It’s been a hoppy summer at the Kelley House due to our current exhibit, On Tap: The History of Brewing on the Mendocino Coast. The same can’t be said for the summer of 1909, because voters in Mendocino passed prohibition that year on July 27. This law banned all alcohol sales within the town limits, putting 9 saloons and 5 hotel bars out of business. Caspar, Noyo, and Cleone also voted to go dry. Federal prohibition wouldn’t pass for another ten years. On the 100-year anniversary of local prohibition in 2009, Warren Wade penned the following article that covers the reaction to the new law.
The following story of the election is taken from a letter by Grace Fisher to her sister Hattie. Grace was an ardent Prohibitionist, one of the founding members of the Mendocino Study Club, and the wife of J. Melville Fisher, pastor of the Mendocino Presbyterian Church from 1908-1916.
By 1909, the temperance movement had been gathering strength for some time, and on the last Tuesday of July, a special election was held giving local communities the option to prohibit the sale of alcohol. The women of the town turned out to urge their husbands and other men to vote to go dry. Women didn’t have the right to vote yet. The polling place was the Odd Fellows Hall, located on the northeast corner of Kasten and Ukiah Streets.
To quote Grace’s letter: “Mendocino has gone dry! By a majority of 27 votes. My what rejoicing we have. We were never in so exciting a time of this kind before. We were not sure of victory – but when the word came that we really had won, my how we shouted.
“The ladies served free lunch all day in a hall just cat-a-corned [sic] from the hall where the voting was done – so of course towards evening there were crowds of women and men there waiting to hear the news. And my how rejoiced we were – and how we cheered. And the saloon men sneaked off downtown the back way and were not to be seen. The school children marched three times during the day – before school – at noon – and at 4 o’clock – Mr. Fisher and the teachers with them – they had 2 drums, and all wore the white badges ‘Vote No for my sake’. I tell you it was stirring to see them with their flags flying. At 4 o’clock when they came around the ladies got $2 worth of candy – taffy and gave the children.
“They arranged to march again in the evening if we won, and so when we were sure we had won they rang the school bell and the church bells, and the children all went to school again and Mr. Fisher and the teachers and the drums and flags and all came around again. When they reached the hall where all we ladies were, my how we cheered and we all joined in at the rear – about 60 or 70 ladies and as many men and all marched around town – down Main Street where most of the saloons were just around town and back again to the I.O.O.F. hall where we all sang ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow’ and Mr. Bane – the anti saloon league speaker – made a speech and we sang our songs again and had a regular Jubilee. Really it was splendid.”
The songs that the jubilant paraders sang were written for the occasion: “Mendocino’s Going Dry” and “Vote for Prohibition” to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic and “The Old Town’s Going Dry” to the tune of Goodnight Ladies.
To learn more about the history of brewing on the coast and the bootlegging industry in Mendocino, come see On Tap at the Kelley House: The History of Brewing on the Mendocino Coast, on exhibit until September 29. Walking Tours of Mendocino are available throughout the week; the cost is $25. Visit the Kelley House Event Calendar for a Walking Tour schedule.