KING OF THE CRUSADERS

                                 KING  OF  THE  CRUSADERS

                                          NORMAN  V.  KELLY

 

                                                PART  ONE

 

It is my feeling after thirty-three years of historical research of Peoria, Illinois and writing countless historical stories, that a lot of people have a distorted, mythical concept of the history of Peoria, Illinois. I based that on hundreds of e-mails and telephone calls that I have received concerning certain aspects of our history. I lectured about Peoria for over thirty years and some of the questions people asked me proved that point to me.  This is not a direct criticism of their mental capabilities it is a simple fact that I have garnered from them over the years.

The folks I met over the years and spoke to had two favorite subjects, gangsters and Prohibition.  All of them…and I mean all of them got their history from their relatives, especially grandfathers.  Bernie Shelton was the chief subject and next was Prohibition, namely speakeasies and Thompson machine guns. My articles on those subjects are on line at Peoria Public Library/Historian and www.blogspot.com/PeoriaHistorian.

 

If I asked you your opinion as to who was the most powerful and influential man that America ever produced, I would bet the farm you would never pick the man that I am going to tell you about. I am telling you that you have never heard of this man unless you were at one of my lectures. Go ahead; write down a few names of men or women that were the most politically powerful, most influential and affected more lives than any other person in America’s history. 

 

I feel certain I could guess almost every person that you wrote down.  As for me there was only one person that even comes remotely close to the man that had that kind of power and his name was Wayne Bidwell Wheeler.  He was but a pipsqueak of a man, he wore glasses with nothing to hold them on his ears, he had a wimpy mustache and he never ran for office in his entire life.  Was he a Democrat or a Republican?  Was he highly educated or a high school drop out.  How could some guy that looks like I described him ever possibly obtain any power?  How indeed.

 

Wayne was just an ordinary student in grade school, but was an exceptional student in high school.  He was on the debate team and even then he was an outspoken critic of alcohol and those people that made the stuff and the people that drank it.

 

Wayne B. Wheeler was born on November 10, 1869 on a farm in Brookfield Township in Ohio where he lived with his two farming parents and sisters.  He was a hardworking little cuss, an astute student, and an ordinary kid. One morning he entered the barn to do some chores when he was terrified by a drunken farmhand named ‘Soapy.’  In his out of control drunken rage “Soapy” ended up sticking the pitchfork he was carrying into the leg of our young farm kid. Also he witnessed a drunken farm hand terrify his mother and sisters and he never forgot either one of those incidents.  Later, Wayne would tell those stories over and over and there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that those two incidents set Wayne off on a pathway that would change not only his life, but every living soul in the United States and numerous other places as well… including especially Canada.

 

Young Wheeler worked odd jobs all during high school and when he graduated he taught in a local school for two years.  He then enrolled in Oberlin College in 1880.  He was an excellent student and soon became the best debater the college had ever produced. There at Oberlin Wayne was introduced to a local organization with roots in the college, called The Anti Saloon League. Wayne always had a job as a waiter or a janitor and all during the summer breaks he found jobs as a teacher or tutor. He even sold janitorial supplies and it was through that business that he met Howard Russell Hyde.  Now here was a man so devoted to Prohibition that he talked about it to Wayne most every day they were together.  Later Hyde would tell the media that he hired Wayne Wheeler as a field secretary for the Anti Saloon League and the rest, as people like to say, is history. Hyde told reporters that “Wayne Wheeler was a young, loving, spirited self-sacrificing soul who yearns to help the other fellow.”

 

During his time at Oberlin, Wayne became a spokesman for the ASL, debating on the school team and was a paid employee for the newly founded Anti Saloon League. All during his years as a student he engaged in temperance work and was known as a righteous young man, with a work ethic matched by no other student in the history of that college.  When he graduated in 1894 he was offered a more important job of organizing other temperance workers and became a well sought after field secretary. Wayne quickly realized the potential of the ASL and the fact that the organization did not have lawyers and so Wayne went off to law school.  He enrolled in Western Reserve University near Cleveland, Ohio and graduated in 1898.   All during his time at Western he worked every spare moment for the ACL and even rode his bicycle door to door handing out literature he had helped create.  He managed to get engaged during that time and later some of the letters he wrote to his fiancé had a few tender sentences but most of the text was about his role of ridding the United States of alcohol.

 

The very day he graduated as an attorney he began to create a field office that would be the frame work and the guide for the ACL to lead the charge against booze.  By 1901 he was in the main office in Ohio and soon was the lead attorney and top supervisor of the entire organization.  His plans had been well laid out and he worked ten and twelve hour days, seven days a week.   The people that worked for him were hand picked from the secretaries to every lawyer that he hired.  He soon took over the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement, the WCTM which was a loosely connected group of religious women who have tried for years and years to get some kind of recognition in their fight against alcohol, ‘Demon Rum’ and old ‘John Barleycorn.’  Their other agenda was ‘The Right To Vote.’ and of course women’s rights.  Once they joined in the fight with Wheeler and the ACL things began to look up for them.  I have no actual proof of this, only the combination of what I had read in hundreds of articles and the Congressional Record.  So you can take my word for it or not, suit yourself, but I feel absolutely certain that Wheeler promised these women Crusaders that he would get them the right to vote.   Well, take a look at the nineteenth Amendment, funny, huh how it passed shortly after the 18^th Amendment became the law of the land. Believe me…he fulfilled his promise to them and it is a historical fact if you know how to study the record. They helped him in his quest and he helped them with theirs…it was that damn simple.

 

                                 THE  MASSIVE  NETWORK

 

Wayne Wheeler, ‘King of the Crusaders,’ was busy building on the ground work that the religious prohibitionist had started probably the very first day that the first distilling company started up the business of supplying  whiskey to Americans.  Here in Peoria we had distilleries and breweries in business here before we became a Town in 1835 and a City in 1845.  By the time the Civil War came to us, we had nine very active distilleries and six breweries.  We were called by those that knew of us as the Alcoholic Capital of the World.  Abe Lincoln certainly knew us and his increase in Alcohol taxes virtually financed his entire Union Army. Even then we here in Peoria had a sizeable ‘Army’ of what were known as ‘DRYS’.  So it was always the DRYS vs. the WETS and that was going on all over the United States.  Remember it was not until 1912, after New Mexico and Arizona became States that we had all forty-eight of them spread across this great land; Wheeler and his people worked them all.

 

Wheeler and his ASL looked out across the vast lands of America and

began to organize the religious factions into one massive machine, a coordinated beast that was going to become more powerful than even Wheeler dreamed about.  He…that’s right, Wayne B. Wheeler was the commander of that massive army and what he had planned for America was the absolute destruction of the mighty beer and whisky business, and he knew exactly what it would take.  There was always, as I mentioned, this unorganized group of religious men and women and a few churches that fought daily to stop the alcohol craze in America but they were for the most part ineffective.  They did close down alcohol in Maine in 1851, and dried up some townships and counties across America, but Wheeler knew that they were basically powerless.  Now he meant to put some real tiger teeth into those organizations but first he had to take on a certain Governor in Ohio…which he did.

 

                                       PRESSURE  POLITICS

 

By 1905 the ASL power had grown and Wheeler was about to lead it against every anti-Prohibitionist in the United States, and to test out the system he turned to the Governor in Ohio.  He was a well-known outspoken opponent of the Prohibitionist movement and he was right there in Wheeler’s backyard. That man was Governor Myron T. Herrick, and he was running for reelection in 1906.  You must remember and keep this thought in your head, that Wheeler did not care if you were a Republican, Democrat or a child molester, he was only interested in the way the candidate or incumbent thought about Prohibition and that old nasty Demon Rum.  That is it…simply that.  Every person he ever spoke to, every potential candidate he ever approached the question was always the same.   Would you support legislation that would rid America of the ability to make and sell alcohol of any kind? That was it…if you said ‘Yes’ then he would throw the weight of his entire army…and money behind your candidacy.  If you were against him and his quest he would oppose you with every ounce of gold they had and an onslaught that very few…if any…politician could survive.   Now he would test it out on Governor Herrick.  Hell, I don’t even have to tell you the outcome of that race.  The team of Wheeler and the ASL slaughtered poor old Myron and that was the last that anyone ever heard of him.  Well that was the first major victory for Wheeler and  his band of Dry Crusader and they were so damned pumped over that win they could hardly wait to advance their war on Alcohol and continue “The work of the Lord. He was well on his way to being the most powerful person in America’s history.

                                    

                          WHEELER’S  DIRTY  LITTLE SECRET

 

During my public lecturing days I actually had five one-hour lectures on Prohibition.   After all it really started here in Peoria in 1917 and became the Law of the Land on January 17, 1920, so there is a hell of a lot to talk about I can tell you that. In this piece I am only going to talk about how the ACL and Wheeler managed to pull it off.  The wild, actually fun stories are all within the thirteen years we had Prohibition here in Peoria, Illinois. I do not know one damn fact about it in any other city.  A lot of it is on line so you do not have to do much research, just read it; I did all the work for you.

 

I will try and use an example of how Wheeler did what he did, the pressure tactics he used, and the fear he dropped on the heads of every damn politician he chose to own.  Let’s say that William Jones, a married man from Peoria, Illinois and a bookkeeper in some small company in 1907 wanted to run for office.  He was a decent, God-fearing man, and a member of a small local church. He had no money, barely managed to survive on his salary and wanted more than anything to eventually raise a small family.  One day, after talking it over with his wife he decided to let it be known that he wanted to run for State Senator from Peoria, Illinois. He was not a political man but generally voted Democratic.

 

He talked it over with his Pastor and friends and they encouraged him. The pastor told William that he would try and help him and said he needed to contact some people and not to do anything until he had something to report.  William waited about one week.

 

There in the pastor’s office were two well-dressed men and they told William that they represented the Anti-Saloon League and they were there to help him.  They did not ask him if he was a Democrat or a Republican or a damn Communist.  They asked him if he would support any and all legislation that was purposed concerning bringing Prohibition to the United States.  Old newbie Billy boy Jones was no fool and of course he answered, “Yes!”

 

Within a few days our friend Bill was the center of attention here in Peoria, Illinois. His picture was in one of the local newspapers spouting his virtues and that week-end there was to be a big rally in one of the rented halls in Peoria with entertainment from a well-known local band. It stunned Bill when he learned the Mayor of Peoria would be there along with a couple of well known local pastors as speakers. Bill was fitted with a new suit and a car was at his disposal. His opponent had two rallies in Peoria and sure enough huge crowds in Peoria from the local ‘Prohibition Ladies’ happen to march around the streets that surrounded the rented hall on his special night.  One newspaper praised Bill’s opponent, but that would be the last time anyone heard of him.  It was a landslide victory for unknown Bill Jones and off he went to Springfield, Illinois.

 

Now I want you to think about what happened to Bill Jones and just imagine that this exact thing was happening in every State in the Union.  Every political race that had any significance at all was dealt with in the exact same manner.  Every Pastor that was the head of a church that was Anti-Alcohol sponsored the candidate in all the states and cities that was backed by the ASL.  Now believe it or not there was a Prohibition Party in the United States, but Wheeler had no use for them and certainly did not support any candidate they put up to run.  If you wanted the support of the ASL then Wheeler and his lieutenants had to contact you not the other way around.  Imagine now this was going on in ever state in the Union.  Sure, on occasion they lost, but believe me it was rare.  They needed to get all these state and local officials elected for a very definite reason which I will tell you about… if I remember to do so. There was a special and profound interest in governors, and believe me they got a massive number of them under their crooked wings, I can tell you that.

 

Editor’s Note:   As Al Jolson once said, “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet,” and believe me Norm will tell us how all this Power was used on the Federal level.  Stay tuned.  norman.kelly@sbcglobal.net

 

                             THE  KING  OF THE  CRUSADERS

 

                                                 PART  TWO

                                       

                                             NORMAN  V.  KELLY

 

So the plan, as set out in Part One, is in place.  The idea was to elect every governor, state senator and representative along with a few mayors along the way.  I will tell you how Wheeler intended to use all that political mass somewhere down the line.   What he needed next was to do the exact thing on the Federal level.  He cranked up his religious power machine and set out to capture every United States Senator, Congressman, Federal Judge, and Attorney General that he could get his hands on.  Money was no object; political persuasion was of no interest to him.  All he wanted to do, and believe me, he did it was to own every politician that wore a suit and tie.  It was a massive plan, and it was directly from God, and Wheeler sought out people to do God’s work and it worked like a charm.

 

All those women’s groups were just toys for Wheeler.  They had spun their collective wheels for years and what did they accomplish.  That goes for all the hot shot ladies of every women’s movement in America.  There were some brilliant ladies heading those groups but they were stuck in quick Sand until Wayne Wheeler got on his white steed and rode into save them and guide them.  Once they all joined in with the chirches and the preachers and the bully pulpit the wets never had a chance.  Hell, the truth is here in Peoria we had the Red Ribbon Club and they marched and rallied and gave the Red Nose Gangs something to laugh at.  They are the people that fools in Peoria thought was the face of the Prohibitionist.  Hell…they never heard of Wheeler and by the time they did the 18^th. Amendment was already the law of the land.  And…I can tell you that by September of 1917 when Peorians saw their breweries and distilleries shut down because of Wheeler’s famous Lever Act the war…as feeble as it was, was over.  The Federal attack was under way and it was a hell of a lot more sneaky than Pearl Harbor that is for sure.