Seeking tales of Prohibition

The Wayne County Historical Society is collecting oral histories and the topic is prohibition. For a new program titled Bootlegging, Moonshine, & Bathtub Gin, Andrea Evangelist is asking that people who have memories of the prohibition era in Wayne County please call the Old Jail Museum and share their recollections.

With the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution forbidding the manufacture, sale, import, or export of intoxicating liquors, national prohibition of intoxicating liquors became the law. In spite of the strict Volstedad Act (1919), law enforcement proved to be very difficult. Until the twenty-first amendment repealing prohibition was ratified in 1933, bootlegging, the smuggling of liquor, could not be prevented, and the illicit manufacture of liquor sprang up with such rapidity that authorities were unable to suppress it.

Information can be written and submitted to the Museum, given over the phone, or someone from the Museum can visit the person and tape their recollections. Names of people who might have been involved with any then-illegal activities will not be used in any programs and are not necessary for this project.

To help with this project, call the Society office at 946.4943, Monday-Friday, 10-4.

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