48 OHIO HISTORY |
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THE WHISKEY WAR AT PADDY'S RUN: EXCERPTS FROM A DIARY OF ALBERT SHAW
edited by LLOYD J. GRAYBAR
In 1874 Albert Shaw, later the distinguished editor of the American Review of Reviews and friend of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, was in his seventeenth year. An intelligent youth able to observe events with some discernment, he kept a diary of his life in the southwestern Ohio village of New London, better known as Paddy's Run.1 Renamed Shandon in 1893, this was a small, predominantly Welsh community at a Butler County crossroad ten miles from Hamilton and twenty-two from Cincinnati.2 The
NOTES ARE ON PAGES 72-74 |
THE WHISKEY WAR AT PADDY'S RUN 49
diary is of special interest because
some unusual events involving the neigh-
borhood's women were taking place.
Inspired by stories of the crusade
against alcoholism -- the "Women's
War on Whiskey" -- that was sweeping
much of Ohio, the ladies of Paddy's Run
were making their own drive against
the liquor traffic.
During the peak of this campaign in
February and March 1874, scores
of saloons in small towns of Ohio and
eastern Indiana were forced to close.
Most reopened within a year, in Paddy's
Run as elsewhere,3 but more than
ephemeral were the crusade's results,
which included the founding in Novem-
ber of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union at Cleveland.
The women's battle against the saloon
began in December 1873 in Hills-
boro and Washington Court House, where
just before Christmas, Dr. Dio
Lewis of Boston, a popular lyceum
lecturer on health, exercise, temperance,
and other topics recounted how women of
his native Auburn, New York
had used prayer to halt the sale of
alcohol. Deeply impressed by this incidental
portion of his talk, women in both
places hastily organized to dry up their
communities. Results were speedy and
amazing. Within two weeks after
Lewis's appearance, not a saloon
remained open in Washington Court House.4
Relying on "moral suasion,"
without the damage made notorious later
by Carrie Nation, the ladies employed a
tactic comparable to current sit-ins,
lie-ins, and teach-ins. They staged
lengthy prayer meetings in the drink shops
and pestered the proprietors to sign a
pledge not to sell beer, wine, or whiskey.
Unless there was a hasty surrender, they
began daily picketing. Sometimes
they erected tabernacles in front of or
near the taverns. They wrote down the
names of thirsty patrons. To prayer were
added songs with special words
set to the tunes of "Onward
Christian Soldiers" and "The Battle Hymn of
the Republic." In Xenia, a teacher
stood her class of young girls outside
the swinging doors to chant "Say,
Mr. Barkeeper, has father been here?"
and "Father, Dear Father, Come
Home." Sometimes the zeal and persistence
of the ladies brought derision from
hostile habitues and verbal abuse from
saloonkeepers. On the other hand, some
repentant foes signaled their con-
version by pouring their intoxicating
stocks into the streets and even becom-
ing temperance exhorters themselves.5
A noisy celebration often followed
an especially satisfying victory. Since
the "best" community sentiment was
overwhelmingly on their side, the women
seldom encountered any effective
legal harassment, despite their
encroachment on property rights.6
In February 1874 the temperance drive
had reached several places in
Butler County.7 The ladies of
Paddy's Run, noting the progress in nearby
Oxford, determined in early March to dry
up their village. For more than a
month they picketed, prayed, and
petitioned until success was theirs.
For Albert Shaw the central figure was
his mother, Susan Fisher Shaw.
Born in Chester, Vermont in 1828 of an
old Yankee, Protestant family, she
had gone to Indiana to teach and there
in 1852 married Doctor Griffin M.
Shaw, a widower with two children. They
moved in 1854 to his home town,
Paddy's Run, where they had two
children, Mary in 1855 and Albert in 1857.
Doctor Shaw died there in 1863, leaving
a sufficient estate to care for the
50 OHIO HISTORY |
family.8 A devoted mother, but a woman of strong convictions, Susan Shaw taught Sunday school and though quiet of manner, joined the fight against drink. Albert recorded the doings of his mother and their friends in his diary.9 The sequence of entries relating to the crusade began on Monday, March 2, 1874. March 2. Jennie Jones who has been to Oxford for several days getting her teeth or jaw fixed gave us a very graphic account of the Woman's Tem- perance League in the place10 in prayer-meeting this evening. March 3. The whole county is rousing up against liquor-selling. March 4. Mr. [James A.] Clark, Mrs. [Hannah] Clark, Willie [Clark],11 Mother, Mary and I took dinner at Mrs. Jones's. March 5. Two loads of ladies went to Oxford to see the workings of the great "womans crusade" against liquor-selling. Mother and all the rest were enthusiastic. March 9. The ladies of this place met and organized a Temperance League12 to stop the sale of liquor here. They have over a hundred ladies on their list. March 10. In the afternoon the ladies had a prayer-meeting and this evening there was a temperance mass-meeting. Speeches from Clark, [George] |
THE WHISKEY WAR AT PADDY'S RUN 51 |
Candee,13 [Griffith] Morris,14 and Thomas F. Jones.15 Resolutions encourag- ing the ladies were adopted. March 11. The ladies had prayer-meeting this afternoon. March 12. Mother and Mrs. [Hugh] Williams16 visited all the saloons with a pledge but obtained no signers. The men treated them with respect. It will be a long hard job to stop the sale of liquor in this place. But the women are determined. March 13. Read a composition on Example. There was a general tem- perance prayer-meeting at 9 A.M. in the church and ladies' prayer-meeting in the afternoon. March 14. Temperance meetings today. I attended in the afternoon. Willie Clark was quite sick with croup in the evening and all night. March 15. Temperance meeting this evening. Mr. Candee made a tem- perance lecture in the evening. He sympathized with the saloonists in their sacrifice. Mr. Clark said the saloonist did not deserve sympathy. March 16. Rainy today. Went to Venice to temperance mass-meeting. Speeches from Bro. Hipes, Bro. Candee, Mr. Griff. Morris, Mrs. Morris, Rev. More [D. R. Moore].17 On the whole it was a dull meeting. March 17. John L. Evans18 signed a pledge that he will not sell liquor only for medicinal & mechanical purposes, so his case is disposed of. H. |
52 OHIO HISTORY
[Henry] H. Robinson19 has
promised on his honor to sell no more, but will
not sign a written pledge.
March 18. The ladies had meetings morning and afternoon. In the
after-
noon they visited Lawrence Brown
[Laurence Braun]20 and Lothland [John
Laughlin]21 in a mass of 35. Had prayers and
singing at both places. Left
pickets to notice who went in.
March 19. They commenced today to station pickets regularly at
both
Brown's and Laughlin's. William Scott of
N. Haven delivered a temperance
lecture in church. Lewis Deneret
[Demoret]22 and Mr. McKinstry gave
reports from Venice & Millville.
Just after dark some one scattered burlesque
programmes of the evening meeting.
March 20. The pickets, Mother among them, stayed out until 10
o'clock
P.M. Tom Williams and Lon. Passmore
signed the pledge. Peffer [Pfeffer]23
came four times during the evening for
beer.
March 21. Chopped down & cut up the old May cherry-tree in
front of
the side door. Played ball a while after
dinner. Saw the ladies holding meet-
ings on street. Mother was out as a
picket until nearly 12 P.M. George Patton,
John Irwin24 signed the
pledge.
March 22. Praise meeting in the evening. Mary played the organ.
March 24. The ladies are at it still.
March 25. Ladies had meetings morning and afternoon.
March 26. Mrs. Jones and Anna25 went to Cincinnati
this morning. Mother,
Carrie Davis,26 Mrs. David
Griffith,27 and Mrs. [Robert] Reese28 were on
picket at Laughlin's. They went in but
he ordered them out.
March 27. Mother and Mary went to Hamilton to settle up at the
Court
for Mother's guardianship. Laughlin was
taken sick this afternoon. He thought
Mother went to Hamilton to prosecute him
for putting them out. Mrs. J.
returned.
March 28. Mr. Clark and Mr. Morris and others are around trying
to get
indictments against the
saloon-keepers.29 Speakers from Millville addressed
the temperance meeting this evening.
March 30. The best news of the season is that Laughlin signed the
pledge
to sell no more liquor. The school and
church bells were rung the cannon was
fired and there was a general rejoicing.
Lorence Brown still holds out.
(The temperance fervor in Paddy's Run
speedily subsided after Laughlin's
capitulation. Presumably daily pressure
was kept on Braun for he yielded
less than a week after Laughlin. The
incident, however, seemed anticlimactic
and although Shaw kept up his diary
until April 28, he made only four
scattered entries about the Women's War
after the jubilant one of March 30.)
April 5. They have made an arrangement with Lawrence Brown by
which
he consents to quit selling on the 20th.
and has already quit everything but
beer. Two weeks of beer-selling and the
liquor business will be gone in Paddy.
April 6. The ladies are through with their street
prayer-meetings and
picketing. They will hold two meetings a
week for a while yet.
April 14. Mother & several other ladies went to a womans
temperance
THE WHISKEY WAR AT PADDY'S RUN 53 |
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meeting at Venice this afternoon. The women are having a hard time with the saloonatics in Venice. April 24. I read a composition on "The Results of the Temperance Movement in this Place". Even before Shaw sounded his appropriate final note on the subject, the Cincinnati Enquirer, which had not thought much of the temperance crusade anyhow, bade goodbye to the campaign in Ohio editorially.30 By mid-May the dwindling amount of pertinent news on the campaign in the Cincinnati papers reflected a general decline of interest. Statistics, moreover, seemed to show that the women of Butler County had not really come very close to abolishing the liquor trade. Internal revenue receipts from liquor taxes remained substantially normal during March, and thereafter, as Philip Jordan pointed out, the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages probably went underground until the temperance fervor abated.31 |
54 OHIO HISTORY
In any case, "normality"
returned to Paddy's Run within a year and some
of the old hands reopened their
businesses. By 1877 there was even need
for another local temperance campaign.32
Shaw, who with his mother and
sister Mary was then living in Grinnell,
Iowa, where he was attending college,
was skeptical of a new crusade's chances
for success, noting wryly: "My
faith is not the strongest. I'm afraid
the results will not be permanent. We
can only thank the Lord, and
wait."33 His assessment proved correct,34 but
despite the community's failure to
become permanently dry then, the whiskey
war at Paddy's Run remains an intriguing
and colorful example of a significant
movement in Ohio's social history.
THE EDITOR: Lloyd J. Graybar is As-
sistant Professor of American History at
Eastern Kentucky University and the au-
thor of "Albert Shaw's Ohio
Youth," which
appeared in the Winter 1965 issue of Ohio
History.
48 OHIO HISTORY |
|
THE WHISKEY WAR AT PADDY'S RUN: EXCERPTS FROM A DIARY OF ALBERT SHAW
edited by LLOYD J. GRAYBAR
In 1874 Albert Shaw, later the distinguished editor of the American Review of Reviews and friend of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, was in his seventeenth year. An intelligent youth able to observe events with some discernment, he kept a diary of his life in the southwestern Ohio village of New London, better known as Paddy's Run.1 Renamed Shandon in 1893, this was a small, predominantly Welsh community at a Butler County crossroad ten miles from Hamilton and twenty-two from Cincinnati.2 The
NOTES ARE ON PAGES 72-74 |