- Jennie Lamb Bryan Sheffield
GREAT WOMEN OF THE WCTU - JENNIE HART SIBLEY

Jennie Hart Sibley was born Sarah Virginia Hart on October 22, 1846 to James Brooks and Maria Virginia Collier Hart in Augusta, Georgia. In 1865, she married Samuel Hale Sibley. Following the wedding in Augusta, they boarded a special train to the old Hart place in Union Point, gathering additional guests at every station along the route for the festive reception.
The Sibleys had six children; two died very young. Jennie was widowed at age 37. She became a world traveler and lived most of her life in the Hart ancestral home Hawthorn Heights, Union Point, Georgia. In a 1900 periodical, she is said to be a descendant of two of the most cultured families of South Carolina and Virginia, claiming among her ancestors many distinguished personages. Sir Francis Wyatt, first English Royal Governor of Virginia is among the notables.


The record of her remarkable life of service began when she was 16. Jennie kept a register of the Wayside Home founded by her mother and 14 other ladies for the care of sick and wounded Confederate and Union soldiers. Her father bore the expense of the Home. She recorded both name and rank of thousands of soldiers. Every donation was listed, and acknowledgements of appreciation written. It was noted that 1,138,626 meals were served. The original journal, written in her beautiful hand, is preserved at Knox College, Illinois. Copies are held at the Greene County
Historical Society and the county courthouse. Jennie became a leader in the Georgia Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and served
as president from 1900 – 1905. She was later made honorary president. As superintendent of legislation and petition, she attempted to have two bills introduced to the Georgia legislature, one to increase the age of consent and the other for child welfare reform. The Georgia women also
advocated for prison reform and the establishment of separate facilities for women and juvenile offenders. They urged Georgia legislators to build an industrial school for girls, to pass child labor laws, and to provide for compulsory education. Jennie became a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1907 and spoke at the Georgia state capitol that year, coinciding with the state suffrage convention. As superintendent of the Legislation Department of the WCTU, she continued to work for woman’s suffrage. In a 1915 WCTU report, she mentioned suffrage petitions she had submitted to Congress and the state legislature in recent years. She was a prominent member of the Georgia Federation of Women’s Clubs.


Chosen many times to represent the state at National WCTU conventions, Jennie was one of the World’s delegates to London in 1895 representing Georgia and South Carolina.
She assisted in presenting the Polyglot Petition to Queen Victoria. The petition was the first worldwide proclamation against international trade in liquor and drugs and the first major campaign to raise public awareness of the need for international agreements on controls for opium. The petition was first presented to President Cleveland in Washington, then sent on a steamship with 150 American women conveying it to London. Jennie’s collection of memorabilia includes invitations to meetings and receptions at Queen’s Hall, Langham Place, Royal Albert Hall, and The Mansion House in London. Lady Henry Somerset held a reception at Reigate Priory, Surrey. Jennie
was among delegates traveling there by special train.

