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Prohibition Era Prescription for Whiskey. This month marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Liquor Prohibition Era in the U.S. The 18th amendment went into effect in January, 1920. There was a murder at a Dartmouth Fraternity in Hanover in 1920. Henry Maloney was shot by Robert Meads in an argument over a supply of whiskey at the Theta Delta Chi fraternity house. Meads had shot another student a year earlier, though he was not charged for that murder. The first student Meads killed asked not to press charges on Meads because it was just a quarrel with a fraternity brother! Theodore Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss was a fraternity brother at Dartmouth in the 1920's. He was of german descent, and his father was a beer brewer before prohibition caused him to change his occupation. Geisel was a student during the prohibition era, and after young Theodore had been caught consuming gin at Dartmouth, he was forced to resign from extracurricular activities. So he decided to use a pseudonym, or pen name when writing for a The Jack-O-Lantern publication. That's when he started using the name, "Dr. Seuss". There was an interesting article in the Dartmouth Review, which includes some of the history of alcohol use and attitudes at Dartmouth during the Alcohol Prohibition period, starting in 1920. Here is an excerpt: "In spite of a 1923 vote by the faculty to expel any student caught drinking, Dartmouth soon became a hub for bootleggers. Many students travelled by train to Montreal to drink, while students and entrepreneurs alike worked to smuggle spirits from Canada to Vermont and then onto campus by automobile and train. " Where did the Dartmouth booze come from? One possibility is Barre, VT, via North Troy, via Canada. Above: North Troy to Westfield. 1925 USGS Imagery. During Prohibition, North Troy, Vermont was a major bootlegging hub, located near Highwater, Quebec, at the Canadian border. Alcohol was legal in Canada at the time. "Linehouses" existed right on the Canadian border, and were establishments for legal drinking. People used to make pilgrimages to Canada to spend time drinking at the linehouses, and also to attempt to smuggle a supply of illegal booze back into the USA . Barre, Vermont was a secondary hub. Rum runners would get supplied in North Troy, and head down to Barre, which was sort of a booze depot at the time of prohibition. Clarence Morse was 91 years old when he was interviewed by vermonter.com about his experience as a rum runner in the 1920's. Clarence recalled going through the towns of Westfield, Waterbury and Montpelier, while running booze down from North Troy. Below: Westfield to Lowell, VT. Map is from 1925 The route they took from the North Troy to Barre, looks interesting. Basically they headed south through the Missisquoi River valley. If you were to approximate that route today, it would probably take you down route 101 south out of North Troy. From there you would probably pick up Route 105, and then Route 100 south. The rum runners might go through the towns and villages of Jay, Westfield, Lowell, Eden Mills, North Hyde Park, Hyde Park, Morrisville, Stowe, Waterbury Middlesex, Montpelier and finally, Barre. North Hyde Park to Morrisville Close-up of Stowe and Stowe Hollow Stowe to Waterbury I'm betting they took many back roads, and "shortcuts" through the hillier areas, in order to skirt the village centers. These would have been the roads that were older and steeper, and in rougher condition. Considering the cars that were being driven in the 1920's, it would have been some kind of ride, especially with the law on your tail. Rum running was an extremely dangerous occupation, though quite lucrative. Many of the people who ran the booze down from Quebec from Barre, were locals, like Clarence Morse, who had been enticed to take a load down to Barre, by the "moneymen". The moneymen were the ones who paid the locals to take loads of booze to Barre. That way the locals took the biggest risk, and the moneymen got paid well. The locals didn't get paid unless the shipment was delivered successfully. Of course, the police knew about this, and knew the routes that were taken, so they would often be lying in wait for an unwitting rum runner. Clarence Morse related that when he agreed to take a shipment from North Troy to Barre, the "moneyman" promised him payment, but there would be no payment until the shipment delivery was complete. Once Clarence and his friends arrived in Barre, they brought the car with the booze to a five bay garage, and then pulled the car into a bay, shut the door, and left for an hour. Upon returning to the garage, they would find $125 on the car seat, and drive away. Clarence said times were tough, and the extra money really helped out. How times change! When I attended the University of Connecticut, back in the late '70's and early '80's, the legal age to drink alcohol was 18. Pretty much anyone who went to college was of legal age to drink. We had "package stores" that sold liquor. There were plenty of package stores in or near Storrs, CT in those days, and they were extremely obliging to young college students who had a desire for things like kegs of beer, and fifths of 190 proof grain alcohol, which fueled weekly parties. There was one package store that would not only sell you a keg of beer, but they would also deliver the keg to your dorm, set it up with the tap, bring you complimentary ice to keep it cold, and pick up the empty keg the next day. They even did all that without charging a deposit! All that has changed though, along with laws and attitudes regarding alochol consumption. Years ago I suffered from recurring nightmares about my college years. Most of the unpleasant dreams involved not knowing where my class was being held, and needing to get there for a final exam, or just plain being unprepared for a test, that kind of thing. I wrote a song about it, and made a video with it about a year ago, in part celebrating Dartmouth's 250th anniversary with some vintage photos from that college. Here is a link to the video: Going Back to College in My Dreams
Once I'd written the song, the nightmares went away! Here are the two articles I used for this post. Both have much more information and are well worth reading: Sources: http://dartreview.com/prohibition-destroys-dartmouth/ https://vermonter.com/bootlegging-vermont/ Photo of prescription for whiskey courtesy wikimedia commons. The map images used came from Topoview at usgs.gov which is also linked on the "MAPS AND LINKS" page of this website. Thanks go to "Out on a Limb" for musical accompaniment on the song, and also to Dartmouth Libraries for use of vintage photographs. - Bob Totz UPDATE: GREAT SONG BY BAYLEY-HAZEN BOYS, ABOUT HAULING BOOZE: "We sneaked across the border and we headed on down with another load of liquor into Barre Town"... THANKS TO JIM AND JOHN FOR THE INFO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h5U8yf4XaI
9 Comments
Jim Abbott
1/5/2020 09:38:36 am
Bob, there’s a great song by the Bayley-Hazen Boys - “Rum Runner” - about this very subject! The lyrics come from reminiscences of a grandfather of one of the band members.
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Bob Totz
1/5/2020 10:17:58 am
Great name, Bayley-Hazen Boys! I think the Bayley-Hazen road was one of the first roads through the wilderness of Vermont back in the mid-1700's.
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Beveerly Chapin
1/5/2020 03:34:57 pm
Reminded me of my father telling about working on the Lake Champlain ferry during prohibition and the cars loaded with booze being carried from north end of lake to south as they were headed for New York City. The cars had very large trunks and other accommodations to carry the most merchandise.
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Bob Totz
1/5/2020 04:22:58 pm
I'm still laughing out loud, Beverly! Thanks for that great story!
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Marcy Bartlett
1/6/2020 08:53:10 am
Well, that seals it. A UCONN alumnus also? I am CANR '79.
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Bob Totz
1/7/2020 09:36:33 am
It's a small, interesting world, Marcy!
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1/7/2020 06:03:54 pm
Family lore has it that my grandfather, Frank E. Barrell, ran a rum-running stop out of his place of business, Barrell's Garage, in Hartland VT during Prohibition. This may be apocryphal, but he was also known to be driving a brand-new 16-cylinder Cadillac in that same time frame- no mean feat in those austere days. One has to wonder where the money for such a splendid machine came from on a humble garageman's earnings.
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Bob Totz
1/8/2020 07:32:22 am
Great story. And a great name for a rum runner: "Barrell"!
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AuthorI'm Bob Totz, retired VT postmaster, and historical geographer ARCHIVES:
October 2021
EXPANDED ARCHIVES: AUGUST 2021 1858 Johnson Map of North America MAY 2021 1795 - "Road Over the Mountain" - Part Two Historic Toll House For Sale 1795 - "Road Over the Mountain" Part One OCTOBER 2020 Finding That Special Peaceful Place AUGUST 2020 Kayaking on the Pompy JULY 2020 Pt. 2: What the Heck Are These Things? JUNE 2020 Bob's Bio... What the Heck Are These Things? Pt. 1 MAY 2020 Stone Walls and Spirits The View APRIL 2020 Sunny Brook Farm Relics: Pt 2. Sunny Brook Farm Relics: Pt 1. MARCH 2020 Signs of Norwich Pt. 2 COVID-19 Tracking Map Centertown and Valleyquest Signs of Norwich Pt. 1 "Imperfect Union" - Book Review Historic Centertown FEBRUARY 2020 King's Hwy Pt. 2 WRJ Museum at Post Mills Airport Chatauguay Vermont The Independent Farmer poem Traveling Along the King's Highway - Lebanon NH JANUARY 2020 Finding Parkhurst Cemetery In Search of Parkhurst Cemetery Affordable Housing The Old Stone Grill Two Rivers Trail-Kmart License and Registration, Please! Prohibition, Murder and Dr. Seuss Peace, Paris, & P.O. DECEMBER 2019 BLOGGER'S LINKS Welcome to Old Roads Love-Quail Hollow fun Dartmouth Cemetery SEPTEMBER 2019 E. Thetford Cemetery JUNE 2019
Taps: Meetinghouse Cemetery 4-Corners Borders Quest Old Iron Gate Stumbling Upon History Sunrise Walk MAY 2019 4 Corners Cemetery Strafford's Abandoned Foundations Art in Old Stonework APRIL 2019 Strafford Tpke Pt 2 Strafford Tpke Pt 1 White River Valley FEBRUARY 2019 Learning from Historic Maps of the Upper Valley Change in Lewiston VT JANUARY 2019 A Vermont Ski Waltz John Ledyard 1773 What is the Upper Valley? DECEMBER 2018 Dartmouth Green Music Video: Sometimes Music Video: Montreal Express Railway Disaster of 1887 |