Friday, December 26, 2014

Masquerade in Ainsworth, Moonshine in Liverpool

To celebrate Halloween 1921, "the Ainsworth community" planned a masquerade party to be held in the auditorium of the W.G. Haan school. "Come and enjoy yourself. Everybody welcome." ("Masquerade Party." Hobart News 20 Oct. 1921.)

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Out of Liverpool came this mystifying story:

2014-12-26. Stills in Liverpool
Hobart Gazette 21 Oct. 1921.

It's mystifying not only because I can't identify the "old Flagherty place," but because of that last line, so carelessly tossed off — "a charge of arson"? What?? Didn't the poor guy just get seriously burned trying to save his still? I wish the writer had seen fit to explain. Perhaps it's a misprint.

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Rachel has tracked down an article that explains better what was going on out there on the old Flagherty place:

Toth arson
(Click on image to enlarge)
Lake County Times (Hammond, Ind.) 17 Oct. 1921.


I have not been able to determine whether Gabriel survived his burns.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://newspaperarchive.com/us/indiana/hammond/hammond-lake-county-times/1921/10-17/

I found this which explains the whole thing a little better. Seems it was arson because he did light the fire trying to destroy the evidence of distilling. Sounds like he got pretty badly burned. Do you know what happened to him?

Rachel

Ainsworthiana said...

Thank you! That makes more sense. I haven't seen any follow-up report in the Hobart papers through the end of November.

Rachel said...

Sounds bad for him, hope he made it. Thanks for the credit :)