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Mesenbrinks in the Prohibition

One of my favorite items from my Dad's childhood is a poster he made presumably for a school contest. I would guess it was made around 1925 or 1930 when he would have been ten to fifteen years old. It is an ink drawing that I have in my office.

The poster is well done, I'd say, but what makes it most interesting to me is it's topic: prohibition. Prohibition was in effect between 1920 to 1933. Dad, being born in 1915, wasn't old enough to be directly affected by prohibition, but no doubt had heard a lot about it.
I get a kick out of the line of liquor bottles ready to rush in as soon as the door opens and Beer is allowed in. I don't know for sure that this was a contest, and if so, how Dad did. It was definitely a keepsake, and one I'm glad was kept.

Of course, Mesenbrink is a German name, and one associates Germans with beer. So this poster didn't seem to be in line with what I knew of my Dad and his family. It's safe to say it was only an assignment and not a core family belief. In fact, I found a 1928 letter to the Omaha World-Herald from Dad's father, my grandfather, Ben Mesenbrink that touches on the subject:

Evening World Herald, November 1, 1928

The Public Pulse

Too Tough for Keeley Cures
Denison, Ia. Oct. 28

To the Editor of The World Herald. I would like to answer R. E. Kelman's question as to what has become of the Keeley cure institutions.
They were just automatically put out of business with the saloons. Nowadays this prohibition liquor puts a man in the insane asylum or in the prison, that is if it doesn't kill him outright.

Better have Al Smith for president so we can get some government regulations for that liquor law. And lots of other laws need touching up. I think
Al Smith is the man that can and will do what he says he will.

I've been a reader of your World-Herald for 14 years. I think the Public Pulse in the most interesting part.


Ben Mesenbrink

The main topic of the letter was what was called the Keeley Cure - a somewhat mysterious "medicine" and treatment program for alcoholism that was especially popular before the early 1900s. Ben says that the Keeley Cure basically became unnecessary with prohibition, not that prohibition eliminated alcoholism, but that the negative effects of prohibition alcohol, including insanity, prison, and death, did eliminate alcoholism. Ben went on to support Al Smith for president in 1928. Al Smith favored relaxing prohibition and providing sensible laws to make alcohol safer.

Sometimes people went to extreme measures to get good, safe, alcohol during the prohibition. The Grand Forks, North Dakota paper humorously tells of H. P. Mesenbrink's failed efforts in 1920:

Clipping from Grand Forks, ND paper, Sep 14 1920

Iowa Man Convicted of Booze Smuggling in Crookston Court

H. P. Mesenbrink of Carrol, Iowa was considered by Judge William Watts, in district court here, to be guilty of increasing the farm labor shortage,in addition to transporting liquor into dry territory, and was fined $350 and costs. Messenbrink pleaded guilty to the latter charge.Circumstantial evidence convicts him of the former. Messenbrink, according to Sheriff Bolstad, while making a dash for Fargo in an automobile filled with Canadian liquor, turned turtle on the prairie near Eldred. Threshing crews in the vicinity discovered the liquor which amounted to 18 cases. Following the discovery no threshing was possible in the Eldred district for several days.

 He wasn't the last Mesenbrink to get in trouble for hauling liquor. The Daily Nonpareil of Council Bluffs reported June 15, 1932 that Otto Mesenbrink and Oscar Maier of Dunlap were stopped with 3 gallons of "alleged" whiskey in their car.


Dad went on to drink a few beers, in spite of his poster.

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