PEORIA, ILLINOIS:  1921 AND 1922

                                                Norman  V. Kelly

People like to talk about and listen to stories of the Roaring Twenties here in Peoria, Illinois. Truth is they are really interested in booze, speakeasies, gangsters, flappers and our wild night life.  After all, I guess Roaring Twenties has to have something to do with booze and getting illegally drunk…you think?

 

I have written a lot of those stories and I can tell you they are fun to think about. Truth is, that here in Peoria during the 13 years of actual Prohibition, we were a lot tamer as a city than most people realize.  Don’t get me wrong, this was the hot spot to be, don’t ever doubt that. 

 

I think the biggest myth that I have heard over the years were the speakeasies.  You see the truth is we didn’t even have any here in town.  I can hear the readers of this article calling me an uninformed fool…and a lot worse I am sure. You see...the fact is that those readers that know all about speakeasies here in town got all that information from their father’s and grandfathers.  Truth is…our dad’s and grandpas were supposed to tell us stories…and they did.

 

Actually Prohibition on Peoria began in September of 1917 here in Peoria when the Lever Act shut down all of our distilleries and breweries.  This phony Conservation Act, perpetrated by the Temperance people led by Wayne Birdwell Wheeler cost this town a ton of jobs. It was all phony because when WW1 began in April of 1917, we did not need to conserve.  America could easily feed itself and its troops, but that did not stop the DRYS.  We lost those distilleries and breweries but at least the taverns stayed open…that is until January 16, 1917.

 

I have pretty much covered the effect of Prohibition in other stories so I thought that I would just fill you in on what it was like here during the first two years of Prohibition.  Maybe some statistics are boring, but remember this is your town, and believe me the folks here, some of them your relatives, were far from being bored, I an tell you that.
 

                              THE  DAWN  OF 1920

 

Peoria is now at the ripe old age of 75 years-old, a sturdy, growing young lady to say the least.