The Land of Lincoln and Liquor

The Indiana supreme court had confirmed the state's dry status, but Hoosiers in northwest Indiana were showing an unexpected ingratitude: not content with their earthly paradise of sobriety and clean living, they persisted in trying to quench their devilish thirst, and many of them fled across the Illinois state line to do it.

Among the pioneer lawbreakers was Ainsworth's own William Wollenberg. He was arrested in Hammond on July 3, carrying a jug of whiskey and a case of beer that he had bought in Illinois. (The report doesn't specify whether it was William Sr. or Jr.) He may have been fined $80, the usual penalty in Hammond for lawbreaking "saloonists."

Authorities near the state line were on alert, and people coming in from Illinois were "being carefully watched"; sometimes eastbound auto parties were followed and surveilled; Gary police inspected the luggage of travelers alighting from eastbound trains. As official vigilance increased, so did criminal ingenuity. "Many are the deceptions used for the conveyance of booze from Illinois into Indiana since the dry law went into effect," said the Hobart News, citing hearses, hay wagons, automobiles, suitcases, egg crates and milk cans among the disguises that liquor traveled in.

Less daring drinkers simply went to some convenient saloon over the state line, drank and then came back empty-handed. That practice was both legal and popular. The News related a story of an unnamed Hobart resident who, on his way home from visiting Chicago one Saturday evening, stopped in for a drink at a saloon in Lansing, Illinois, a border town. As he looked around at the other drinkers — there were 22 in all — he thought some looked familiar, so he conducted a poll to find out where they all had come from. As it turned out, every last one of them was from Hobart — according to the story, anyway. The News concluded: "Lansing, Ill., is on a straight line west from [Hobart] over the Ridge road, and with a good auto it is only a few minutes' run, and Saturday night was quite warm, anyway."

In August a Gary city judge ruled that a person could legally possess one gallon or less of whiskey, provided it was for personal consumption, not to be sold or given away. That merciful interpretation gave some small relief to thirsty people in Gary, at least, though how they were to get their gallon was another question.

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If you really wanted to lose your soul, however, you didn't have to go to Illinois — just travel a little further south in Lake County, to the resort town of Cedar Lake. There, "the laws of Indiana and of common decency are being flagrantly violated," according to a resolution passed by the Lake County Council of Defense on July 1. The resolution alleged "that intoxicating liquor is being sold and that lewd women are allowed to frequent houses in that locality …." The Council authorized Sheriff Lewis Barnes to take steps to clean up the town. Accordingly, on the morning of Sunday, July 7, the sheriff and his deputies swooped down upon Cedar Lake, raiding the resorts and making a number of arrests. The County Council of Defense insisted that Cedar Lake resorts would be closed "for all time to come."


Sources:
♦ "Booze Comes Across State Line Camouflaged in Many Ways." Hobart News 25 July 1918.
♦ "Conditions at Cedar Lake Again Reported to Be Deplorable." Hobart News 11 July 1918.
♦ "Dangerous Business." Hobart Gazette 12 July 1918.
♦ "Judge Dunn Rules on Liquor Law." Hobart Gazette 9 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 8 Aug. 1918.