IVCC history instructor publishes book
Oct. 2, 2003
Grand Village Press has just published “Speakeasy” by R.G. Bluemer; this completes his trilogy of books on the history of the Illinois Valley.
In November 2002, Bluemer, an IVCC history instructor, completed the story of numerous railroads that crisscrossed the Valley in his work, “Rails Across the Heartland.” The first book in the series, “Black Diamond Mines,” describes the Valley coal mines at the turn of the century.
“Speakeasy,” a history of the Prohibition years in the Illinois Valley, begins with an account of the local breweries, including Peru Beer and Star Union in Peru, Eliel Brewery in LaSalle, Ottawa Brewing Association in Ottawa, and the Gebhard Brewery in Morris.
Bluemer was able to find a number of people who recounted their experiences during the days of moonshine whiskey and home-brewed beer. Local residents explained how their relatives or neighbors manufactured the illicit liquor, beer, and wine in the 1920’s.
The passage of the Volstead Act in 1919 marked the beginning of a turbulent 13 years of history that is usually not even described in local centennial books. When local officials could not, or would not, enforce the federal law, LaSalle and Bureau County sheriff’s departments and federal agents conducted raids. Every year, the number of raids increased in towns, but the influx of organized crime and the protections system that developed made it all but impossible to stamp out all of the local manufacturing and sale of liquor.
The local “soft drink parlors,” as the bars were called back in the ‘20’s, were generally small operations with limited stocks of beer and wine. The LaSalle County sheriff was constantly raiding First Street in LaSalle and the south side of Walnut Street in Oglesby, but the penalties were not enough to deter sales. Bar owners also came up with dozens of ingenious methods of disposing of their supplies when the law raided their establishments. Sometimes prohibition enforcement was a dangerous business. One prohibition investigator was seriously wounded and had his house in Streator bombed twice in 1925. LaSalle County responded with its own version of the famous federal agents known as the “Untouchables” and their leader Eliot Ness.
To document the hundreds of raids that were conducted, Bluemer drew on accounts form the local newspapers in LaSalle, Bureau, and Putnam Counties. According to the author, “Hardly a day went by when there wasn’t a front page story in the ‘LaSalle Daily Post Tribune,’ ‘Bureau County Republican’ or ‘Ottawa Daily Republican.’ On raids conducting in LaSalle or Bureau Counties. This went on for 13 years!” Federal agents discovered major distilleries operating in Cedar Point, Mark, Ladd, Arlington, Streator, Peru, and at the old Black Ball Mines between LaSalle and Utica. Thousands of gallons of moonshine were being produced for the Rockford and Chicago market. According to the U.S. State’s Attorney in the 20’s, LaSalle County was one of the major sources for illegal liquor being shipped to Al Capone. Eventually, armies of federal agents were raiding towns from Cedar Point to Spring Valley and Streator on a regular basis.
“Speakeasy” describes the reopening of legal bars on April 7, 1933, when the restrictions of the Volstead Act were lifted. The owners of former speakeasies could now operate openly.
Most of the illegal bars have longs since disappeared, and the breweries have generally been torn down. Bluemer concludes his new book with a chapter describing a few of the local taverns that date back to Prohibition days and the remains of the old breweries from Peru to Morris that can still be seen today.
“Speakeasy” is available in the IVCC Bookstore. They can also be purchased by mail from Grand Village Press, 134 Cleveland, Granville for $21- postage paid.