The Governor's Daughter

John Garland Pollard was the 51st governor of Virginia, serving from 1930 to 1934.  Among his many accomplishments, he established the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

At the time he took office, his wife, Grace Phillips Pollard, was an invalid.  As a result, his daughter Suzanne Virginia Pollard, age 23, became the acting first lady of Virginia, accompanying her father for important events and serving as hostess at the governor’s mansion in Richmond.  A graduate of the National Cathedral School in Washington, DC, Suzanne was an accomplished actress and, according to press reports, a sought-after beauty.

The hopes of many bachelors were dashed when on October 1, 1930, Suzanne’s engagement to Herbert Lee Boatwright, Jr., was announced.  Lee Boatwright was then a Washington lawyer, having graduated from Princeton in 1927 and then attending the University of Virginia Law School.  Lee Jr. was raised at 904 Main Street in Danville, the son of Herbert Lee Boatwright and Mary Elizabeth Vaughan.  Lee Sr., along with R. L. Dibrell and A. B. Carrington, was a driving force in the success of the Dibrell Brothers tobacco firm.

Danville society was agog when Suzanne spent several days with the Danville Boatwrights in mid-October.  The wedding ceremony for Lee and Suzanne took place in the governor’s mansion on January 3, 1931, with only family in attendance.  However, the mansion reception that followed was attended by the social elite from around the state and the nation.

Following a honeymoon in Cuba, Lee and Suzanne again visited with his parents in Danville in late January.  The groom’s mother held an elaborate tea in her daughter-in-law’s honor at her home on Main Street.  By February 1, Lee was back at work in Washington while Suzanne commuted between Washington and Richmond so that she could continue to assist her father.

Suzanne gave birth to their first son, Herbert Lee Boatwright, III, on February 13, 1933.  Governor Pollard was planning a trip to Washington the following Tuesday for a meeting with President Herbert Hoover.  When he heard the news about his new grandson he remarked, “I shall see the sitting president and the future president of the United States on the same day.”  A second son, John Garland Pollard Boatwright, was born there on April 18, 1936.

During World War II, Lee served as an air combat intelligence officer, USNR, in the Pacific.  In 1945, he decided not to return to the practice of law, and he and his family moved to Belle Isle Farm on the Rappahannock River in Lancaster County, Virginia.  There, Lee and Suzanne restored the plantation’s mansion house and Lee engaged in cattle raising and oyster farming.  A third son, Beverley Vaughan Boatwright, was born there on December 22, 1947.

Herbert Lee Boatwright, Jr., passed in 1974 followed by the governor’s daughter, Suzanne Virginia Pollard, in 1977.  The mansion house remains in private hands while the majority of Belle Island Farm is now a state park.

Herbert Lee Boatwright, Jr., was not the only member of his family to marry a politician's daughter.  His older brother, John Guerrant Boatwright, married The Senator's Daughter.

The Bee
Princeton Alumni Weekly
Richmond Times Dispatch
Wikipedia

The Christian Gottfried Gamper Family

Christian Gottfried Gamper, called Gottfried, was Paul’s third-great grandfather.  He was born in 1797.  The Gamper family hailed from Kaltental, on the southern outskirts of Stuttgart – the capital of the Kingdom of Württemberg for almost a century before his birth.  Gottfried’s Gamper ancestors were:

• Father Christian Gottfried Gamper of Kaltental (b. 1756)
• Grandfather Ludwig Heinrich Gamper of Reutlingen (b. 1729)
• Great grandfather Georg Adam Gamper of Malsburg (b. 1704, called Adam)
• Great great grandfather Andreas Gamper of the Black Forest (b. 1676)
• Third great grandfather Peter Gamper (b. about 1650)

Gottfried’s ancestors never lived more than forty miles from the intersecting borders of present-day Germany, Switzerland, and France.

More Ancestors

Of particular interest is Gottfried’s great grandfather Georg Adam Gamper.  Adam married Maria Margaretha Hohloch.  Researcher who have followed Margaretha Hohloch’s family trace back to Bertoldus Hubere, Gottfried’s 18th great grandfather, born somewhere in Bourgogne (Burgundy), France, in 1185.  Burgundy is the area that begins about 50 miles southeast of Paris and extends nearly to the Swiss border.  Sometime before 1222, Bertoldus actually moved to Oberkulm, Switzerland, where his descendants were born.  This move may be related to the continuing wars in France at the time.

Bertoldus’ son, Burchard Hubere, Gottfried’s 17th great grandfather, had a son named Hans Huber, his 16th great grandfather.  Note that Hans dropped the trailing “e” in his last name.  Hans was an undersheriff and married the daughter of local nobility – Lady Fredea van Hallwyl.  Lady Fredea’s father, Lord Hans Frederick van Halwyl, granted them their own Swiss fiefdom.  His noble title may have been Swedish.  Lord van Hallwyl, the grantor of the fiefdom, born in Switzerland in 1205, was also one of Gottfried’s 17th great grandfathers.

Generations later, the Huber family moved to the city of Reutlingen, just south of Stuttgart, now Germany.  The family name changed again with that move – from Huber to Uber – around 1500.  (Other branches of the family that relocated to English-speaking countries often use the surname Hoover.)

Another of Gottfried’s 17th great-grandfathers, Albert von Werenwag, was born in 1190 in that same city of Reutlingen where his descendants lived for many generations.  Albert is Gottfried’s oldest known ancestor to be born in what is now Germany. 

In 1612 in Reutlingen, the Uber and Werenwag families intermarried.  Gottfried’s 5th great grandfather Georgicus Werenwag wed his 5th great grandmother Agathe Uber.  It was their great-great granddaughter Margaretha Hohloch who married Adam Gamper in the 1720s.

Immediate Family

Gottfried Gamper and his wife Catherina Seher, had five children – Johanna Margaretha (b. 1928), Johann Georg (b. 1830), Christina Margaretha (b. 1831), Sophia Catharina (b. 1833), and Johann Gottlieb (b. 1835).  Johann Georg passed over at age 1, Christina at age 6, leaving just Johanna, Sophia, and brother Gottlieb.  The widower Gottfried married a second time in 1836 to Dorothea Klenk and produced another daughter Rosina, who died in infancy.  Gottfried was again a widower before 1852.

Emigration

Gottfried came from a family of nine boys.  This in itself may have made life difficult for him because of the inheritance tradition of dividing the family property among the sons.  Many farms became so small that they could barely feed a family.   This was compounded by the potato blight that struck in the mid-1840s.  While most famous in Ireland, the potato famine existed throughout Europe.  This time known as the “hungry forties.” 

Presumably as a result, Gottfried and all three of his children emigrated to the United States.  The first was Gottfried’s older daughter Johanna.  She is listed in the Württemberg Emigration Index in March 1849.  The particulars of her travel are not known – only her destination of North America. 

Gottfried Gamper and his remaining children, Sophia and Gottlieb, emigrated in 1852, arriving in New York from Le Havre, France, on the 12th of April aboard the sailing ship Republic.  They were among a group of 366 farmers with a destination of llinois.  Their travel together may have been the result of sponsorship by one of the German princes, who thought it more cost-effective to export their poor.  Or they may have had a U.S. sponsor who paid for their passage in return for their labor.  No certain U.S. records for Christian Gottfried Gamper or his son Johann Gottlieb Gamper have been found.  However, there was a John Gamper living in Chicago in the 1880s and 1890s.

Johanna Margaretha Gamper Lang

While difficult to find, there is one online record containing the name of older daughter Johanna Gamper – the 1940 Brooklyn death certificate of one of her daughters, Wilhelmina (Lang) Glier.  This record also provided the name of Johanna’s husband, John Lang, another German émigré.

John Lang and Johanna Gamper were likely married by 1851 when their oldest known child, Frederick was born.  In later records, Johanna reported that she was the mother of nine children, six of whom were living in 1900.  Sadly, John Lang passed over in 1869.  His will confirms the name of his wife – Johanna Margarethe.  And his probate records tell us about their six living descendants – Frederick (b. 1851), Sophia (b. 1855 and perhaps named for Johanna’s sister), Elizabeth (b. 1859), Joseph (b. 1861), Wilhelmina (b. 1864), and George (b. 1866) – are listed as living in Brooklyn at the time of probate. 

The same children are listed in the 1870 New York Census but without Frederick Lang, who would have been 19 years old and out on his own.  In that document, Johanna was said to be the owner of a butcher shop.  Johanna (Gamper) Lang had at least thirteen grandchildren.  Sixty-five of her descendants have been identified from online records.

Johanna’s daughter Elisabeth Lang married a man named Albert Ehrlich and moved with him to Egg Harbor, New Jersey.  Albert died at age 31, but not before they had a daughter – Laura Sophia Ehrlich in 1889.  Laura married into the Karrer family, a well-known name in Egg Harbor.

Johanna’s son Fred is also mentioned in her will as “Frederick Lang or Kalmbach.”  She specifically left him nothing because he had borrowed so much money from her during her lifetime.  From what I can make out, Frederick Lang adopted the name Charles Frederick Kalmbach.  Charles F. Kalmbach was an entertainer, usually working as a xylophonist at the Coney Island casinos.  Fred / Charles had four children, and was a widower by 1900.  He then died in 1903, and the children – John, Alida, George, and Katherine Kalmbach – went to live with their widowed aunt Elisabeth Lang Ehrlich (above) in Egg Harbor.  They were living there in 1910.  Alida also remained in the area, marrying into the well-known Nell family. 

Sophia Catharina Gamper Molz Yoos Meier

Gottfried’s younger daughter Sophia was in New York in 1854 where she married my great-great grandfather John George Molz on the 17th of July.  Next she was in Chicago in 1856 for the birth of her oldest daughter Ernstine Molz, and then back to New York by 1858 for the birth of her son John George Molz, Jr., and daughter Carolina in 1860.  A fourth child, Susanna, was born either in New York of Philadelphia in 1863.  Both of the younger girls were baptized in Philadelphia in 1864.

Sophia’s husband John George Molz was killed in the Civil War Battle of Wilderness in May 1864.  In 1865, Sophia remarried a man named Jacob Yoos.  Yoos proved insane, and was committed.  Sophia then took refuge for several years with her widowed sister Johanna in Brooklyn following the insanity of her second husband Jacob Yoos.  She later married again (bigamously) and moved back to Philadelphia with her third husband Joseph Meier – with whom she had two more daughters.  A total of 409 of Sophia’s descendants, including the writer, have been identified.

Sophia’s daughter Ernstine eventually relocated with her husband, Ernst Platz, to a farm on the Harding Highway near Mays Landing, New Jersey.  Upon her passing. That farm was inherited by her brother, John George Molz, Jr.  Many of his children came to live in the same area.

Cousins Nearby

Egg Harbor and Mays Landing, New Jersey, are just a few miles apart.  As a result, Johanna and Sophia’s descendants were often known to one another because of their proximity but not their common ancestry.  The writer himself, Sophia’s descendant, unknowingly went to high school with several of Johanna’s descendants.

 

The Importance of Germantown

The first German immigrants in America came seeking land and the promise of religious freedom. They had heard that both could be found in the newly chartered colony of Pennsylvania, which was governed by a Quaker, William Penn.

Francis Daniel Pastorius, an agent for a land purchasing company in the city of Frankfurt am Main, organized the original party of settlers.  It was a group largely made up of German Quakers and Mennonites from the Rhineland.

Pastorius preceded the settlers to America, arriving in Philadelphia in mid-August, 1683. He negotiated with Penn for a tract of land a two-hour walk northwest of Philadelphia on which to build a settlement, which was to become known as "Germantown."  Six weeks later, on October 6, 1683, the ship Concord sailed into Philadelphia's harbor from Germany.  On board were individuals from thirteen interrelated families:

Lenert Aratts (Arents)
Elizabeth Bennett, servant to James Claypoole
Johannes Bleikers
James Claypoole and wife Helena and seven children
Edward Cole, Jr., servant to Claypool
William Hard
Peter Keurlis
Thones Kunders (Conard)
Hugh Lamb
Jan Lensen
Jan Luykens
Hugh Masland and wife, servant to Claypoole
Abraham Op Den Graeff
Derick Op Den Graeff
Hermann Op Den Graeff
Jan Siemes
Wilhelm Streypers (Streepers)
Leonard (Ryner/Rynier) Teison (Tyson)
Abraham Tunes
Cicely Wooley, servant to Claypoole

The German settlers felt an immediate kinship to their new home, as Pennsylvania's rolling hills and fertile plains resembled the terrain of the land they had left behind.  Their accounts of life in the New World soon prompted other German immigrants to follow their lead. Settlers representing a variety of Protestant religious groups began descending on Germantown.  Descendants of these first German immigrants are called Pennsylvania Dutch - an Anglicization of the word "deutsche" meaning "German."

Wilhelm Streypers and his wife are both the grandparents-in-law of Marjory’s 8th-great aunt as well as Paul’s 7th-great grandparents.  Marjory is also linked to the Teison / Tyson family (see Welsh Quakers and Pennsylvania Ironmasters) while Paul is also the 7th-great grandson of Thones Kunders and his wife (see First German Ancestors).  Perhaps soul groups on the other side do travel together.

The tri-centennial of the arrival of these first German settlers was celebrated in both the United States and Germany by the of commemorative stamps shown below.

Some 94 years later, Germantown became the site of British occupation and is remembered for its Revolutionary War battle.  On October 2, 1777, George Washington conceived a bold plan to attack a 9,000 troop garrison of British General Howe stationed in Germantown.  It called for the simultaneous advance of four different units of troops, moving by night.  At dawn on October 4, the four columns were to converge not far from General Howe's headquarters and catch the British by surprise.

The morning started well for the Revolutionaries who had the British retreating. But Washington's plan went astray when one of his four columns lost its bearings in a dense fog and thick smoke.  The British defense was particularly strong at a 1763 Germantown mansion called Cliveden.

In the end, bad luck and poor timing forced Washington to retreat.  In the end, the Revolutionaries suffered 152 losses including William Harvey, Paul’s 4th-great grandfather and husband of Mary Streepers, the great-granddaughter of Germantown settlers Wilhelm Streypers and his wife.  While the Battle of Germantown was considered an American defeat, it did serve to boost morale and self-confidence among Washington’s troops.

The Family of Gustav Anton Gottlob Schmiedigen and Auguste Emilie Richter

Gustav and Auguste Schmiedigen were Paul’s second-great uncle and aunt, Gustav being the brother of his great-grandmother Antonie Marie Caroline Johanne (Schmiedigen) Liepe.  The photo below is from Paul’s grandmother’s album labeled “Onkel Schmiedgen + Frau.”

Both Gustav (1835-1904) and Auguste (1839-1925) were born in Schönewalde, a small German town about 45 miles south from the center of Berlin.  They married in Berlin in 1863 – the day before her twenty-fourth birthday and he age 28.  

While Gustav and Auguste had six children, only three are known to have lived to adulthood.  The oldest to survive was born on 24 May 1866, and was named for his father – Gustav Anton Gottlob Schmiedigen.  Second to survive was daughter Ida Anna Luise Emilie Schmiedigen, born 12 Mar 1871.  The youngest of their children, Theodor Richard Albert Schmiedigen, was born more than ten years after his sister on 16 December 1881.

Eldest son Gustav was both a soldier and a civil servant.  Early in life, Gustav volunteered for military service, intending to make it his career.  However, he was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain of the Reserve so that he could enter government service.  At that time, bürgermeisters or mayors were appointed positions, and Gustav was appointed to the German Empire’s city of Opelln, now Opole, Poland.

Gustav later moved closer to home, serving in Zossen, about 25 miles south of Berlin, from which he retired at a young age on a civil servant’s pension.  However, in 1902, he reentered service as head of the municipal council of Britz, a Berlin suburb.  He remained until Britz was incorporated into Berlin as a part of the borough of Neukölln, retiring again in April 1921.  During his tenure there, he remarked to his sister Ida (below) how relieved he was that Wilhelm Voight had chosen Köpenick instead of nearby Britz for his escapade (see box).

On October 16, 1906, an out-of-work German shoemaker named Wilhelm Voigt donned a second-hand military captain's uniform he had bought, walked out into the street, and assumed control of a company of soldiers marching past.  He led them to the town hall of Köpenick, a small suburb of Berlin, arrested the mayor and the treasurer on charges of embezzlement, and took possession of 4,000 marks from the town treasury.  He then disappeared with the money.  The incident became famous as a symbol of the blind obedience of German soldiers to authority – even fake authority.

The police tracked him down nine days later, and he was sentenced to four years in jail.  But he proved to be such a likable character (and popular hero) that the Kaiser pardoned Voigt after he had served less than two years.  Voigt subsequently pursued a career in show business, where he entertained audiences, including in the United States, by re-enacting his stunt on the stage.

His bronze statue on steps of Köpenick city hall is shown at right.

Gustav and his wife (name unknown) left Berlin during the second World War.  Due to the intense bombing by the allies, many either lost their homes or were forced by the government to move out of the city.   However, in a letter to his cousins in America (see letter), Gustav states he was driven out by the occupying Russians.  In that 1947 letter, this proud civil servant begged for care packages from those cousins.  Paul was told as a child that many were sent.

This letter must have been among his last acts, as he reportedly passed in 1947. There were no children as far as is known.

Gustav was so well regarded for his service in Britz that a brief biography was recorded as both a street and a path in Berlin were named for him.  First was Schmiedigenstrasse, formerly Chausseestrasse.  But the name only held for just over a year in 1950 and 1951, when the street was renamed Britzer Damm.  Second was  Schmiedigenpfad in June 1975.  This path, a public right-of-way, connects Lipschitzallee and Sollmannweg and provides access to several residential blocks (apartment buildings).  “Schmiedigen Path” remains in use today.

Comparatively little is known about Gustav’s sister Ida and baby brother Theodor.  Ida married the older Adam Friedrich Heim in Berlin on 16 Nov 1893.  There are no known children from this marriage, and the date of Ida’s passing is unknown.

As far as can be determined, Theodor Schmiedigen never married.  Berlin telephone directories list him as a fuhrunternehm, a hauler or trucker.  According to Gustav’s letter to America, Theodor was buried under the rubble of his destroyed house after a direct hit by Allied bombers.  He was rescued, but later died after prolonged suffering.  Though no specific date is mentioned, the most severe bombing of Berlin occurred between March 1943 and March 1944.

Millford Plantation

Millford, near Pinewood, South Carolina, is the second home that we have visited acquired and restored by Richard Jenrette and donated to the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust.  The first, in the spring of 2014, was Ayr Mount in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Built around 1840, this Greek Revival mansion was built by the son of a South Carolina governor who later became governor himself.  While the exterior of the house is stunning, it is perhaps most famous for containing most of its original furnishings by Duncan Phyfe & Son. 

In addition to its furnishings, the double parlor was particularly interesting because it could be divided by closing a large set of mirrored folding doors.  In fact, there are many outstanding mirrors throughout the house.

At first, it struck me as odd that Millford had no connection to the nearby Santee River other than as a means to receive its furnishings from New York.   However, while labeled a plantation, Millford was actually a large country home rather than a working farm.  Water transportation was not needed to ship the produce from its fields.

This lack of water, my lack of interest in Phyfe, and its complete isolation left me thinking that I would not want to live at Millford – then or now.  Choosing between Mr. Jenrette’s properties we have visited, I much prefer Ayr Mount for its location and its more practical layout.

June Meeting

Some who see into the great beyond say that the greatest pleasure its residents receive is to be remembered here on Earth.  If that is so, there were a great many smiling on Sunday, June 7, 2015.  But I get ahead of myself.

Before her family moved to Florida late in the 1950s, Marjory remembers going to the June Meeting.  But because she was a small child, those memories are indistinct – certainly not including the location or the way to get there.  It was not long after we married 46 years ago today that I began to hear about the June Meeting from Marjory’s family.  Uncle Arlie talked about the difficulty of walking to Wind Cave and of finding the cemetery.  Grandma, born Annis Isaacs in Wind Cave, spoke wistfully of her years in the mountains before much of the surrounding land became a national forest in 1937. 

With each passing – Marjory’s grandma in 1985, her father in 1990, and Uncle Arlie in 2011 – our desire to attend the June Meeting increased.  At the same time, our ability to learn more about the time and the place became less.  In 2013, in a conversation with Marjory’s Aunt Gerd, she said that her son, Danny Lee Gabbard, attends every year.  She said he was in Richmond, Indiana, and was listed in the phone book.  Not true.  And then Gerd had a small stroke, eliminating her as a source of information for some time.

Finally, in early 2015, I thought to ask Marjory’s Aunt Glory is she had a phone number for Danny Lee.  Turns out she did and dialed him right away.  It took a while to explain who I was, but the connection was made with a promise to talk again in late May or early June.  Our next contact resulted in a promise to talk on Saturday evening, June 6, but that didn’t happen because of the non-existent cell coverage in the area.  So on Sunday morning, we set out for Wind Cave on a prayer.

First we reached the City of McKee, county seat of Jackson County, with a population of about 900.  From there, we headed further up the mountain based solely on a location for the area called Wind Cave on Google Maps.  Uncle Arlie was right about it being difficult to find, but GPS has made life easier.  After about 20 minutes of twist and turns on single-lane asphalt, we were on Wind Cave Road – a one-lane affair that eventually became just crushed stone.  But there was a small sign for the Wind Cave Baptist Church that gave us confidence we were headed the right way. 

At the church, we found a grave yard with many of Granma’s kin.  Her parents are there, Godfrey and Matilda “Tildy” Isaacs (below), as are some of her brothers and sisters.  At 11:00, there was a small service (six people counting us) at the church. 

While we had found some of what we wanted to see, there had not found Danny Lee.  Fortunately, he found us.  (Marjory and Danny Lee below.)

Turns out, the larger meeting is at the Lakes Cemetery about two thirds of a mile further on.  While we had thought this was an Isaacs meeting, it was really a Lakes meeting.  Carter Lakes arrived in the area in the early 1800s and is the father of Wind Cave, both figuratively and genealogically.  Carter Lakes is Marjory’s fourth great-grandfather and, with eleven children, an ancestor of most everyone who lived nearby.

So, along with fifty or sixty others, we attended the June Meeting at the Lakes Cemetery in Wind Cave, Kentucky.  There were Lakes, Gabbards, Maupins, Isaacs, and many more.  Prayers were offered and songs were sung.  And we were all reminded of the importance of family and of honoring our ancestors.

From there, we adjourned to the site of the Gabbard homestead.  While there are no original family houses in the area, there was a new cabin being fitted out and a nice stretch of land to sit and talk.
Our trip to the June Meeting in Wind Cave was certainly a memorable one, and something we intend to repeat.  We’ll be better prepared next time with bug spray, toilet paper, folding chairs, and plenty to eat and drink.  And we invite any of the descendants of Carter lakes to travel with us.

I’ve prepared a map with points of interest for those who might like to make the trip themselves including the location of the sign pointing to the church and another local landmark.  It seems there is nearly always a dog sleeping in the road at the intersection of Lakes Creek Road, Foxtown Road, and Salt Rock Road.  See you there the first Sunday after the first Saturday of every June.

Temperance and Prohibition in Danville Virginia

It’s not a simple story.  Danville has gone from “wet” to “dry” and back many times.  Those who favored a dry town were often personally wet.  And at least one citizen died for the cause of Prohibition.

The battle over a wet or dry Danville began in earnest in 1886 when Virginia adopted legislation that made liquor sales a “local option.”  From that time, the citizens of counties, independent cities, and towns could vote to ban liquor sales within their borders.

One of the most outspoken proponents of a dry Danville and a dry Commonwealth was the Rev. John R. Moffett.  In addition to his duties as a pastor of a North Danville Baptist church, Moffett was editor and publisher of a weekly Prohibition newspaper called Anti-Liquor.

Despite the best efforts of Rev. Moffett and the Danville chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, a July 1891 local option vote was 291-273 in favor of keeping Danville wet. 

In 1892, Moffett went so far as to challenge the polling practices in Danville, resulting in a battle of words with one J. T. Clarke, a member of the predominant Democratic party and ex-bartender.  The battle escalated when Moffett lost his self-control, struck Clarke, and informed him that he “only conversed with gentlemen.”  Later in the week, on a Friday evening on Main Street, Clarke shot Moffett four times.  Moffett expired early on Sunday, November 14, 1892.  The North Danville Baptist Church, then under construction, was renamed Moffett Memorial (shown below) soon thereafter.  Clarke was convicted only of manslaughter, and received the light sentence of just five years from a jury of whiskey sympathizers. 

Moffett Memorial Baptist Church prior to 1971 fire

It is difficult to track exactly when Danville went dry, but it is clear this was so by 1905 when the local option would again come to a vote.  The wets won this election, and by 1906, seventeen saloon licenses had been issued.  Later that year, a new city ordinance forbade screens or obstructions that would block the view of passersby into the saloons as well as amusements such as billiards.

During this time, Chief of Police R. E. Morris vigorously enforced the liquor laws, perhaps too much so, causing rebukes from Mayor Harry Wooding and Corporation Court Judge Archibald Aiken.  Later, in 1911, to Danville’s great embarrassment, Morris was identified as Thomas Edgar Stripling, wanted for murder in Georgia.

Perhaps to the relief of local officials, the entire Commonwealth went dry on November 1, 1916 – three years before national prohibition began.  In 1918, Virginia was the second state to ratify the 18th Amendment.  The entire country went dry on January 17, 1920.

As in many other locations, Danville found enforcement of Prohibition difficult.  Mayor Wooding was accused by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of being too lenient as judge of the Police Court while wets thought Judge Aiken was thought too harsh in the Corporation Court.  The police were anxious to shut down the “blind tigers” on Craghead Street.  (A blind tiger was a place where liquor could be purchased without the buyer and the seller seeing one another, making one unable to testify against the other.)  At the same time, individuals such as Mike H. Hatcher of Grove Street were also prosecuted.  Hatcher was convicted of possession of at least a gallon of liquor no less than four times by 1927.

While Prohibition was modestly successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed and initially reduced the crime rate, it ultimately created a new breed of criminals and failed to reduce crime overall.  Chicago’s Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929 was pivotal in changing public opinion on Prohibition.

On March 22, 1933, President Roosevelt signed a law legalizing beer and wine with low alcohol content – 3.2% by weight.  Virginia followed suit on August 17, legalizing 3.2% beer and making arrangements for a referendum on Prohibition.  On October 3, in a special election, Virginia voters agreed to end statewide Prohibition when and if the 21st Amendment repealing national Prohibition was ratified.  Virginia was the 32nd state to approve the amendment on October 25.  National Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933.

On March 7, 1934, the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) was established to control the sale of alcohol.  The ABC has an absolute monopoly on the sale of hard liquor by the bottle in Virginia.  There are about 350 ABC stores, now located mostly in strip malls.  With a high markup on wholesale prices, these stores generated $140 million in profit for the state during 2014 in addition to the 20% excise tax and 5% sales tax.

However, some Virginia counties remain dry under the “local option” including Bland, Buchanan, Charlotte, Craig, Floyd, Grayson, Highland, Lee, Patrick, and Russell.

Liquor “by the drink” sales were not allowed by state law until 1968.  Before that time, private “brown bag” clubs were the only legal way to enjoy a drink with dinner out.  It remains unlawful to transport more than a gallon of liquor into Virginia from neighboring states.

For those who are so inclined, it’s interesting to compare the history of liquor sales and Prohibition with today’s efforts to legalize marijuana.  During national Prohibition, doctors could prescribe medicinal alcohol much as we now have medicinal cannabis.  I think Rev. Moffett would be opposed.

Sources:

• Bailey, Fankie Y. and Alice P Green.  Wicked Danville: Liquor and Lawlessness in a Southside Virginia City, The History Press, Charleston, SC 2011.
• O’Conner, Adrian.  River City: Stories of Danville, publisher not listed.
• “Prohibition in Virginia,” http://www.rustycans.com/HISTORY/virginia.html, accessed May 17, 2015.
• “The ‘ABC’ of Legal Liquor in Virginia,” http://www.virginiaplaces.org/alcohol/abc.html, accessed May 19, 2015.
• Thompson, S.H.  The Life of John R. Moffett, Mrs. Bruce Pearl Moffett, Salem, Va. 1895.