T-R PHOTO BY DORIE TAMMEN Iowa author and historian Linda Betsinger McCann gave a presentation on her latest book, “Prohibition in Eastern Iowa,” at the Marshalltown Public Library on Tuesday evening.

Prolific Iowa author and historian Linda McCann presented a program on Tuesday at the Marshalltown Public Library based on her book, “Prohibition in Eastern Iowa.” McCann had a long career as a Registered Nurse with an interest in genealogy and history. When she discovered that an ancestor was the founder of Shell Rock, Iowa, she was hooked. She is the author of many books on Iowa history, including her latest.

While Prohibition in the United States began with a federal constitutional amendment in 1920, Iowa passed a variety of laws restricting alcohol much earlier in the 1800s. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) actively lobbied and pushed for laws to restrict alcohol consumption both in Iowa and across the country.

In 1917, Iowa went further and passed a constitutional amendment two years ahead of the federal government. This amendment banned the making, selling, and transportation of alcohol. Interestingly, it did not specifically ban the drinking of alcohol. (There was an allowance for medicinal use of alcohol, up to .5 percent.)

While Mobsters clearly became involved in illegal alcohol sales during Prohibition, in rural areas like Iowa, it was not so much the Mob as it was farmers. McCann interviewed numerous retired farmers who shared their Prohibition experiences.

They were getting such a low price for their crops that they couldn’t pay their bills, even to the point of losing their farmland. Making and selling alcohol helped to solve those problems. Some farmers made so much money from the practice that they were able to buy additional land and become wealthy landowners.

It was common for rural alcohol transactions to take place on Sundays when there was no mail delivery. Buyers could leave money in their mailboxes, sellers would exchange the cash for alcohol, and the farmer would be supplied. Even cemetery grave markers were useful in illegal alcohol transactions. Some were equipped with secret compartments in which buyers and sellers could conceal cash and liquor.

Inevitably, though, by about 1925, the Mob became involved in alcohol sales even in rural Iowa, often coming from Chicago. In one case described by McCann, an off-duty police officer noticed a car with Chicago license plates that was unusually weighted down at the rear end. He managed to stop the car and found it full of liquor.

The officer managed to capture one of the car’s two occupants, but the other man escaped. He was later captured while unknowingly hitchhiking a ride with another off-duty police officer. There were, of course, incidents during Prohibition that were not so amusing. One such case involved a Vinton woman and active WCTU member who was murdered by a mobster staying in a hotel there.

McCann also described several incidents involving illegal liquor sales in Marshalltown, which she collected from articles in the Times-Republican during Prohibition. In one case, during a raid on a local pool hall, police discovered liquor in the cellar and back porch being guarded by two bulldogs. In another case, a “stool pigeon” assisted the Marshalltown Police Department, leading to a raid that resulted in the jailing of 20 men. In a 1924 Times-Republican story headlined as “Moonshine Madness,” one man drowned, and another was injured jumping out of a window during a local police raid.

By the late 1920s, everyone realized that Prohibition created more problems than it solved. Alcohol was believed to have been the cause of 50 percent of all crimes. Unregulated illegal liquor could not be tested for purity. It was often unsafe and even poisoned.

In 1920, about 1,000 deaths occurred due to poisoned alcohol. By 1925, that number had jumped to 4,100 deaths. Furthermore, prior to Prohibition, taxes on liquor made up 70 percent of federal income — money which was lost after Prohibition. So, in 1933, with the recognition that Prohibition just didn’t work, the era came to an end with the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.