"Whiskey Still Raided"

On the afternoon of October 14, 1919, three U.S. Army trucks drove into Hobart from the northwest, as if coming from Gary. Though this caravan moved quietly and at a moderate pace, it couldn't help being noticed; yet its mission was as mysterious to the town's officers as to any ordinary citizen. The trucks headed toward the southern reaches of the town, south of "Jake Kramer's subdivision," and finally stopped at a house that Jake Kramer had sold, a couple years earlier, to one John Preslach of Gary.


(Click on image to enlarge)
I cannot locate any area in southern Hobart designated "Jake Kramer's Subdivision," so I suspect the area in question was the Jake Kramer, Jr. Addition, lying south of 10th Street and north of 14th, east of State Road 51.
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Out of the trucks leapt federal officials and armed soldiers, who swiftly carried out their mission: raiding the house and arresting John Preslach.

The reason soon came to light, as the raiders spent the afternoon hauling barrel after barrel out of the house — 18 barrels of whiskey, several more of "fresh made" wine, and as much as 2,000 gallons of raisin brandy. The soldiers also hauled out (in the words of the Gazette) "one of the largest illicit stills for making whiskey ever captured by the government…. The still was a superior make and had a capacity of three gallons per hour." Two of the Army trucks were loaded with barrels of liquor and the third carried the still when the caravan finally set out to return to Gary.

In Gary, another raid had been carried out that afternoon, at a building at 17th and Delaware, also owned by Mr. Preslach. That raid yielded about 1,000 gallons of raisin brandy.

The total haul of raisin brandy alone that day was valued at about $75,000 — nearly $1 million in today's dollars.

Both of Hobart's papers, reporting on the raids, asserted that John Preslach was something of a lower-level worker in a liquor-manufacturing outfit headed by a couple of Gary residents, one whose name is given variously as Sava Gaich or Sace Babich, the other named John Kocich. Those two had been under suspicion for a couple of months; local authorities finally called in the feds. "Local authorities" in the reports probably meant Gary authorities, as all of Hobart had been in the dark, according to the Gazette:

As far as can be learned, no "tip" came from this town and no one here seemed aware that Hobart was sheltering the largest known still for making whiskey in Lake county, if not in the state. Neither were the local officials advised of the arrest or asked to assist. Uncle Sam works quietly….

Hobart was only the manufacturing site. The liquor was to destined for sale in Gary.

One can almost hear a note of wistfulness in the final comment by the News: "The whisky and wine is freshly made, and seasoning of the same would have made it the strongest and best liquor obtainable."


Sources:
♦ "A Whiskey Still Raided in Hobart Last Monday." Hobart News 16 Oct. 1919.
♦ CPI Inflation Calculator.
♦ "Government Makes Still Raid in Hobart." Hobart Gazette 17 Oct. 1919.