Royal Templars of Temperance

A chapter of the Royal Templars of Temperance was organized in Vienna Township on September 12, 1870. Founded during the post-Civil War coal boom, the Lodge was but one of at least four organizations established to combat the growth of saloons and taverns in the Township. Its establishment and activities mirrored the larger temperance movement in Trumbull County, the State of Ohio, and the United States in the years after the Civil War. This movement would eventually work to outlaw the production and sale of alcohol in the nation through the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution. This "Prohibition Era" lasted from 1919 to 1933.

The Royal Templars of Temperance was a fraternal organization founded in 1870 in Buffalo, New York. Its members attempted to close saloons on Sundays and advocated abstinence. Its members practiced rituals borrowed from Freemasonry.

From History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (Cleveland, Ohio: H. Z. Williams & Bros., 1882), Volume 2, p. 453:

Enterprise council No. 15, Royal Templars of Temperance, was organized September 12, 1879, with fifteen members, and the following were elected officers: Lucius H. Hatch, S.C.; G. A. Treat, V. C; W. I. Stewart, P.C.; W. H. Terry, recording secretary; N.C. Terry, financial secretary, and G.A. Treat, treasurer. The present membership is forty-two.