Portage Pathways: Spirited effort doomed taverns

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by Roger DiPaolo

Record-Courier Editor

Portage County voters were pondering more than a presidential election 100 years ago.

Less than a week after deciding whether William Howard Taft or William Jennings Bryan would occupy the White House, they were facing another election -- one that posed a seemingly simple question: Wet or dry?

Their decision would make a world of difference for the operators of 29 saloons throughout Portage County.

"Dry" forces were seeking a "yes" vote on a local option measure to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors anywhere in the county. "Wets" were hoping a "no" vote would carry the day, allowing saloons to remain open.

The drys prevailed, but not without -- pardon the pun -- a spirited fight by opponents of prohibition.

The vote, which took place Nov. 9, 1908, was the result of a petition drive sponsored by the Portage County Local Option Association, which drew backing from churches and temperance supporters, such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

The campaign was a relatively brief one. The petitions -- bearing signatures equivalent to 70 percent of those who had voted in the last countywide election -- weren't certified until late October.

The special election was held three weeks later.

DRY FORCES reiterated familiar arguments against the sale of alcohol, with emphasis on its detrimental influence on family life.

"This is primarily a moral question," the prohibitionists stated in advertisements in the Kent Courier and the Ravenna Republican.

"A question that affects our children, our young men, the happiness of our homes. ... Drinking is not a necessity; it is a habit, one of the most expensive, most soul-destroying habits to which men are addicted."

The wets, led by the Personal Liberty League, cast the battle in terms of personal choice, contending that regulation of saloons -- not prohibition -- was the answer to the concerns raised by the drys.

"Let reason and not emotion sway your judgment," the League urged in its advertisements, which said that a vote against banning saloons would, in fact, be a vote in favor of regulating them.

"Voting dry," the League contended, "does not eliminate the dives, speakeasies and blind tigers."

As the election approached, both sides ramped up their campaigns.

"The county was flooded with literature, wet and dry," the Republican reported. "Nothing was omitted that experienced campaigners could think of to influence the public mind in favor of the one side or the other."

Meetings were held in Kent, Ravenna and every township as drys and wets rallied their forces. Clergy took to their pulpits to urge a dry vote. Temperance forces held 40 meetings at sites throughout the county on the night before the vote.

OF THE 29 saloons in operation in Portage County, 12 were located in Kent, including four operated by Henry Green, a leader of the wet forces there. There were a dozen in operation in Ravenna, three in Mantua and two in Suffield.

Kent had seen three attempts to ban saloons at the ballot box since 1886.

The last, in 1889, actually saw the drys prevail, only to have their mandate ignored by Village Council, which decided that the $8,000 per year in tax revenue generated by the saloons was more important than the will of the voters.

"There were lively times in Kent and Ravenna and the tension was in no degree lessened until the last ballots were in the boxes," according to the Republican.

When the votes were counted, the drys scored a clear victory with 4,305 voters approving the ban on saloons and 3,121 opposed.

The wets carried Kent by 101 votes, Randolph by 28 votes and Freedom by on vote, but the drys won in Ravenna and every other Portage community.

"Republicans, Democrats and Prohibitionists worked in common cause against the saloons," the Republican reported, while noting that the 1,184-vote margin of victory was about twice what the most optimistic temperance forces had expected.

Portage County became the 38th in Ohio to vote itself dry. By the end of 1908, 20 more counties had followed suit.

Saloons throughout the county closed on Dec. 9, 1908. They didn't reopen for 25 years, when the nation's experiment with Prohibition came to an end.

E-mail:

rdipaolo@recordpub.com

Telephone: 330-296-9657