<P> The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an active temperance organization that was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far - reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity ." It was influential in the temperance movement, and supported the 18th Amendment . </P> <P> The WCTU was originally organized on December 23, 1873, in Hillsboro, Ohio, and officially declared at a national convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1874 . It operated at an international level and in the context of religion and reform, including missionary work and woman's suffrage . Two years after its founding, the American WCTU sponsored an international conference at which the International Women's Christian Temperance Union was formed . The World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1883 and became the international arm of the organization . </P> <P> At its founding in 1874, the stated purpose of the WCTU was to create a "sober and pure world" by abstinence, purity, and evangelical Christianity . Annie Wittenmyer was its first president . The constitution of the WCTU called for "the entire prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage ." </P> <P> Frances Willard, a noted feminist, was elected the WCTU's second president in 1879 and Willard grew the organization to be the largest organization of women in the world by 1890 . She remained president until her death in 1898 . </P>

What was the main purpose of the womens christian temperance union founded in 1874