THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JOHN BARLEYCORN
RESEARCHED by SUE MYERS AND LOIS CASH
The death of John Barleycorn occurred in Buffalo, as per schedule, at 12
o'clock on last Monday night, after a long and painful illness. His death was witnessed by a few interested spectators and participants, some few of whom wanted to drink up the available supply before the hour of closing came.
The Capitol Bar closed at 11:30 and The Budweiser and Occidental at 12:00. There was very little drunkeness considering the occasion and very few headaches the next morning."
And so it was on July 3, 1919 the Buffalo Bulletin chronicled the beginning of a new era— the era of prohibition— and it was met with mixed emotions. For some it presented a challenge to meet the "demands of the thirsty public" for the law did not prohibit consumption, only the sale, manufacture or transportation of intoxicating liquors. Others took the new law seriously and supported those who tried to enforce it.
The State Legislature passed the prohibition law during its 1919 session and it was signed into law by Governor Robert D. Carey on February 15. As the time for enforcement drew near, some liquor dealers asked for a few days grace to ship their remaining liquor out of state but Governor Carey refused, stating they had had ample time to comply with the law and that any liquor on hand after July 1 was liable to confiscation.
A few weeks before the cut-off date, a new advertisement appeared in the Buffalo Bulletin.
Sheridan Export was calling attention to their new product, Sherex, which they described as a refreshing new health drink brewed in accordance with the state prohibition law", and the long-running weekly ad of Rudie Oltman
& Company's "The Budweiser" quietly disappeared from the newspaper's pages.
Oltman, along with fellow liquor dealers Kihm & Taylor, and Smith Brothers, asked for and received refunds of unused portions of liquor license fees amounting to $500.
During that first week in July, P.A. Wilkerson opened up a soft drink parlor in The Budweiser. Charles Swan prepared to open a like business in the Occidental, and Mr. Taylor was making improvements in The Capitol which he intended to convert into a first class hotel and rooming house
.
And the following week, the first two in a long series of bootleggers were brought before Judge Reimann. The Bulletin reported,
"One pleaded guilty and was fined $400 and in lieu of payment will spend 400 days in jail. Whew!
The other pleaded not guilty and was bound over to district court, but was sent to jail for 10 days for contempt of court."
On August 4, 1919, C.N. Walters, acting mayor, signed the ordinance prohibiting liquor traffic and providing a penalty for violation of said ordinance. It would be considered a misdemeanor with the fine not to exceed $100 plus costs or imprisonment in the city jail
for not more than three months, or both.
It is interesting to note that, although numerous arrests were reported in the local newspaper over the next 15 years, the final disposition of the cases apparently wasn't worth reporting. Those who were here during that period fail to recall a single bootlegger or moonshiner who suffered any prolonged incarceration even if the charges were brought into federal courts.
Sheriff John Stevenson was the man responsi ble for enforcement of the law in Johnson County during the early years of prohibition and he tookhis job seriously. While some sheriffs took advantage of the public's apathy toward prohibition was not true of Sheriff Stevenson.
Buster Eschrich recalls his brother-in-law, Ray White, telling about being with the Sheriff one day when he stopped a bootlegger's car north of town. The man offered the Sheriff $1,000 and all the whiskey he carried if he'd just forget the whole thing but his offer
fell on deaf ears and the Sheriff proceeded with the arrest according to the law.
In reporting the latest on prohibition, the news media apparently felt a need to entertain as well as inform as exemplified by the following excerpts from the Buffalo Bulletin.
July 4, 1920— "Three men came over from Monarch and Dietz to have a good time in the wilderness and among their possessions was a small quantity of prune juice which had a kick greater than a Missouri mule. They were arrested by Sheriff Stevenson and fined $50 each."
September 30, 1920— "Booze and a balky car created some excitement. Two men, evidently worse for the stuff grandad called drinking liquor', tried to back a car out of the Central Garage and went through a large plate glass window necessitating the expenditure of $175 on the part of the boozee. Sheriff Stevenson arrested them and a search revealed a few more drinks of that stuff that makes the world brighter. The two were placed under $1,000 bonds."
October 7, 1920— "It's been reported that flying machines have been bringing Canadian Scotch into the United States and some
unloaded here. We don't believe it 'cause everytime such a machine passes over Buffalo, we are always on Main Street with our mouths wide open and we have never yet felt— or tasted— anything like Scotch."
The newspaper might have been having fun with these rumors, but the Sheriff took them to heart, and he made his first connected arrest in mid-October when he stopped a Haynes roadster and confiscated 175 quarts of Canadian and U.S. whiskey.
A few days later he caught another car containing 12 sacks of liquor and then a third vehicle with a load of regular moonshine.
Several weeks later, the Bulletin also reported a raid on Paul Faulkner's cabin at Lake DeSmet during which a large still was disclosed.
By the May term of court, eight of the 12 cases on the docket involved liquor and by June 9, records showed that Sheriff Stevenson had taken in $15,640 during the previous six months in fines, forfeited bonds, and the sale of confiscated cars— nearly all of which
was for illegal liquor transportation. The fines went into the school fund while the revenue from the sale of confiscated cars at public auction went into the general fund of the county.
And the arrests continued, resulting in an editorial comment, "Sheriff Stevenson is certainly
making the booze running game through this county.
Among the moonshiners whose names found their way into the local court records were Earl Sutton, "Spec" Peters, Jesse Horton, Roily Gosney, Jack Alesch, Albert Zortman and Bert Alexander. In one raid in the Billy Creek vicinity, federal authorities confiscated a 150-gallon still, 10 sacks of sugar, 15 sacks of crushed corn, and 2 cases of yeast, but only a half gallon of moonshine. Other names often mentioned when moonshine was the subject were John Grandin and Johnny Craig.
And if moonshine was being made, it was being sold and a thirsty man didn't have far to go if he kept his ears and eyes open. Buffalo had its own "speak-easys" and among those rumored to operate such establishments were Mr. Kemper, P.A. Wilkerson, Fred and Ray Hupp, and "Dutch" Zortman. There were also the popular "beer gardens" where a man could buy a bottle of beer for a quarter. One of these was operated by a German couple in a home on Bozeman Avenue and another was located in north Buffalo. Bozeman Avenue on the east side of Clear Creek was especially off-limits to proper young ladies and was spoken of only in whispers.
For those with a taste for the milder stuff, wine was available at various locations. One of those who earned a reputation for making a good sour wine was Jose Bejino, but not everyone found his wine palatable. A local resident, who was just a young man in high school at the time, tells of how he happened to see Bejino bury a barrel of wine in the alkali flats in southeast Buffalo. He hastened to share this bit of information with a few friends and that night they made their way to the spot and dug up the barrel, anticipating a merry time for all. They knocked the bung out of the barrel and filled their cups— but one taste was all they could handle as the pucker remained long after the swallow. But being good boys, they replaced the bung, carefully lowered the barrel back into the hole, and covered it up, leaving it for the more seasoned drinker to enjoy.
By the early 1930's, a move was underway nationally to repeal the 18th amendment as illegal activities became more organized and widespread in spite of harsher punishments.
On June 7, 1932, local law enforcement officers demonstrated their dedication to duty and the event was duly reported: "The wind was from the north Tuesday when Sheriff Tisdale and his deputies began the destruction of a quantity of confiscated beer and whiskey, and it was but a few minutes later until a crowd from downtown had gathered on the courthouse lawn to watch the destruction and to View with alarm' the probable arid condition of Buffalo for a few days to come. More than a dozen cases of beer and at least 20 gallons of whiskey were used to demonstrate there was a quicker way of getting rid of it than drinking it, and the way some of the stuff popped when it hit the brick wall of the ash pit would lead one to believe that someone had used TNT in its production. We noticed one particular brew turned red when it hit the wall, indicating that the heart's blood of some producer was being spilled on the altar of prohibition. Anyway, there will be that much less for the folks to consume, but we understand that the stuff is a good deal like flies in that it propogates easily and quickly."
By July of 1933, 20 states had voted to repeal prohibition,including Wyoming whose legislature had already legalized 3.2 percent beer and wine, but the repeal could not go into effect until the fall of 1934 because of a law requiring constitutional changes be voted on at general elections.
In January of 1934, the State Legislature made strict provisions in the Beer Act, including a three-cent-a-gallon tax, a provision for parents of minora or habitual drunkards to institute court action against the seller, forbidding the sale of beer where public dancing is allowed, regulating profits of drug stores on sale of prescription whiskey, and providing for sentencing on DWUI charges.
First in Buffalo to apply for the beer licenses were Charles Hawley of Brehl Building, A.M. Smith of the Occidental, and Charlie Swan of the Potts Building. Soon after applications were filecl by R.S. Seney of SeneyBuilding, Pete Lucas of CapitolHotelBuilding, A.C. O'Leary of IdlewildHotelBuilding, and O.H.P. Mikesell of South Fork Inn.
After Wyoming voters elected to repeal the prohibition amendment by a wide margin on November 6, 1934, confusion reigned again as citizens awaited the 1935 State Legislative session which was to draw up liquor laws. The legislature ruled that prohibition would no longer be in effect after April 1, 1935. It is ironic to note that during this same legislative session, Governor Leslie Miller vetoed a gambling bill so although the liquor would again flow, all gambling devices and gaming tables would be shut down.
AN EXAMPLE OF 
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JOHNSON COUNTY, WYOMING