Another Chapter in the Story of the Saloon

We've already learned that the Ainsworth saloon came into the world in 1899, built by Ed Sauter and first christened Sauter's Place; and that Ed sold it early in 1904 to Claus Ziegler, a former Hobart saloonkeeper who moved to Ainsworth to run the saloon himself.

Claus ran the saloon for a little more than a year and a half. Then it seems he sold it: the Hobart Gazette of September 22, 1905, carried a notice of application for a liquor license, describing the former Sauter's Place and signed by W.N. Wagoner (whose true Christian name remains a mystery to me).[1]

The licensing process didn't go smoothly for W.N. Early in October the Lake County commissioners denied his application due to a remonstrance filed by that quietly respectable Ainsworth farmer, Cyrus E. Smith, "et al."

Most of what I know about the Indiana remonstrance law comes from Judge Woodfin Robinson, whose Powers and Duties of County and Township Officers in the State of Indiana, published in 1900, summarizes the then current statute and case law concerning liquor licenses. The remonstrance law dated back at least to 1894. It granted to any voter in the township in which a particular applicant wished to sell liquor the right to file a formal objection to the granting or renewal of that applicant's license on account of his "immorality or other unfitness." (And it was always "his" — women could not hold liquor licenses.)

What constituted "immorality or other unfitness"? The statute specified only the "habit of becoming intoxicated," but subsequent case law expanded the potential grounds for remonstrance, so long as the remonstrant could prove specific acts of immorality — not just allege a generally immoral character. Courts had sustained the decisions of county commissioners to deny a license based on any one of the following facts:
♦ The applicant frequented places where gambling was permitted.
♦ Drunken men often congregated in front of the applicant's saloon.
♦ Drunken men had been seen going in and out of the applicant's saloon.
♦ The applicant had allowed minors to use pool tables in his saloon.
♦ The applicant had gambled at dice with minors.

But the county board was not obligated to deny a license in the face of such facts, nor to grant a license in their absence — it was a case-by-case, county-by-county decision. "No standard of morals is or can be fixed by law," said Judge Robinson.

I wish I knew what exactly Cyrus et al. had against W.N., but unfortunately the Gazette didn't report the particulars. And ultimately Cyrus lost; in November 1905 the county commissioners reversed themselves and granted W.N. his license.

After all that trouble, he ran the Ainsworth saloon for only a few months. In March 1906, the Gazette reported that Claus Ziegler had bought the saloon back. (W.N. moved to Hobart and took over management of the Kuschinsk saloon.)

Once again a year and a half was about Claus' limit. In September or October 1907, he sold the saloon to William F. Wollenberg. (Claus moved to a small farm north of Hobart; if he farmed, it wasn't for very long — by early 1909 he had hired on to run Hugo Zobjeck's saloon in Hobart.)

William had been farming rented land near Merrillville when he decided to quit farming and go into the saloon business. He moved his family to Ainsworth, where the 1910 census finds them living, probably, in the saloon building — William and his wife, Adelphine, and their children, Myrtle, William Jr., and Edward.

The saloon business suited William better than farming, it seems: I've gotten through 1912 in the microfilm, and he is still happily keeping the Ainsworth saloon, and getting his license renewed year after year with no recorded opposition from Cyrus Smith or anyone else.


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[1] 6/27/2019 update: I now have a theory about his given names.


Sources:
♦ 1910 Census.
♦ "Application for License." Hobart Gazette 22 Sept. 1905; 12 Apr. 1907; 1 Nov. 1907; 19 Sept. 1908; 8 Oct. 1909.
♦ "General News Items." Hobart Gazette 6 Oct 1905; 17 Nov. 1905; 4 Oct. 1907.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 16 Mar. 1906; 8 Feb. 1907; 27 Sept. 1907; 26 Feb. 1909.
♦ "Notice for the Renewal of Liquor License." Hobart Gazette 6 Oct. 1911.
♦ "Notice to the Citizens of the Town of Ainsworth." Hobart News 10 Oct. 1912.
♦ Robinson, Woodfin D. Powers and Duties of County and Township Officers in the State of Indiana. Indianapolis: The Bowen-Merrill Company, 1900.