Kewaunee County and Prohibition

As lawn care companies flood mailboxes with their best prices for spring weed control, some home owners deep in snow are beginning to think that the worst of their nightmares is really those cute little buttery yellow followers called dandelions! But, during the 1920's, a yard full of dandelions was as good as it could get.

Prohibition was in effect. Dandelions, wild grapes and elderberries were among the coveted ingredients for homemade wine. When Congress passed the Volstad Act in 1919, it became illegal to buy, sell or drink alcohol except for religious and medicinal purposes. The Volstad Act touched so many facets of American life that just touching an alcoholic product could have been a crime. Suddenly many had medical problems requiring alcohol, but physicians and drug stores also had problems with alcohol. If the government approved the sale of alcohol to a doctor, it was for one pint that was to cover ten days. A physician could get an emergency stock of  six quarts of whiskey a year, but the sale was carefully documented.

Any physician wishing to prescribe whiskey was required to make a special request for a permit. Physicians had to describe the nature of the illness requiring the whiskey. If the physician succeeded in prescribing, the patient could get the whiskey only from drug stores having a special permit, Rates were set between $2.50 and $3.50 a pint.

On February 27, 1920 Algoma Record Herald pointed out the facts on whiskey consumption to city residents when it said none of the city druggists had made application for a government permit to sell whiskey, nor had any of the doctors asked for permission to prescribe whiskey as medicinal.

It was not long before there were rumors of bootlegging and moonshine in Kewaunee County. Raids followed. There were seizures of moonshine and then stills were found.  A sizable still was found in Forestville - five miles north of Algoma in Door County - in 1921. Apparently the owners tried to destroy the still, but agents said they found corn and raisen cooked mash and a keg of moonshine whiskey. Just after that, agents intimidated a farm woman who would not unlock a shed. The agents broke in and found a fifty-five gallon drum. When agents simultaneously raided 16 - 18 taverns in the southern and western part of the county, only two saloon keepers were found with liquor. Agents found a still in the tree tops on a Town of Carlton farm. On completing the batch of moonshine, the farmer hid his still in what seemed to be an unlikely spot.

In one instance, a tavern was raided, product was seized and money was taken from the cash register. That turned out to be what some called a frame-up. The feds were on the way, but the scammers got there first. When some young Algoma men returned from a dance and were arrested for drunken driving, agents found shacks hidden in the hills west of town. They reported finding "real Kentucky product" there. A first offense usually brought a $200 fine. That Kentucky product must have been exceptionally good. The fine was doubled to $400. There are still some of Kewaunee County's elderly residents who tell stories of moonshine being hidden under the gutters in the barn. There was safety in manure.

Prohibition's greatest effect in Kewaunee County, as in the rest of the U.S., was disrespect for the law. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 during the depths of the Depression. After all, liquor sales are revenue enhancing.

Boedecker's Drug Store at the southeast corner of 4th and Steele was one which stopped the sale of alcohol before Prohibition. Boedecker Bros. ran ads saying alcohol could be bad for one's health. The photo was taken from a postcard in the author's collection.

Algoma's Stebbins Hotel.............

Algoma's Stebbins Hotel athe northwest corner of 2nd and Steele Streets, ca. 1910

In 1905 When Frank Slaby remodeled the hotel at the Northwest corner of 2^nd and Steele in Algoma in 1905, he renamed it Stebbins Hotel in honor of distinguished city resident DeWayne Stebbins. Stebbins was a Civil War hero who was reported to have saved the life of General - later president - U.S. Grant. "Big Steb," as he was called, served as Ahnapee Record editor and state senator. Stebbins had died a year or two before.

It was during 1857 when David Youngs and George Steele, the Wolf River proprietors of what is now downtown Algoma, approached Capt. Charlie Fellows with an offer of any lot in the tiny village if he would build a luxurious hotel costing at least $1,000. Youngs and Steele had lots to sell. Investors needed a comfortable place to stay if they were going to be induced to buy property in a forward thinking pioneer community of only a few hundred residents.

Fellows agreed and hired local residents Andreas Eveland to dig the cellar and James Keogh to put up cellar walls. Fellows hired Racine carpenters even though such carpenters as George Beuitling, James Parker and Joseph Anderegg were already living in town. Hand shaved cedar and pine shingles were locally made. Hall’s sawmill was in existence on the South Branch of the river, but Fellows brought most building materials from Racine.

1857 was a time of economic uncertainty in the U.S. Hotel business was not appealing to Fellows and did not meet his expectations. Fellows’ Lake Michigan freight business was also suffering when he called upon his father-in-law John LV. Yates and Capt. Bill McDonald to run the place while he tried to keep his shipping business intact. Finally Fellows sold the hotel to Dave Youngs who sold it to Frank Feuerstein who sold it to John Weilep who made money. John Ihlenfeld bought the hotel and he sold to Mr. Grimm who sold it to Frank Slaby.

Although the hotel has undergone changes in the last 100 years, it was Slaby who moved the original hotel back to where the kitchen is now and constructed what is there today. The hotel was one Wolf River’s first frame buildings.

The Stebbins is Kewaunee County’s longest, continuously operating business. It’s had a most impressive history.