USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial history of Grant County, Indiana, 1812 to 1912 : compiled from records of the Grant county historical society, archives of the county, data of personal interviews, and other authentic sources of local information > Part 80
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REPRESENTATAP GROUP OF A MIO. CI SADEL.
against the use of intovivants, which threatened to produce a nation of drunkards, and the first a qual temperance reform was antorg fathers in Connecnent. These Wooden Naturgy aurmultinit allow the us of liquor among farm hands, and the whiskey que in the Grant county harvest fields has long been a thing of the past do & story that is told. although the pioneers know all about it
No one questions: "Moderation is the best temperatur . Temperance is the best diet; and Diet is the best doctor. " but temperatit as a mer. stepping stone seems never to have advanced any one's personal inter- ests. People always see through transparencies. and morality was never good polities. Temperaner cannot mean anything as a party issue, as an entire party does not subscribe to it, but business has taken bobl of the temperance question, and the day it became an economie rather than a moral issue progress was apparent. Those who live in glass houses do not find profitable pastime in throwing stones, and there are good and bad in all the parties. While our party offers shelter to temperance men who place that issue above all others, good men are not agreed on best methods. The Socialist doctrine is that with the element of profit re- moved, the liquor problem will solve itself, and the business corpora-
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
tions have touched the bread and butter question by requiring street sobriety. A sober employer is a safe business representative, while a drinking man is an unprobtable servant. When a man sechs employ- ment and his sobriety is investigated, he knows that best servir . is required of him. On the grounds of self-protection a proprietor does not want a drunken operative handling his machinery.
The railways and business houses are no longer reformatories, and it is known that a drunken man is a law suit breeder. It is said that the Jatter part of the eighteenth century was the wor Cera of inebriety aud intemperance, and the first half of the nineteenth century and until the Civil war was an epoch of secret temperance societies. Everything has its day runs its course. The fraternal societies did not reach the masses, and they were abandoned after the war of the states as active temper- alice measures. They thd not reach the man in the gutter, and were therefore ineffective, and with the present generation being taught seien- titie temperance there is hope for the future. All through history cach movement has no doubt touched and helped some homes, but county local option controls the situation in a way not attained by any other temperance measure. It has "blocked" things, and the handwriting is on the wall. The best is gradually coming to the surface in govern mental affairs, and with an increased knowledge coming from observa- tion and study, better judgment is asserting itself. While high license is the solution offered by some, that measure does not appeal to temper ance advocates.
It is said that reform must come through the heart. the judgment. and that it cannot be legislated, but sentiment must be created for il. When the hearts of men are enlisted something may then be accomplished - the work must be done from the inside, and Syon can no more cooper moral reform than you can shoot civilization into the Windows " Tem- perance agitation in its early history divided communities as today. and while they were not so labeled, the wet and the dry forces as orted them- selves When the pioneers came together the whisky jug was an adjunct of some gatherings, and others rolled their logs or raised their hollses and barns without the jug in their midst. The whisky jng was fre quently the bone of contention in the clearing and the harvest field, and an orrasional settler stood on his privilege while others who had the jug lived to see their mistake when their sous filled drunkand's gratis. In was a question of economics then-the settler who was temperale sertti ing better work in his elearing and after many years the practical sub Seems to be in the ascendeney.
An article in the American Bottler, probably read mostly by the engaged in the liquor business, claims that " while a well directed mor and educational campaign has been carried on for a number of your this alone would not have accomplished the results for prohibition now manifest. Business elements have entered into the light against liquor with great feet. One of the most prominent of these is the new laws making employers liable for damages in case of accidents to their em- ployees. An employer who signed a petition to the legislature for a temperaner enactment is quoted as saying: 'T am liable in damages for the acts of my employees. If one goes out at noon and eats a free lunch at the corner saloon, spending the money intended for lunch for beer and whisky. the chances are that he will not be as alert or keen as he would have been without it. The possibility of accident grows in pro- portion to the amount of liquor in his system. If an accident oreurs, we must pay; consequently, I am going to protect myself. as a matter of good business policy, by trying to close saloons around onr factory.'" Thus interest in protecting the community from the evils of liquor sell-
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
ing is now being reenforced by self-interest, and business interests. Along with other corporations life insurance companies are finding temperance people better risks, and preference is given them in the mat ter of rates. The temperance question is now a dollars and cents propo- sition, and the pocket book usually controls the situation. While morals may still enter into the consideration it is nevertheless a cold blooded business proposition a question of safety, and business interests are better taken care of by sober men. Morality alone bas no compelling power, but the bread and butter proposition is full of argument in favor of sobriety.
Man who is recognized as the main consideration in the temperance question has been toasted thus: "He is like a kerosine lamp not over- light, often turned down, generally smokes and sometimes vars out at night." and yet moral conservation is reaching out for ham with all of his short comings-his vices. In short, the gentleman dri ker is the temperance problem, as nobody defends the constant drinker. the man who is in the ditch and lost. The families who have liquor in their homes are the burden of the community. While the saloon has been characterized as the poor man's club, the social clubs with booze in their cellars have been the greater menare. The high toned citizen who indulges has been the difficulty-has blocked all progress. Were it not for his attitude the liquor business would not stand at all, would not last longer than an ordinary slune frost in Grant county. While temper ance warfare has always been spasmodic effort, the women excepted, the whisky cohorts never rest-quittees, no, and time alone will reveal the result. While Grant county polls the heaviest prohibition vote in Inch ana, "spotless" does not as yet describe the situation.
It is said there was more aggressive temperance warfare in the 'sey- anties than since that time, and in that decade the Murphy movement was sweeping the country. Good Templar lodges flourished then, and the Sons of Temperance was a strong organization prior to the Good Templar order. The Baxter law. although regarded as a Republican measure, has its influence in Grant county. William Baxter was a Quaker living at Richmond, an Englishman having club Feet. but he was a wou tlertul orator a real "spell binder, " with conviction in Ins words, and he was heard all over Grant county. Mr. Baxter was always the guest of Cornelius and Susan Ratliff at their home, now Ellendale, on Sixty- eighth street, When on his temperance visits, and as a child the welter signed the Baxter Temperance Pledge-abstain from the use of all intoxi vating liquors as a beverage. He was perhaps the first speaker who attempted to reach children with his gospel of total abstinence. The Baxter, Moore, Nicholson and Proctor laws have all influenced local conditions, the latter differently from the others. While the Anti-Saloon League was never organized locally, local support has frequently len extended to it. While Marion has had a brewery among its industries, there has been very little illicit distilling within the comdy. although "moonshine" products were obtainable across the border in a few instances. Robert Thompson, a Monroe township coon hunter, was reputed to operate a still in an early day, and the Litzenberger still at Somerset supplied local patronage.
In an early day it was considered eminently proper to keep liquor in the homes of Grant county, and its medicinal qualities have never been questioned, some dropping cherry seeds in it and labeling it "bitters." -the pioneer's method of escaping the wrath of a disturbed conscience. But people then used liquor without conscientious seruples, an unadul- terated article, and drunken men were seklom seen in the community. Waves of enthusiasm from all great leaders have swept the whole coun-
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
try, and Grant comity has had its part in several popular uppsings Public sentiment has been aroused and people are beginning to hold the seller and drinker alike responsible each an accessory in crime, and the Murphy movement reached many firesides with its influence. It was in the late seventies that societies flourished in Grant county. Francis Murphy having begun it in 1870 in Maine, and in that decade there were ten million blue ribboners in the United States. Many Grant county citizens donned the badge, the little bow of blue, and the movement was popular as long as Mr. Murphy lead it himself. Francis Murphy was a native of Ireland, born in IS36, and his last public service was as a chap- Jain in the Spanish-American war, and 1907 was the time of his death. The Murphy movement was an appeal to humanity, man's humanity to man, and the great leader persuaded rather than cocreed men into the ranks.
Francis Murphy visited Grant county, and the Murphy Tabernacle in Marion was a result of his local popularity. It was an oldl Wesleyan Methodist church standing on the present site of Gethsemane Episcopal church that had in war times been "dubbed" the Abolition church because in it Moses Bradford had worshipped, and it seemed fitting that it should become a Prohibition storm center. The Abolition church was also designated: "Hog eye," because it was on high pillars without underpinning, and in the village days of Marion, when most families kept swine in town, the entire herd used to wallow under the church to escape the flies and the heat of the sun. Sometimes the worshippers were disturbed by the subterranean noises, and mien who were boys m war time all remember the church appellation. Meetings were held twice a week in the tabernacle for several years, and then the faithful low became otherwise interested in temperaure agitation
Writing on the subject in the Fighties. Heury William Blair said : "The conflict between men and alcohol is as old as civilization. more destructive than any other form of warlare, and as fierce today as any time since the beginning, " and the application is local. There was a retnonstrance against alcohol in the Torties, and the war has been on unceasingly since that time, although during the rebellion the agitation was not so strong, and for a few years afterward the forces were not as well marshalled as at present. The alcoholic evil is the subject of crucial investigation all of the time, and the wets and drys lie awake nights planning how they may ontwit each other. When the drys are in the ascendeney, it is because a few men "hang on like a bull pup to a root," and vice versa, and both have staying qualities. A few men mall the guns continually, always on the firing fine, and their friends know whom to give eredit. While the "blind tiger" is a bugbear and a men- ace, it has never been a "poor man's club, " the social center like the saloon, and while the saloon was out of existence through local option, people learned to find other amusement centers while some remained at home with their families.
When saloons were reenstated in Marion for a short time in 1912, it had become so unpopular to patronize them that only a few of them found the business profitable. Perhaps six out of twenty-one were being operated with a margin of prolit under the high license system, with the consequent loss of customers during the more than two years withont legalized saloons in the county. In the interim men had learned that groceries and beefsteak meant more to their families, and the "high cost of living" had made the money spent in the saloons seem like wasted. Thus economies enters the question again. Of course the "blind tiger" patronage which continued unabated, saloon or no saloon, ent in to the profits of the legalized business and the operating expenses were 100
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
umch for the proprietors. It is said some were glad of a technicalit. m Jaw that closed their doors before the sheriff did it for them. The "blind tiger" competition was hard to combat hard to conviet the fellow who sold booze from a hot water bottle in an alley, and some were ready to give up the uneven struggle. While local option is not satisfar fory as a finality, many have felt that it is a step in the right direction state and nation wide Prohibition.
Governor J. Frank Hanley and his special session of the Indiana legislature in August, 1908, precipitated local option in Indiana and made of Governor Hanley, quoting another: "The worst hated and best loved man in the state," the different points of view being the basis of hate and love. To the Hon. Aned E. Ratliff is due the local precipi- tation- some one must always be the man of the hour and he took the initiative in Grant county. The referendum was an indory ment . 1 l as yet the recall is only partial. While others might have captured Manila, Admiral Dewey was there and the same is true of the local option situation. While Governor Hanley threw himself into the whirlpool, there are those who say he disrupted the Republican party, and that the cause of temperance was not advanced by him that everything he accomplished was already on the way, but that is the debatable ques tion. The first local option election under existing law, the county nuit as a basis, was held February 23, 1909, "Skidoo' to the saloon being the slogan associated with "23" as a slang expression, and the dry majority was 2, 153 am munistakable indication of temperance sentiment for Grant county. Before the recurring option election two years later. February 28. 1911, the Proctor law had passed the Indiana legislature, and with the unit changed to a township basis the aggregate dry majority das increased, but the changed nuit showed Center township. onside of the city of Marion, wet and with a majority of thirty-live in one Marion precinct lined up wet, the county commissioners declared the county dry ou account of fraudulent votes, and the opposition never cleared itself of the charges. A third election was unnecessary except in four units the city of Marion, Pleasant and Van Buren townships, and Gas tily. where elections were held March 3, 1913, with the result that only Gas City invited the return of the grog shop, and remonstrance on the part of the temperance people did not change conditions.
In the third election the count was reversed in the city of Marion the dry majority reaching 123 while the two townships were dry la over whehaing majorities. While Marion wets claimed the majority m the second election, licenses were delayed for several months on one trelmi- cality and another, and finally by state decision the town was dry again -and with the people of the state watching the process, the board of county commissioners stood like the Rock of Gibraltar, and other conn ties were influenced by them. The fraudulent vote was credited to a locality that is frequently inundated, and wet was its characteristic, and the entire county objected to being controlled by Johnstown. With its heavy Prohibition vote and strong temporanee sentiment, the people encouraged the county commissioners in their stand against frand and the licensed saloon, and while total annihilation is the determined pur- pose, there is still one small wet oasis in the dry desert of reformation in Grant county.
While the women do not vote, many do not care for suffrage only along reformation lines, they certainly seconded the motion when the men of Grant county moved against the saloon through the local option process. While some women may wish to grapple with the affairs of state beyond the moral question, practically all rallied to the standard when there was chance for a half Joaf, although statewide Prohibition has
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
always been their slogan. The Grant County W. C. T. I. was It only organized body in the county doing warfare against the saloon when local option became an issue. The women were quick to offer their sert ive, and literature and petitions were effectively circulated by them. While the womes had always stoud with the men in the carly temperance organizations. the crusade, which had its birth in Thisboro, Onie. m 1873, attracted many of the more aggressive women of the country. While the crusade was a shortlived movement it left behind it a splendid offspring-the W. C. T. U. of the country. The crusade was the begin ning of definite action : somebody was tired with principle, and mmulula- tion was the purpose. Carrie Nation methods have sometimes prevailed since then in some localities, although only for a few months was the crusade an active agency in Grant county. Men of today enjoy recount ing the part their mothers had in the crusade. There were mog . inci-
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THE MAN IN THE DOOR DOES NOT INVITE. THE ATTENTION OF THE WOMEN
dents connected with it that are remembered than in all the other less demonstrative movements.
There was rivalry among women as to who should knock the heads out of whisky barrels, and no matter how much water had been added to the stock, they purchased it and emptied the contents into the street. Whisky barrels were changed from one cellar to another to escape the women, and it was always a weakened article they sent coursing to the river. The crusade has no precedent in history and there will never be need of repetition, but the ceremony attending pouring whisky into the gutter is well remembered by men who were in Marion that long ago. The women sang hyunmis and prayed in the saloons, and when entreaty failed they went with their knitting and spent the day, thus embarras- sing trade until the drink habit was temporarily reduced in the town. The "Snakehole, " operated by a negro named Calvin Hood and " Bill"' Comer, was a special concern with the women of the crusade, and white in operation they caused one man to abandon bis "nefarious" business forever. They bought his stock and emptied it, and when they saw him again he had left off his bar apron and was ever afterward a different character.
The "Snakehole" was a saloon with an outside entrance under the Spencer hotel, oysters were in stock, so that reputable citi ens seen going
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
there were always after bivalves. The iron banister fouling down the saloon stairway was decorated at the end with a snake band, and " - golfo hole" was suggestive as a name of the "diye" maintained there is said there were From fifty to one hundred women who were con polud with the crusade movement, and for about six months they Went in than and spent the day with needle work and knitting, and when not allowed inside they sat in front of Marion saloons, some Jonesboro and Fair mount women faking turns with the women of Marion. There with "Mother Thompsons" in many households, although the founder of the erusade was never so violent as Mrs. Carrie Nation, Mrs. Hannah O'Farrel was an active woman in the crusade movement, and an attempt to enumerate the leaders would result in omitting some, but they repre seuted the best homes in Grant county. The Rev. A. W Coan, at the time a Marion minister, ably seconded the efforts of the crusaders and White's hall was their puldie meeting place. Mrs. Susan Ratliff was the first woman to pray in the "Snakehole." 1. W. Sizemore then operated a saloon in connection with his tonsorial parlor, but for several years only white men have shown sufficient moral character to engage in the honor traffic.
The crusaders used to hold many street meetings, and humorons things happened at some of them. It is related of "Old Davy Wilson,' a negro minister from the "settlement, " that when he wanted to preach a " powerful"' sermon he would first visit the " Snakchole " When sona one expostulated with him, he said : "It always makes me bold in the gospel," entirely destroying the man Fearing spirit that sometimes pus sessed him when not "tanked up." He long ago Went to his reward and " Yea, verily, his works do follow him, " as there are others who take his view of the matter. In confirmation of the old negro minister's theory, some one added : "Just give a rabbit two drinks of whisky and it will spit in a wildcat's eye," and the effect is unquestioned While the crusade was a short lived movement, it paved the way for another organt zation that better expresses the emotions of women, and November Is. 1874. the W. C. T. U. sprang from it in Cleveland, Ohio, in a convention of temperance advocates. While the crusade was a tremendously inter esting era in Grant county, women on picket duty at all of the saloons. the liquor traffic never knowing such a for as the women, constant in sea- son and out of season, the W. C. T. U. as an organization better expresses their sentiment.
Emotion, love and sympathy predominate the average woman, and as an organization the W. C. T. U. is both religions and sorular accom plishes something both going and coming, does anything that is approved by God. When the men fold the women of the country they should raise np voters instead of asking for the franchise, they immediately began educating future voters, the beginning of scientific temperance in the public schools, and now tirant is recognized as the banner W. C. T. I county in Indiana. The child of today is the parent of tomorrow, and the women are right in their campaign of education. The Christian Alexanders still have worlds to conquer, and the evils of intemperance are being counteracted in the public schools. While the Hon. Neal Dow was the Columbus of Prohibition, Maine having enacted such a law in 1851, scientific temperance is awakening the young to the advantages of sobriety. The crusade was swallowed up by the Temperance League, which was a district affair in this locality, with Mrs. Jane Turner, of Kokomo, as its first president. Two Grant county women were officers in the league, Mrs. Julia Overman being secretary and Mrs. Mary Bald- win Moore, treasurer. The W. C. T. U. was organized in Indianapolis and soon spread to Grant county, supplanting th . Temperance League
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
and Mrs Lydia Ann Jones became its first president. For forty years 11 has been an influence for good, keeping the temperance sentiment alive m the entire county. "For God and home and native land, " is the slogan, and The Union Signal brings its weekly message into many bons looks
Grant county has three times entertained the State W. C. T I .Isso ciation, 1-92. 1599 and again in 1911, and it has furnished two state presidents. Mrs. Eunice Pierre Wilson being elected in the century year ad serving three years, since which time Mrs. Culla J. Vayhinger has served continuously Grant county the center since the new century. Mrs. Mattie O. C. Gibson is a life member of the W.C. T. U. organitza tion, and she has written a history of the movement in Grant county which will in time be published by the county association. While the women do not have the franchise they control the vote in many house holds, and with forty six different departments of special personal work the women of the county ate a "balance of power" in many things. They have planned their work and work to their plans, nothing hit and miss about it. but a definite proposition, and there is no comptonuse with the forces of evil. When Mrs. Wilson was chosen state president. Mrs. Giulie E. Shugart, of Willow lodge, who had served the Deer Creek I'mion as president from its organization, was elected county president and in the discharge of her duties she has traveled thousands of miles about the country. The Deer U'reck Union, the home of the county prest dent, is the largest rural temperance organization in the county. The women used to talk about reaching a membership of one thousand in Grant county, but when 1912 went off of the calendar the membership had reached 1.136 and the campaign was only well started, and victory is the ultimate end in view- Prohibition instead of led option.
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