Prohibition was enacted for political, economic and social reasons. It was passed due to Anti-German sentiment as a result of World War One – German – Americans largely controlled beer production in the Midwest and beer was nicknamed “The Kaisers Brew”. It was argued that the need for grain should be used to produce bread for US troops rather than alcohol. Job absenteeism due to excessive alcohol consumption and domestic violence also played a part (in the early 19th century Kentucky frontiersmen consumed an average of eight gallons of pure grain alcohol a year). Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries women spearheaded the Temperance Movement as they and their children suffered most at the hands alcohol abuse. Prohibition would later be repealed as a result of The Great Depression when it was seen as an obvious stimulus package necessary for the moribund American economy- opening breweries, bars and other new jobs and all associated with the industry. Forty percent of US government income had come from alcohol taxation before Prohibition was enacted and that flow of money could now return.
Westport was a prosperous agricultural community distinguishing itself as the leading onion-growing center in the U.S (James Jay Mapes (1853). Working farmer. Kingman & Cross. Retrieved November 21, 2011.) Southport globe onions were famed for their ability to keep for long periods in winter storage- they were shipped by the hundreds of tons to the Union Army during the Civil War, as the onion’s vitamin C content helped prevent scurvy http://www.fairfieldcitizenonline.com/opinion/article/Long-lost-Southport-s-signature-Globe-unearthed-3892530.php. Battlefield hospitals used pickled onion juice to heal wounds and prevent gangrene (NYorker in wpt, Potts, 90) and seventy five local farms were involved in the industry (NYkr, p. 90). Onions were exported by the millions from this agricultural epicenter also known as the “Onion Capital.” http://www.rareseeds.com/southport-white-globe-oni/
In New York, yellow and red onions sold for $1.50 per barrel and higher, while white onions commanded as much as $10 ($186 in 2015 dollars) per barrel. Westport onion farmers helped make Westport onions some of the most popular agricultural products in the Northeast. – See more at: http://connecticuthistory.org/the-many-layers-to-onion-farming-in-westport/#sthash.xUrwNGAc.dpuf
Toward the end of World War One, onion blight- a cutworm plague- caused the collapse of Westport’s onion industry leading to the mills and factories replacing agriculture as the town’s economic engine. (Richard Somerset-Ward (June 11, 2005). An American theatre: the story of Westport Country Playhouse, 1931–2005. Yale University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-300-10648-0. Retrieved November 17, 2011.) It happened almost overnight: Onions turned black in the fields, rotted, and the onion industry died with them. http://connecticuthistory.org/the-many-layers-to-onion-farming-in-westport/.
Local farmers had already been suffering since the year before. On Friday September 26, 1919 it was reported
POTATO CROP LOSS IN STATE WILL BE HIGH
TWO TO THREE MILLION DOLLAR LOSS-
EXCESSIVE RAIN ROTS THEM
Estimates that nearly 50% of the crop is a total failure and will undoubtedly result in the bankruptcy of many farmers.
And if the loss of onions and potatoes was not bad enough, the wheat crop had been devastated as well.
The August 6th, 1920 local paper reported
BIG SLUMP IN POTATO PRICES
Excessive rain led to massive potato crop failures.
This caused a further severe threat to the farmer’s livelihood. Farmers turned to melon growing and the empty onion storehouses on Burying Hill Beach, near Sherwood Island (the holdings of millionaire E.T. Bedford, to be explained in detail below) were rumored to have been converted into storehouses for booze shipped down the coast from Canada (BPS) p.82
Local farmers had already been suffering since the year before. On Friday September 26, 1919 it was reported
Estimates that nearly 50% of the crop is a total failure and will undoubtedly result in the bankruptcy of many farmers.
And if the loss of onions and potatoes was not bad enough, the wheat crop had been devastated as well.
FARMERS HERE LOSE THEIR WHEAT CROP
Wet weather wheat now not fit for pigs
Stephen B. Wakemen of Compo has been a farmer for more than a century is mourning the loss of his wheat.
There was not much left for a local farmer in the less than hospitable agrarian climate of the northeast left to grow. Note that the Fitzgerald’s rented the William Wakeman House in the Compo area. Perhaps it can be surmised that bootlegging was occurring in their back, front, and side yards about them as farmers desperately sought to survive. Fitzgerald’s neighbors on South Compo Road, the artist Edward F. Boyd and his wife, Marguerite Van Voorhis, once gave clothes and shelter to a near drowned bootlegger who had swum ashore at Old Mill Beach after his boat hit the rocks off Sherwood Island (BPS, 82).
Violations of Prohibition in Connecticut were widespread and led to an increase in both gang activity and violent crime. The Norwalk Hour of Monday ,June 6, 1922 reported
THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF ALCOHOL FOUND WHEN TAXI TURNED TURTLE IN WESTPORT LAST EVENING
Driver came from New York and was coming down State Street Hill at a Lively Clip When Front Wheel Turned under and Car Went Upside Down. – One of the covered Packages Sprung Leak and Precious and Prohibitive Fluid Poured out. – Occupants of Machine Spend Night in Station.
Word was telephoned to Officer Kirk and he, in company with prosecutor Sherwood, was soon on the scene and loaded the seventy gallons of alcohol, which was in 5-gallon cans, into the prosecutors car and taken to the town hall to await visitation of the federal authorities.
Jews, Kahn and Yesk very well may have been in the pay of the Westport bootlegger Bald Jack Rose.
TRUCK CARRYING $17,000 WORTH OF “BOOZE” HELD UP
ARRESTED FOR VIOLATION OF MIRROR LAW, AND THE LIQUOR IS FOUND-ON WAY TO PROVIDENCE-CREW OF FIVE IN BIG STUTZ
And still further investigation proved the truck to be loaded with several cases of whiskey.
Soon after a big Stutz car which was noticed to have preceded the truck. These men were the biggest specimens of humanity that are often seen. The big fellows protested against the hold up but the officers held them until morning when they returned with the proper papers and the truck was allowed to proceed on its way to Providence. The value of the whiskey was over $17,000
Sometime ago the word was whispered about that there were sixteen stills working in Westport and that it was the easiest matter in the world to get a drink in town if one knew the ropes.
The following day Deputy Sheriff Perry called upon this party to find where the stills were located. Of course the party did not want to incriminate anyone and had rather let the matter pass but the sheriff said he wanted to know as officer of the law.
The party said if they wanted it that there were sixteen stills working in Westport today. The sheriff, working on this tip, went along the entire line and found that at the conclusion of a days work there was nothing to the story.
$17,000 is nearly 200,000 in 2014 dollars. There were 30,000 speakeasies operating in New York City alone during prohibition.
HAWTHORNE INN AGAIN SCENE OF BOOZE SELLING
STATE POLICE SAY THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY TROUBLE SECURING BOOZT. – MRS. FISHER IS FINED $50 AND COSTS- COURT HELD AT THE INN
State Policeman Bridgeman and his men went into the Hawthorne Inn last Tuesday afternoon and purchased a quantity of gin and whiskey. Mrs. Lena Finke – they had her arrested. As it was not convenient for her to go to the court. Justice of the Peace Joseph G. Hyatt wen to the inn and held court there. The accused plead guilty to the charge and the justice smiled sweetly and said “$50 and court costs”.
It seems strange to the average person that the Hawthorne Inn was caught again in the net so soon after being raided this year.
It is understood that the State police called on an number of other places in town. Nothing was found however, and it possible someone tipped off the salon men. And then, on the other hand, there is a possibility there is no liquor being sold in Westport at the present time. Remember-this is a bare possibility.
“Liquor came in on Compo Beach, as short walk from where Zelda and Fitzgerald lived that summer.” BPS
Boats Against the Current 