William Jennings Demorest

William Jennings Demorest (1822–1895) was an American magazine publisher, prohibition leader, and businessman from New York City. In collaboration with his second wife, Ellen Demorest, née Curtis, he attained international success from his wife's development of paper patterns for sewing fashion apparel of the day. Together, they built a fashion manufacturing and merchandising empire from it.

He and his wife launched five magazines and started a cosmetics company. He individually patented a sewing machine and a velocipede.

Demorest harbored lifelong political and religious aspirations. He is widely known for being a Prohibition activist and ran for Mayor of New York City on the Prohibition ticket. He also organized the Anti-Nuisance League.

The Demorest Medal Contests were a system of public oratorical competitions, founded as a means of Prohibition propaganda by Demorest in April, 1886. At the time of his death (1895)m it was estimated that he had expended on medals (silver, gold, and diamond) and in maintaining the Medal Bureau more than . After his death, the Demorest medal system was merged with that of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and Mrs. Demorest was placed in charge of the Medal Department. Provided by Wikipedia