The Whiskey Papers #5 - Dying For A Drink

 The Whiskey Papers #5 - Dying For A Drink

In many ways, Terre Haute, Indiana, is my hometown.  I loved going downtown to Schultz's.  In fact, a large portion of my coolest Hot Wheels were bought at Schultz's.  But that was by day...   in the 1960s.  Decades earlier, at night, Terre Haute was "Sin City."

The Marine Room at the Terre Haute House in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Billed as the "Crossroads of America," Terre Haute hosted the intersection of US 40 "The National Road" and US 41.  Crime Bosses from the Chicago Syndicates traveled south while East Coast Bosses traveled west.  They met, so it is said, at the Marine Room, located on the ground floor of the Terre Haute House, a five-star hotel.  Many of their 'associates' resided nearby at the Terre Haute Federal Correction Unit.  Terre Haute was filled with all sorts of illicit behavior.  Edith Brown (no relation) was a prominent madam whose 'hospitality' was known far and wide. Terre Haute was home to one of the largest whiskey makers in the country.  Whiskey money helped the Hulman family acquire the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - you have, no doubt, heard of the Indianapolis 500.  To be fair, the Hulman's also owned Clabber Girl Baking Powder and gave my mother and her sister their first paychecks.  Terre Haute had gambling, illegal boxing matches, and law enforcement agencies that turned a blind eye towards all this and more.  How could I call Terre Haute home?

Newark, Ohio, was not much better.  In some ways, it was worse.  I still shudder when I see childhood images in my mind of the orphanage, but I digress.

Licking County voted to go dry -- that is, to ban alcohol production and sales -- in 1909.  Many saloons, especially in Newark, disregarded the vote and remained open.  The mayor of Newark was fine with that, and consequently, so were the police.  The Licking County Sheriff did not seem to want to enforce dry laws either.  In 1910, a Columbus temperance organizer, Wayne B. Wheeler of the Anti-Saloon League, hired some detectives from Cleveland to come to Newark to close these bars down.  Warrants were issued by Dr. E. J. Barnes, the mayor of Granville, who also swore the detectives in as officers of the law.  Granville was strongly temperate at that time.

One night, July 8, 1910, the hired detectives met their match.  The detectives were overwhelmed in a saloon brawl.  Carl Etherington, a 17-year-old who had lied about his age to join the detective force, managed to escape the melee and run down the street in escape.  According to one source, a retired Newark policeman and bar owner, William Howard, stopped Carl.  Carl shot William Howard.  Another source states the saloon was run by Lewis Bolton and William Howard caught and beat Carl.  Either way, Carl claimed self-defense.  William Howard would later die of his injuries.  Carl was taken to jail.

By 9:00 PM, a crowd, estimated to be 5,000 in number, gathered outside the jail in retaliation to the Anti-Saloon League's interference in local matters and the shooting of Howard.  Before 10:30 PM, a group stormed the side doors of the jail and took Carl.  By 10:35 PM, Carl Etherington was hanging dead, having been beaten to death by hammer blows to the head, from a telegraph pole at South Second Street and South Park Place -- the southeast corner of the Courthouse Square.  Carl was lynched.

Governor Judson Harmon (D), a Denison University alumnus (Class of 1866), intervened to restore order in Newark.  Governor Harmon removed Mayor Herbert Atherton and Sheriff William Linke from office and charged them with dereliction of duty.  The event received national attention.  Of the mob, 25 were indicted on charges of murder in the first degree, ten more were brought on charges of assault and battery, an additional 21 townsmen were charged with rioting, and two more perjured themselves.  How could I call Newark home?

Immediately, we should ask, 'How did it get to this?'  To answer, we must go back a hundred years or so.

300 Drys on South Liberty Street.

On Tuesday, December 8, 1908, 300 St Albans residents paraded through Alexandria to celebrate the passing of dry laws.  Licking County would pass dry laws in 1909.  The dry laws, as exhibited, faced opposition in urban areas, especially in Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.  On January 16, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified.  This amendment banned the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes[...]"  Temperance had succeeded.  By December 5, 1933, the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment.  From that time, the Temperance Movement waned in power and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments -- which allowed state and local governments to make their own decisions -- have been sufficient to provide law.

I think back to Terre Haute.  Terre Haute sits very close to Illinois.  Indiana laws were more restrictive.  We all knew that all you had to do was cross the border and go to Paris or Marshall, Illinois...  but, the police knew it too.

So how did we get here?  A pendulum swinging between good and evil?  Decades of pressure on politicians or populist fervor?  Doing the right thing?  You decide.  I will not tell you what to think...  All I know is that Carl Etherington died for a drink.