ALTON - In 1907, Illinois passed a local option law giving residents of a precinct the ability to outlaw the sale of alcohol. Alton voted again and again to remain a wet town, deciding in 1908, 1914, 1916, and 1918 to continue the sale of alcohol in the city. But soon, a change to the U.S. Constitution would take the matter out of residents’ hands.
In 1919, the newly ratified 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors. There were, however, loopholes, and citizens took full advantage of them. The Amendment did not limit the possession or production of alcohol for one’s own consumption. Individuals could make alcohol and share it with friends as long as they did not sell it. Authorities also required “hard” evidence to convict violators. An article in the Alton Evening Telegraph on July 10, 1924, describes a common situation. “After a few nights of raiding on soft drink establishment keepers who also retail hard drinks, the police have been getting no results. They made four raids last night and they found in each place a faithful guardian of the booze pitcher standing ready to act quick about turning over the booze into the sewer. In no case were the officers able to get any evidence of liquor sales. At once place Officer Dwyer had a struggle with the guardian of the pitcher and between the two of them they smashed the pitcher and the contents spilled, so that it was impossible to use it for evidence.”
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Several weeks later, on July 24, the Alton Evening Telegraph printed a very poetic account of moonshiners in Jerseyville’s Oak Grove Cemetery. The sexton, Strother Kennedy, observed figures flitting about the graveyard in the wee small hours of the morning. Upon investigation, he was greeted by “odors of moonshine floating about on the morning breezes.” The sexton warned the young men to move on and they did, leaving a bottle of liquor behind in the cemetery. Kennedy turned the bottle over to the city authorities, but no action could be taken against the young men because police could not prove who owned the whiskey.
Newspaper articles of the 1920s are full of similar stories, as well as more serious arrests, murders, organized crime, and corruption related to prohibition. In 1933, the 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition. Cemetery sextons breathed a sigh of relief.
Sources
68. Ratification of 18th Amendment (1919) Office of the Illinois Secretary of State. https://www.ilsos.gov/departments/archives/online_exhibits/100_documents/1919-ratify-18-amend.html
“Alton Gives and Immense Majority in Favor of Saloons.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), April 8, 1908.
“Alton Votes Wet, But the Gap is Narrowed to 800,” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), April 8, 1914.
“Booze Joints have Vigilant Guards over Pitchers.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), July 10, 1924.
“Drys Sharply Reduce the Wet Majority in Alton.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), April 5, 1916.
Harris & Ewing. [Woman holding poster "Abolish Prohibition!"]. [1931]. Harris & Ewing Collection. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, repro. no. LC-DIG-hec-36340. https://www.loc.gov/resource/hec.36340/
Kelly, Kerry C. The Volstead Act. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 2017. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/volstead-act
“Moonshine Found in Cemetery by Sexton.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), July 24, 1924.
“Wets Win by Over One Thousand.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), April 3, 1918.
Special thank you to Ann Davidson for all of the research she did on Alton and Prohibition for the Hayner Genealogy & Local History Library in 2016.
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