Local History Assistant … Denver Henderson holding a pamphlet from the Williams County archives. (PHOTO BY KAYLI SHUMAKER, STAFF)
By: Kayli Shumaker
The Williams County Public Library Local History Center hosted a seminar on prohibition in the United States and Williams County last week. The speaker for the evening was Denver Henderson, originally from Athens County, Ohio. Henderson, a Local History Assistant, grew fond of history as a child listening to conversations on political issues and reading a biography on President Roosevelt.
Henderson spoke about the flood of Irish and German immigrants in 1880. Americans thought of the Irish as alcoholics, with this stereotype many businesses would not hire them. During World War I, 97% of the breweries in American were owned by Germans.
The other 3% were owned by the Irish. During his presentation Henderson had many slides of old cartoons, ads, and comics. In every illustration the drunkard was never well dressed, they always portrayed a middle-class working man.
Two of the biggest prohibition movements in America came from Ohio. One was in Oberlin, Ohio where they were called the ‘Saloon League’. They targeted schools and churches to have people sign and pledge they would never go into a saloon. They started to use pressure politics to get their people to vote and run for office so they had more representation in the government.
The other movement was Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which started in Cleveland, Ohio. They were against booze, tobacco, drugs, and stimulants. They would go to different towns and have ‘Temperance Days’. During these days they would preach, hand out water, and seltzer. They believed that you could cure alcoholism by drinking a gallon of water a day.
Another big part of the prohibition was Carrie A. Nation. She went into saloons with rocks which she called ‘smashers’ and started throwing them at all the liquor bottles. Her husband suggested she use a hatchet in which she thought was a great idea.
Nation along with her followers known ‘Hatcheteers’ wore pins with her name on them which she provided along with hatchets and they continued their movement. Nation’s motto was “Men are nicotine soaked, beer besmirched, whiskey greased, red eyed devils.”. Unfortunately, Nation passed away before she could see prohibition.
The 18th Amendment was submitted in 1917 and approved in 1919. It only made producing, selling, purchasing, and transporting illegal. Citizens could only consume what was already in their home before the amendment was enforced. The Volstead Act enforced the 18th Amendment.
This Act only allowed alcohol to be used chemically and medically. The infamous mafia leader Al Capone illegally bootlegged and distributed alcohol to places all over the United States including Detroit, Michigan and 2 places in Toledo, Ohio. He was never charged for any of these crimes. He was charged with tax evasion.
Williams County, Ohio was dry for 12 years. There were 28 stills in Williams county. One story that really stands out is “The Ark”. It was a floating tavern that Jacob Lahrman and William Cape built. They had it anchored on the St. Joseph River under the Clarksville Bridge on the Defiance side of the river.
The tavern quickly came to an end when the water levels rose and they faced being crushed by the bridge so they floated down the river and when they anchored, they were charged for violating the Volstead Act.
Another story that Henderson told was even closer to home with George Isaac who in 1920 was charged 3 times for violating the Volstead Act with one manufacturing charge and two transporting charges. The 18th amendment was repealed with the ratification of the 21st amendment on December 5th 1933. The 21st amendment ended prohibition in the country.
Some states did continue prohibition, the last state to end temperance laws was Mississippi in 1966. Henderson, then finished his speech, lightly covering the prohibition of marijuana which brought us to the political issues we are seeing today.
Kayli can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com