Odd Wisconsin Archive
When Beer Was (Almost) Illegal
This week's statewide smoking ban seems ironic, since tobacco growing is a very old farming practice in our state. It also recalls efforts in our history to prohibit alcohol. Strange as it sounds, in November of 1853 a majority of Wisconsin voters chose to outlaw liquor consumption. Statewide,the vote was 27,519 to 24,109; in Milwaukee, where beer was a vital part of German culture, the vote went the other way: almost ten times as many voted against prohibition as voted for it.
That fall P.T. Barnum, circus promoter and celebrity, had toured Wisconsin in support of prohibition. His personal fame, imposing appearance, charisma, and sheer enthusiasm won many citizens over to the cause of temperance. He couldn't win the legislature, however, where enabling legislation was required to turn the public referendum into law. State senators and assemblymen were afraid of alienating German voters and seeming to ally themselves with Utopian reformers (dangerous radicals who wanted to abolish slavery and let women own property). They refused to act on the referendum, and prohibition legislation died in committee.
You can find more original documents and background information on the early temperance movement and modern prohibition at Turning Points in Wisconsin History.
:: Posted in Bizarre Events on June 26, 2005
Did You Know?
The Wisconsin Historical Museum is currently featuring Odd Wisconsin objects in the latest exhibit: Odd Wisconsin. And don't miss the Odd Wisconsin book by author Erika Janik published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
|
