In 1908, the Wyandotte [Kansas] city court arrested and convicted the state’s Assistant Attorney General C. W. Trickett for unlawfully receiving fees in exchange for services. Many believed Kansas breweries and saloonkeepers conspired against Mr. Trickett in this case for his enforcement of the prohibitory law on intoxicating liquor. Attorney General Fred Jackson agreed. By overturning the conviction, Jackson signaled the beginning of a new, though temporary, chapter in the ongoing struggle for prohibition in which laws long ignored would be enforced and the “blind tigers” (illegal saloons) once allowed to flourish would be closed. A prohibition era Brewery Album is now available on Kansas Memory.
Fred Jackson’s crackdown on illegal liquor marked a clear break from the past. Although Kansas was the first state to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors in 1880, the law was only loosely enforced. Carry Nation’s infamous hatchet crusades beginning in 1900 sought greater enforcement of the laws and contributed to a growing intolerance of saloon culture that led to additional state regulations and national prohibition by 1920.
The Brewery Album held by the Kansas Historical Society provides a rare look at some of these "blind tigers" and the liquor and beer culture in northeast Kansas during prohibition under state law. W. R. Lafferty of Oakland, California, donated the album in 1970.
An interior view (upstairs) of the Hall of Fame in Topeka with "Fritz" Durien and Bob Hensler.
Front view of the Hall of Fame after Fritz [Durien] went to Germany and a pop stand was started, Topeka.
Fritz Durien and his warehouse treasury in his Hall of Fame, Topeka.
Returning empty kegs was an every day scene when the joints were open.
The John Walruf Brewery at Lawrence was the last of the big brewery interests in Kansas to fight prohibition.
For more sources on the prohibition era in Kansas, select the category Government and Politics - Reform and Protest - Prohibition and Temperance.