In 1839, when 20 acres of land was donated to the newly formed Williamson County in order to establish Marion as the county seat, a survey was organized that platted off the public square and about one block surrounding it as the beginnings of Marion. Before, the survey could even be completed, an individual by the name of Bone Davis had already built a makeshift tavern in the form of a small log cabin on what would later become the near center of the square. Needless to say, it had to be moved but it gives you the idea of where some folk’s priorities were at.

The duty of the first Williamson County commissioners was to establish liquor prices which were fixed at: whiskey, 12 1/2 cents per half pint; brandy, rum, wine and gin, 18 ¾ cents per half pint and hard cider at 12 ½ cents per quart. Liquor licenses ranged from $25 per year in 1839 to $500 during the Civil War in 1864. Saloons in the early days were often referred to as grocery stores, which gave shopping for groceries a completely different meaning.

By the time 1869 rolled around, the Temperance party had become a national party attempting to compete with the Republican and Democratic parties based on the elimination of alcohol. Whereas the temperance party eventually found some fertile soil in Southern Illinois it clearly didn’t take off immediately since a county election held here in 1869 that had prohibition on the ballot only received only one vote in favor.

When the Bloody Vendetta occurred here in the county in the early 1870’s that was basically the local equivalent of a Hatfield/McCoy feud that claimed a handful of lives, the temperance party not only began to gain traction but the open carry of hand guns and weapons  were called into question as well. By 1900, there were no less than six separate temperance groups in Marion alone. The Marion city election of 1899 was clearly based solely upon the question of pro and anti-saloon forces. Whereas, the temperance party barely won that particular election, it clearly didn’t affect the number of saloons in town, since a 1906 city directory indicates that there were twelve saloons listed in town with four of them being located on the square alone.

The effect of the late 1800’s temperance movement was reflected not only in local politics but also showed up in its effect on the naming of children. The mother of Edward Creal, the founder of Creal Springs, was named Temperance Soberness Wilburn.

Long before the Volstead Act was created forcing the beginning of Prohibition in 1920, many locals had already developed the skills required to make their own alcohol, often referred to as “moonshine”, “hootch” or “mule”, and sometimes “white mule.” This was likely magnified after 1900 by the large influx of European immigrants moving into this area to work the coal mines who were more culturally accustomed to drinking their own homemade wine and alcohol products.

By the time Prohibition took effect in 1920, the local county Sheriff was already used to turning his head away from the illegal production of alcohol which left many local protestant churches fertile for coupling with the Ku Klux Klan and relying upon them for illegal alcohol enforcement when they resurged nationally in the early 1920’s. In 1924, when the Klan had reached near full potential in this area, an anti-Klan group called the Knights of the Flaming Circle coupled with pro-alcohol gangsters like the Shelton Brothers and the Birger gang to take on the anti-alcohol forces. The result was open warfare on the streets of Williamson County, particularly in Herrin, and came to be called “the Booze Wars” resulting in multiple deaths. The “Booze Wars” required Williamson County to fall under “militia control” by the National Guard and was reported on regularly in national newspapers once again just as the Herrin Massacre had in 1922.

In 1924, raids were conducted almost daily on homes in Marion searching for illegal alcohol and often turning it up in ingenious hiding places. Even the local state representative who lived on N. Lear Street wasn’t immune from being raided, even though he was an active Klan member.

During the 1920’s, the Shelton Brother gang were the local “rum runners” who supplied the area with premium alcohol products like brandy, scotch, rum and whiskey, in which they established routes between Florida and Southern Illinois. Local gangsters like the Charles Birger gang would buy these premium alcohol products from the Sheltons and then usually water the product down considerably and repackage them using counterfeit bottles, caps and seals so as to increase their profits.

In December, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, ending national Prohibition but not the local production of “moonshine” stills which continued to be raided and confiscated all the way into the 1950’s.

(Sources: History of Williamson County, Milo Erwin; Bloody Williamson, Paul Angle; Marion Daily Republican; posted by Sam Lattuca 12/31/2018)