On Aug. 2, 1926, the newly formed Law and Order League for Carroll County held a meeting in the community room on the third-floor of the Wantz building in downtown Westminster.
While researching the league's history for the Historical Society of Carroll years ago, historian Jay Graybeal found an Aug. 6, 1926, article in the now defunct Westminster newspaper, the Democratic Advocate.
The article notes, "The extreme heat made the evening very uncomfortable, yet there were ten of the thirteen districts of the county well represented, with the county president, and the county secretary of Woman's Christian Temperance Union present."
If you will recall, Prohibition began in the United States on January 29, 1920, when the Volstead Act was enacted as the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution.
For additional context, the "Anti-Saloon League in Carroll County," a national organization that existed from 1893 to 1933, was quite active in Carroll.
As one can easily understand from the name, the Anti-Saloon League opposed the sale of alcohol and, by January 1919, it had been successful in getting 75 percent of the states in our country to pass laws that prohibited the "sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors."
Carroll County went "dry" on May 1, 1915, almost five years before prohibition took affect for the rest of the United States.
Mary Bostwick Shellman was noted as being determined to banish Westminster's 21 saloons, according to Nancy Warner's book, "Carroll County Maryland, A History 1837-1976."
Remember, during this period, Westminster had not much more than 3,000 citizens.
According to Warner, one of the temperance parades in Westminster in the summer of 1914 featured "women carrying the Russian flag in honor of Russia's prohibition stance."
The 1926 newspaper article said, "Mr. George Mather, president of the organization, presided. Rev. E. R. Spencer, pastor of the M. E. Church, in Mt. Airy, led in prayer. The purpose of the meeting was to consider plans towards perfecting the organization throughout the county, and what methods of work to pursue to accomplish most before the primary election, September 14th. ..
"Mass meetings for Westminster and the larger towns in the county are considered, and a committee appointed to plan for them."
According to Graybeal, "While the proponents of Prohibition thought that the absence of alcohol would improve society, the demand created a new kind of criminal, the bootlegger, and a crime wave."
On Aug. 25, 1922 the Democratic Advocate lamented the rise in crime and violence in Carroll County, "All over the country a vast machine is being built up for distribution of liquor illegally."
In Carroll County, until Prohibition was repealed by the ratification of the 21st Amendment in December 1933, the debate over law and order, crime, bootlegging, illegal stills and alcohol was hotter than the weather.
When he is not at the Carroll County 4-H and FFA Fair, Kevin Dayhoff may be reached at kevindayhoff@gmail.com