Rum Running through the Roaring 20's

News Report by Elaine Lillback

  Dale Pohto, a Lake County sheriff’s deputy presented a very valuable and interesting historical program of the prohibition times of 1920-1933.  Pohto hails as one of the family lineage of the Pohto family of the original Fairport "Finn Hollow" community.  Although he was born in Fairport, his father, Eugene moved the family out to Madison when he was young.  He speaks only a few chosen Finnish words. He is a graduate of Lakeland Community College's Law Enforcement program and was introduced by Janet Noponen of the Finnish Heritage Museum.

    But words did fly as he spoke of the key words of the prohibition:  rum runner, moonshiner, and bootlegger.  These words became the key words of the northeastern Ohio society as the rum runners tried to avoid arrest by federal and local agents. Liquor was legally made in Canada and was smuggled over from the closest port of Rondeau, Canada to Rocky River, Lorain, and Fairport Harbor. Rondeau was not the only Canadian outlet, but was the one "servicing Fairport and the surrounding area." The rumrunners, employing boats that were faster than US Coast Guard vessels and police boats, used the cover of night and changed areas of delivery each time. Many were converted fishing vessels.

   President Wilson vetoed the 18th amendment called the Volstead Act.  But it became law on January 16, 1920 after the work of the Anti-Saloon League (founded in Ohio with the aid of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union)and outlawed the transportation of intoxicating beverages.

   The task fell upon the under-manned U.S. Coast Guard to fight the Canadian black boats which operated along the coastlines where it was hard to see. The boat captains ran without running lights and quickly entered areas for delivery and equally fast, sped away. (Click Map to Enlarge)

   When pursuit became hot, they would dump their cargo into the water, preferably in shallow water.  The bottles were carefully bagged and tied together, making it possible to recover them at a later time.  Captured rum runner boats were sold at auction shortly after a trial, often right back to the original owners.  False alarms and messages were sent in to the Coast Guard which had to be investigated.  The advertised penalty for a rum carrier having a radio transmitter aboard was a fine of $7,000.00 and 5 years in prison for the operator. Other penalties charged for just having alcohol on your property produced fines of thousands of dollars. These fines were very steep in that economy.
Pohto related a tale rum runner tale which took the goods far up the Grand River. The boats would drop off their crates of Canadian whiskey on the west river bank where it was carried up the embankment to a farm on Fobes Street. Later, trucks would arrive, enter the barn, load the whiskey, and then depart under night's cover to places in Lake County.

    The runners employed many maneuvers designed to evade capture. They used dense smoke screens created by burning engine oil on a hot exhaust to escape interdiction. The runners observed colored lights on shore and fire signals which warned them of law enforcement personnel presence.

 False floor boards are found in Hellriegels, a famous Painesville area restaurant concealed illegal service of "booze." Evidence of that floor mechanism is still there, although it is sealed up and inoperative.

Smugglers also used ice nets, normally used in fishing, employed empty fuel tanks as storage areas, used boat hooks with cork screw ends to transfer or recover bags and crates that had to be jettisoned overboard for later recovery.

Brennan’s Fish House in Grand River was also known as a “Road House.” There were also a number of hotel dining rooms in Fairport which served illegal hootch on the side. 

  Pohto revealed that boatbuilders whose business included the construction and sale of both government boats and private ones were often being built in the same factory. Private boat owners bought more powerful engines like the aircraft "Liberty Engine" and thus their crafts were faster and could avoid capture by government agents.
      

When the 21st Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933 to repeal prohibition, it was estimated that despite efforts of law, less than 5 percent of smuggled intoxicants were actually intercepted.  Crime rates had soared.  Most had not broken the law before.  Now they had become involved, as Dale said, “They were in the right place at the right time with the right skills, and the right resources and were short on cash.”

Lovely purple and green St. Urho’s Day refreshments were prepared by Beverly Harbour,  Ann Pohto, and Virpi Buck.

© Text by Elaine Lillback,
© Photos by Lasse Hiltunen