| Main entry | McAlister, Lottie |
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| Birth place | Halton, Ontario |
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| Birth date | 22 August 1858 |
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| Death place | London, Ontario |
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| Death date | 18 December 1936 |
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| Identifier | 0208 |
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| Birth name | Charlotte L. Plewes |
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| Married name | McAlister |
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| Marital status | married |
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| Religious affiliation | Methodist, United Church of Canada |
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| Degree and date | Brantford Collegiate Institute |
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| Paid work | bookkeeper; journalist |
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| Other work | lecturer |
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| Biography | Part of the generation of ardent social reformers known as "social gospellers," Charlotte Plewes (1858-1936) was the daughter of David Plewes (c1833-1905), Ontario's wealthiest miller. While growing up at RiverView, the family's mansion in Brantford, "Lottie" studied at private schools and had private tutors before graduating from Brantford Collegiate. In Reverend George McAlister, who became her husband in 1887, Lottie found an ally to support her enthusiasms for temperance, urban mission work, and suffrage. Once her two sons were grown she promoted woman's suffrage on the lecture circuit and in contributions to periodicals. Strongly committed to prohibition, she edited the Women's Christian Temperance Union official organ, CANADIAN WHITE RIBBON TIDINGS, from 1912 to 1924. As shown in her single novel, CLIPPED WINGS (1899), Lottie's literary aspirations were secondary to her primary mission to reform society. She died of cancer in 1936 and was buried in Galt, Waterloo in Ontario. |
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| Other notes | Listed as bookkeeper at home of Isaac Warcup in 1881, one of David Plewes's mill partners. Son Fred was a lawyer and Mayor of London, Ontario, a member of the Board of Education of London, and held a number of important civil posts in different provinces related to the Board of Railway Commissioners for Canada and the Canadian Wheat Board. Son H. Clive was a doctor, and died in a plane crash. |
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| Residences | Nelson, Halton, Ontario (1858-1861); Brantford, Ontario (1871); Oakville, Halton, Ontario (1881); Brantford (1885-1891); Alvinston, Lambton, Ontario (1891); Brownsville, Oxford, Ontario (1895); Watford, Lambton, Ontario (1901); Hamilton, Ontario (1905); Exeter, Ontario (c1914-15); Blenheim, Ontario; Alymer, Ontario; Ridgetown, Ontario (1916); North Dumfries, Galt, Waterloo, Ontario (1924); London, Ontario (c1925-1936)
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| Geographic regions | Ontario |
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| Primary genres | fiction; journalism |
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| Books | CLIPPED WINGS (1899) |
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| Periodicals | CANADIAN WHITE RIBBON TIDINGS |
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| Organizations | Canadian Women's Press Club |
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| Father's name | David Plewes |
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| Life dates of father | c1833, Yorkshire, England - 13 August 1905, Brantford, Ontario |
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| Father's note | Immigrated in 1851; miller, flour and grain merchant; founder of Dominion Millers' Association; buried at Mount Pleasant in Toronto |
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| Mother's name | Nancy Cleaver |
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| Life dates of mother | c1832, Ontario - 20 February 1897, Toronto, Ontario |
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| Spouse 1 | Reverend William George Hector McAlister |
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| Life dates of spouse 1 | 1857, Kilbride, Halton, Ontario - 28 May 1924, North Dumfries, Galt, Waterloo, Ontario |
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| Spouse 1 note | clergyman, Methodist; son of Methodist clergy |
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| Marriage 1 date | 5 August 1887 |
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| Marriage 1 place | Brantford, Ontario |
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| Children number | 2 |
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| Children's names and dates | Frederick George (1 August 1891 - 27 March 1983), m. to Beulah E. Connor;
Hector Clive (6 May 1895 - 28 April 1951), m. to Ethel Muriel Anderson |
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| Biographical references | WOMAN'S WHO'S WHO OF AMERICA (1914-15); Morgan, Henry, CANADIAN MEN AND WOMEN OF THE TIME (1912); 1861 Census of Canada; 1871 Census of Canada; 1881 Census of Canada; 1891 Census of Canada; 1901 Census of Canada; Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928; Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947 |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), p. 331 |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Image credits | This image is in the public domain; photo by Ray & Maxwell, Frank Street, Strathroy, ON. |
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| Unverified titles | ELSAYN CAVOUR, STORIETTES |
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| Copyright | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Please cite Canada's Early Women Writers. SFU Library Digital Collections. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. 1980-2014. |
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