The Rose that took Ohio counties dry

Photo of the Carl Schnell Brewery in Piqua circa 1900. Source: PIqua Public Library
Carl Schnell's brewery in Piqua, circa 1900. Source: Piqua Public Library.

 © 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney

 The 18th Amendment poised America for Prohibition 100 years ago. But prohibition was old news for Ohio by then. The drive to ban beer and booze swept the state a decade earlier.

 On Feb. 26, 1908, The Ohio legislature passed the Rose Law, introduced by Ohio Sen. Isaiah Rose (1843-1916.) The Republican from Marietta was a farmer, a Civil War veteran and the great-great-great grandfather of singer Kelly Clarkson. More to the point, he was a champion of the temperance movement, and his namesake bill allowed voters to petition their counties for special elections to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages. In the ensuing months a majority of Ohio counties voted to go “dry.”
Image of 1909 newspaper clipping about the effect on Springfield of the 1909 dry vote in Clark County.
Dayton Daily News, April 29, 1909, page 3
Tabulations showed rural voters tended to favor going dry while city-dwellers tended to want to stay “wet.” For example, a large urban core in Dayton kept Montgomery County wet, while Clark County's rural voters took the county dry by a slight margin over Springfield’s wet majority.

 But the local option law worked both ways. In April 1912, thirsty Clark County voters petitioned for another special election and overturned the earlier dry vote. 

 “The wets” argued that going dry “had robbed (Springfield) of thousands of dollars in revenue, while the bootlegger and the speak-easies flourished,” the  Dayton Daily News reported on April 26. After losing by 139 votes in 1909, the “wets” won in 1912 by 2,016 votes, the News reported.

 The victors celebrated. “The wets are parading the streets, headed by a band,” the paper reported. But a few sought to settle grievances: A mob of “jubilant wets” smashed windows at the home of Oran F. Hypes, a former state senator and local temperance leader.

 Ohio voters repealed the Rose Law in November 1914 by approving a “home rule” amendment to the state constitution. Dry counties became wet again. Saloons reopened.

 But the reprieve came too late for two breweries in Miami County, where a special election in November 1908 took the county dry. While the law went into effect on Dec. 24, the impact came even quicker.

 “The saloons of Piqua and Miami County are not waiting until the limit of time to close… but are closing now,” the Dayton Daily News reported on Dec. 10, 1908. “Four have already closed in Piqua and seven in the county.”
News report excerpt about Miami County saloons closing in 1908 as a result of dry vote.
From 'Governor Johnson Addresses Piquads,' Dayton Daily News, Dec. 10, 1908, page 10.

The next month, workers in the Schnell Brewery, on the east side of the Great Miami River, rolled out barrels of beer and lined them up on the river bank just north of the Ash Street Bridge. It was brewer Carl Schnell’s entire stock—anywhere from 40 to 135 barrels, according to differing reports in the January 23 News and the February Western Brewer.

 Schnell ordered the workers to empty the barrels into the river.  He had chosen to dump his stock rather than pay federal revenue taxes on it. “Miami County voting dry destroyed Schnell's market for beer, a strictly local one,” the News reported.
News clipping about Carl Schnell Brewery in Piqua dumping beer in 1908 after dry vote.
Dayton Daily News, Jan. 23, 1909, page 5.

A livelier scene played out three months later in Troy, when beer began splashing into the Miami and Erie Canal from the Henne Brewery's sewer pipe. As word of the discharge spread, many adults and even some youngsters scrambled for old cans, bottles or any handy vessel.

 “For the four hours it poured out of a sewer pipe used to convey refuse of all kinds from the brewery, more half-drunken men and boys were seen than have been arrested since the city went dry,” the News reported on April 23.

News clipping about Henne Brewery in Troy dumping beer in 1909 as a result of county dry vote.
Dayton Daily News, April 23, 1909, page 19

 The Rose Law was short-lived, but some of its effects were permanent. Neither brewery opened again.

 Read more about the impact of temperance and Prohibition in Dayton Beer: A History of Brewing in the Miami Valley. Its release date is July 22, but you can pre-order it now at Amazon.com.
Location: Dayton, OH, USA

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