unfortunately closed in 2009).

Lucie was also well known for her work with the Peoria Chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Movement, a group instrumental in leading prohibition efforts – an extreme challenge in “The Whiskey Capital of the World.” Lucie led the WCTM as its fearless president beginning in 1898.

A founding member of the Peoria Women’s Club, Lucie was also a staunch supporter of the suffrage movement (of the19th Amendment) although she did not live to see its passage.

Finally, Lucie Tyng served as president of The Ladies Memorial Society, an organization whose work brought President McKinley to Peoria for the dedication of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. It still stands at the Peoria County Courthouse.

William Hardin

Title Unknown, 1999

(Portrait of Lucie Tyng)

Oil on canvas

Courtesy of

Peoria Women’s Club