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Bootleggers stash whiskey

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Written by Karen R. Thompson Friday, 07 September 2007

When the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting the sale of alcohol took effect Jan. 29, 1919, some communities were so convinced that drinking was the cause of all crime, they actually sold their jails.

Williamson County had a population reaching 44,146 in 1930. The county was rural, with farming and ranching the primary occupations. New York City might have had 30,000 “speakeasies” during Prohibition, but in Williamson County, “home brew” was the only alcohol.

Edward J. Walsh, president of Round Rock White Lime Co., was the first person in the county, after the end of Prohibition to request a vote on the sale of beer. It passed on Sept. 11, 1933. Photo courtesy Chris Walsh.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Jollyville was a small community with about 25 families. A car was a luxury, and not every family had one.

The summer of 1932 was hot, and kids were outside playing all day since there was no television or air-conditioning to keep them inside. The road in front of the W. H. Thompson place (now 12881 Pond Springs Road) had a bridge over Rattan Creek.

John F. Thompson Jr., 10, his brother William S. Thompson (Bud), 6, and a couple of cousins were playing near the bridge when they spied some strange boxes underneath it. On further inspection, the boxes turned out to be cases of whiskey, about 40 bottles of Kentucky bourbon. Someone had hidden the whiskey; probably intending to come back and retrieve it later.

The startled boys ran to the house and told their father, Finis Thompson, who in turn got his neighbor and fellow World War One veteran, James A. Prewitt (Bud) to retrieve the whiskey. It was 90 proof “Cream of Kentucky” pure whiskey. Now the problem was how to tell Mrs. Thompson, who was a “teetotaler,” or person who does not drink.

Because Emma Thompson, my grandmother, would not allow the whiskey in the house, they hid it in the pasture arbor. For a long period of time the boys watched the bridge from a distance, well hidden, to see if anyone came to retrieve the liquor. If bootleggers came back, no one saw them.

In 1966 when I married David Thompson, we moved to the family farm. One of the first stories Granny told me there was about “the booze”, as she called it. She hated “the booze” being in the arbor and said that Finis and his friends had spent 10 or more years drinking on “the booze.” She had the last bottle in the kitchen cabinet, because it was used only as medicine, such as with honey for a sore throat.

After almost 14 years, Prohibition had failed to fully enforce sobriety and had cost billions. By 1930 it was rapidly losing support.

States began to approve the 23rd Amendment that would end prohibition. On Dec. 5, 1933, it was approved nationwide.

In Williamson County, the first person to come to the Commissioner’s Court to request an election to sell beer was Edward J. Walsh of Round Rock. He presented a petition of 100 signatures. The court approved an election on Sept. 11, 1933, and it passed with 295 voting “Yes” to sell beer, and 161 saying “No.” The beer could not be over 3.2 percent alcohol.