Prohibition Days in Hicksville

 

It was in the midst of Prohibition, 1925, and the WCTU and law enforcement were on a mission to rid Defiance County of its alcoholic beverages. This story is from the Bryan Press, July 23, 1925, and would have been a great movie scene.

"1,600 BOTTLES OF CANADA BEER
IN HICKSVILLE HAUL

Truck Carried High Priced Load
But Driver Got Away

"Friday afternoon, a man drove into the Mastin garage in Hicksville to leave in storage a new Reo truck with sixteen barrels labeled 'Bicarbonate of soda."  After he left, one of the garage men got curious and soon discovered that the barrels were filled with bottled Canadian beer.

He summoned the marshal who swore in deputies and set an ambuscade (i.e. ambush) in the garage to capture the owner of the truck when he came back. The man did not return until about three o'clock the next morning. 

                                          1925 Reo truck

Then he walked up to the garage and at that moment the village nightwatchman came along in uniform, which seemed to alarm the bootlegger who jumped into a passing touring car and made off.

The armed marshal and his deputies kept watch for another 24 hours, but the man did not come back again and had apparently become suspicious of the trap laid for him. So the truck and its contents were confiscated.

Breaking open the barrels, they were found to hold 1,600 bottles of Canadian nine percent, worth at current prices about $4,000. The booze will be emptied into the sewer. The truck was a new one and worth $1,000."