“County wasn’t isolated from moonshining and bootlegging” from the March 20, 1979 Door County Advocate
By JOHN ENIGL
County wasn’t isolated from moonshining and bootlegging
By JOHN ENIGL
Valentine’s Day passed this year with hardly a mention of an event that climaxed a period in this country’s history that most people would rather forget. The event was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, which took place 50 years ago, in a garage on Clark Street in Chicago. Seven men associated with Bugs Moran’s North Side Gang were assassinated by rival bootleggers from Al Capone’s organization.
The prohibition period, during which the Volstead Act forbade the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States; was in effect from 1920 until 1933. It was passed while the boys were away, fighting World War I. They came back to a “dry” land.
But such ambitions and practical young men as 21 year old Alphonse Capone realized that passing a law wouldn’t make Americans any less thirsty. The organization he came to lead developed a vast system to supply that need, and its tentacles reached' way up into Wisconsin: In fact, legend has it Door county was one of Capone's favorite spots, at least to visit.
There wasn’t anything in the Milwaukee Journal or Sentinel to commemorate the Massacre that led to Capone’s downfall shortly thereafter. The Chicago Tribune carried only a mention of it in the “Fifty Years Ago Today” column. The Waukesha Freeman, published in an area where. Capone’s organization was very active, was silent about the anniversary.
The fact is that the Volstead Act, being unpopular, created the climate for a lot of people to get involved in breaking the law.
Most people still living today, who were involved in the manufacture or sale of illegal liquor, are reluctant to talk about their part in such acts. A few stories have filtered through the years, but in telling them, I am going to exclude specific names and places, to respect the wishes of those I interviewed to remain anonymous. The point I wish to bring out is the fallacy of passing a law that only a minority wants.
In Door county, people made their own moonshine to a large extent. Now, here is a case when I can say that I am too young to remember very much of the period. I was around for most of the prohibition period, but I can remember only one scene from the time. It must have been around 1927, because in my mind I can see jolly group of revelers in our farm yard, with gallon jugs of the home-made stuff. The cars were shiny black Model T Fords, so it must have been a long time ago. Model T Fords didn’t stay shiny very long.
There were a goodly number of moonshine stills in Door county in the twenties and early thirties. I recall going to an auction sale in 1945 and seeing the copper coil used for condensing the “moon” being brought out for sale. There were chuckles from those in the crowd who recognized it for what it was. And a still was sold at a Door county auction in 1977, one that had been used until the owner died shortly before.
One tale I’ve heard tells about a bootlegger who carried a gallon jug of “moon” into a Fish Creek business place. He sneaked in a back door after being paid and retrieved the whiskey to sell again. There was no recourse to law for the person cheated, of course.
A moonshine “still” as drawn by David Enigl.
My mother’s side of the family was totally uninterested in participating in the violation of the Volstead Act. I believe this was due to traditional family and religious influences carried over from Norway. They just didn’t have any interest m alcohol.
My dad’s side of the family, coming from Austria, had different influences. It was traditional to have wine at meals over there. Many of Austria’s people depend on what they grow in their vineyards for a living. Fine beers are brewed there, such as Gosser. However, the people over there don’t object if you’d rather have a Schartner, a delicious lemonade-type soft drink.
We didn’t make moonshine, however. I’ve heard tales that some barrels of moonshine were stored in our barn for a friend. I can remember Grandpa Enigl making some hard eider, but that was long after prohibition ended. Personally, I’ve never gotten interested in anything beyond beer, and my wife doesn’t even have much interest in drinking that.
I remember seeing an account in “Traveling Back” in the Advocate of the events of 30 years before, in 1924. The article told about a young man making the first trip to Sturgeon Bay by auto that spring.
“Yes, I remember that,” said my dad. “He brought a load of moonshine to town!”
Years later, I re-told the story to the man then a prominent businessman. He laughed. “Yes, I remember that trip. But the one remember best is the time I was hauling barrels of beer down the hill into town with a team of horses. The horses got away from me, turned the corner onto Third av. and the barrels rolled off right into Mayor Greene’s store window!” (The mayor referred to was former Mayor Stanley Greene’s father Harry, also a mayor of Sturgeon Bay.)
There really aren’t a lot of people who actually made moonshine, or who drank it, still living. Sampling of the “recipe,” and the rather unpredictable potency of the product, may have taken its toll. Many people became alcoholics during the period because people seem to crave what is forbidden all the more.
How could taverns operate during those times? I heard of one Jacksonport tavern that became a soft-drink parlor. Enforcement was light, due to lack of public support for prohibition.
Down in Chicago, alcohol production had become big business. Plenty of vacant warehouses and factories were to be found during those Depression days that were converted into distilleries. A mansion on Brookfield road near Waukesha was outfitted with an artificial lake to trap the fumes from a distillery there.
Some of that Chicago alcohol found its way north, to be sure. I talked to a lady from north of Menomonee Falls who remembers those days.
“We had the only gas station that was open at night along Highway 175 during the 1920’s. One night a big 12-cylinder Graham Paige drove in with two well-dressed men. One of them asked if they could store some cans of radiator alcohol upstairs in our garage. We thought they were auto supply salesmen. They had the back seat full of the cans.
“A couple of days later, they came back and loaded the cans in the car. We found out later the men were hauling bootleg alcohol, and they had ditched it when they found out that federal agents were following them.
“They often stopped at our garage to get gas after that, until one night they came in with a terrible knock in the Graham Paige’s engine. My husband checked the engine and found it had some broken pistons. They called for another car and left the car with us to be fixed.
“We had the engine bored out and pistons replaced but they never reclaimed it. We re-built it into a wrecker and used it for many years.”
This may be one reason that antique car buffs still find fast, expensive cars in the northern parts of Wisconsin. Some were abandoned by bootleggers. Ironically, the owner of the Graham-Paige gave his name as Eliot Ness and the lady still believes the famous crime fighter was running bootleg liquor before he went to work for the FBI!
The Capone organization tried to sell its product to, unwilling customers at times. The nephew of the owners of a tavern near Waukesha in those days told me of the time two men in Chesterfield coats drove up in a shiny Nash.
The tavern owners had been expecting a visit from Capone’s men, for Ralph Capone and his men had already gained a reputation as “salesmen.” Ralph gained the nickname, “Bottles,” because of his practice of breaking any non-Capone liquor bottles in taverns along his sales route.
These tavern owners, however, were used to tough guys. Their patrons were rough quarry workers, and two pistols were always kept beneath the bar in case of trouble.
When the Capone men came in, one of the tavern owners laid the pistols on top of the bar.
“May we help you, gentlemen?” asked one of the owners.
“Not today,” said of the Capone men, and they left.
Close to Chicago, more force might have been convincing, but pressure applied in the rural areas might have gained nationwide or at least statewide publicity and started a concerted drive for the destruction of the Capone organization. And Capone tried to maintain Wisconsin as a refuge, as we shall see later.
(Next: Public finally awakens and discovers prohibition is unworkable.)
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Articles about prohibition
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/prohibition
Articles by John Enigl
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/john-enigl