1922: Shamrocks, Ferris wheels and moonshine stills

I have always enjoyed doing research in the 1920s. Something about those roaring days has always fascinated me.

Recently, in reading the offerings of 1922 published in the Southeast Missourian, I ran across several stories I found interesting. While nothing links them together except the year of publication, I've used them to cobble together this blog.

Published March 17, 1922:

NEWS FROM JACKSON

St. Patrick's Day is not observed as it used to be in Jackson, although the colors are worn as usual. One feature of St. Patrick's Day in the time gone by was that the late Hugh R. Quinn each year received from the Emerald Isle a package of real shamrock plants, which he distributed among his friends, all of whom tried to get the plants to grow, but none ever succeeded.

Antoinette Geldmacher was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Cape Girardeau on March 27, 1922. (Submitted photo)

Published March 27, 1922:

BODY KEPT AT CHURCH ALL NIGHT

RAIN PREVENTS BURIAL SUNDAY AS PLANNED

Body of Mrs. Antoinette Geldmacher, wife of A.W. Geldmacher, who died Friday night at her home, 227 S. Frederick St., laid Sunday might in St. Mary's Church, following funeral services there Sunday afternoon. Continued rain on Sunday prevented preparing of the grave and interment was made today.

Heavy rains falling all Saturday night and Sunday caused seepage in the grave in St. Mary's Cemetery and burial was postponed. The body, with relatives and close friends present, remained in the church.

According to members of St. Mary's Parish today, this is the first instance in the history of the church when such procedure was followed. (St. Mary's was founded in 1868. - Sharon)

Interment was made today after short services at the church at 9:30 a.m. Father (Eberhardt) Pruente had charge of the services Sunday and today.

A large number of friends gathered at the church Sunday to pay their last respects.

Published April 13, 1922:

NEWS FROM JACKSON

In another place in this paper will be found the sale of the Sam Lail farm to Louis Schaper by the administrator of the Lail estate. The farm contains 188 acres, and is considered one of the best in the vicinity of Jackson. It has quite a history. The father of Sam Lail was kidnapped by the Indians who roamed over this country while the elder Lail was a boy. While they had Lail in their power, they camped on the site of the present farm, but later moved west. Lail returned to this county after having grown to manhood, and acquired the campsite and the surrounding land. Here he lived the rest of his days, and reared his family. His immediate family are all dead now, Sam Lail being the last to succumb.

Mr. Schaper had been Sam Lail's tenant for years before the owner died, and has made good. The farm is located about three miles south of Jackson on the Jackson Branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

Published April 14, 1922:

NEWS FROM JACKSON

Attention has been called to an error in yesterday's Missourian in the article concerning the sale of the Sam C. Lail Farm to Louis Schaper, after the land had been in possession of the Lail family nearly a century. It was not the father of Sam Lail who originally bought the place, but the grandfather of Sam Lail, George Lail, who purchased the farm of 640 acres from Alexander Summers on June 4, 1830, or nearly 92 years ago. The son of George Lail, Zenas Lail, was the father of Sam C. Lail. It was George Lail, not Zenas Lail, who was captured by the Indians when a boy, at the beginning of the last century.

L.B. Houck Home, 940 College Hill, was built about 1905. (Courtesy of Jeanette Juden ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

Published April 17, 1922:

COL. HOUCK SELLS HIS HOME TO LEUER

Col. L.B. Houck announced today that he had sold his home on College Hill to Harry F. Leuer and would give possession June 1. For a long time the Houcks have desired to sell their place, which is one of the most beautiful in Cape Girardeau, because it is too large for them, and they now contemplate moving to California.

The Leuers had expected to build a new home on the site of their present house on North Lorimier Street and had gone so far as to have the plans made, but they decided to buy the Houck Home, it is reported, because of its beauty and many conveniences.

(Fred Lynch did a blog about the L.B. Houck home in 2014. - Sharon)

Published April 15, 1922:

YOUNG FOLK WED IN FERRIS WHEEL

Mr. and Mrs. Martin J. Luedemann, newlyweds, married Friday night at the top of a Ferris wheel at the Snapp Bros. carnival, today were "honeymooning" in Cape Girardeau awaiting sailing of the Steamer Bald Eagle that will carry them to their home at Jacob, Illinois.

The couple pleased themselves and a number of Cape Girardeau citizens who flocked to the carnival grounds Friday night when they got married. Starting at the corner of Middle and Good Hope streets, the wedding party consisting of (police) chief (Jeff) Hutson and Patrolman (Curtis) Childs leading, a band from the carnival, and finally the bride and groom, proceeded to the Ferris wheel. Justice (C.M.) Gilbert was placed in one seat, the bride and groom in another, and witnesses in a third. The justice in the center was at the highest point. He read the marriage ritual in loud tones, and tendered the license to the couple on a long pole. Bride and groom joined hands in true style, kissed each other -- and, went to the home of a relative, Mrs. Amelia Morrison.

The marriage of Martin J. Luedemann and Lennie M. Parker was recorded in a Cape Girardeau County marriage book at Jackson, although it doesn't mention anything about the Ferris wheel wedding place. (Ancestry.com)

This final tale consists of several articles and actually had its origin in August 1921, when a Cape Girardeau tinner, Joseph Baumgartner, was arrested by Prohibition agent H.B. King for possessing articles for the manufacture of liquor stills, a federal violation.

Adding insult to injury, Baumgartner was assessed a fine or tax of close to $150 for not having a license to make stills. Apparently, according to federal law at that time, manufacturing stills was illegal, but if you did manufacture stills, you better have a license to do it...

Published Jan. 23, 1922:

LAW VIOLATION TO MAKE STILLS

BUT, IF YOU DO, GET A LICENSE

Joseph Baumgartner, local tinner, who was indicted by a grand jury at the last term of Federal Court, charged with manufacturing stills for the making of illicit liquors, has been notified by the Internal Revenue Department that he owes the government approximately $150 in license fees for the manufacture of the alleged stills.

While it is a violation of the national law to manufacture stills, the government is demanding that -- if it is proven that Baumgartner is guilty of making stills -- he pay a license for the right to manufacture them.

The license for the manufacture of stills is $50 per still. According to the indictment against Baumgartner, he is charged with having had three in his possession. This would make his license fee $150.

The alleged stills -- which Baumgartner claims were jelly cookers -- were found by Prohibition Agent H.B. King during a series of investigations here in the summer. Baumgartner was arraigned before United States Commissioner Russell L. Dearmont and bound over to Federal Court on bond. The indictment was returned following the hearing of testimony in the case.

Manufacturers of stills in Southeast Missouri -- if there are any -- are also to be notified that they owed the government license fee. It is also reported that they will be charged a license for the manufacture of liquor, and another fee for selling it.

Published April 12, 1922:

JOE BAUMGARTNER CASE TAKEN FROM JURY AND ACCUSED FREED

GOVERNMENT FAILED TO MAKE A CASE, JUDGE FARIS ANNOUNCES

Declaring that the government's attorney had failed to make a case, Judge C.B. Farris, in Federal District Court late Tuesday afternoon, ordered Joseph Baumgartner, proprietor of the Cape Sheet Metal Works, freed of the charge of having possession of articles to be used in the manufacture of stills. The court's order came after the attorneys for the defense had filed a demurrer following the completion of the testimony in the case.

Judge Farris, in freeing Baumgartner, held that the government "failed to make its case, since it was not proven conclusively that the parts that he had made were to be used to make a still." Judge Faris said that neither court nor jury knows the process of the manufacture of liquor. In order to prove conclusively that Baumgartner intended to use the parts that he was making to construct a still, the court and jury would have to be shown in every detail the construction and putting together of a still. "This the government attorney failed to do," Judge Faris said.

Judge Faris, however, sustained a motion offered by John C. Dyott, special investigator, to destroy the parts of the alleged still. They were ordered to be torn up by the marshal.

Baumgartner, who operated a tinshop in Cape Girardeau for five years, was arrested by Prohibition Agent H.B. King, Aug. 11, 1921, after the officer found certain articles in his shop which he claimed were to be used to make a still, and which the proprietor said were to be used in construction of a "jelly cooker."

Indictment charging Baumgartner with the manufacture of articles for a still for the making of illicit liquor was returned by the grand jury at October term, 1921. A motion was heard Monday in court here to order the return of the property seized in his place of business without a search warrant, but Judge Faris overruled this motion.

H.B. King, prohibition officer, was the only witness used by the government. He testified about going into the shop, while Baumgartner was away, and seeing the articles, and then questioning the proprietor upon his return. He testified as to the appearance of stills, and said that he believed that the parts he found were to go in the construction of one.

Baumgartner, on the stand, admitted King's visit to his place, but denied that the parts were intended for a still. He said that the men who had ordered the copper receptacle from him said that they intended to make "jelly cookers" and "oil containers." On questioning by the government's attorney he said that Dale Reed of this city and Mr. Bierhart of Painter, Missouri, ordered the parts from him. They told him, he said, they wanted the parts for the purposes mentioned.

Three character witnesses -- H.L. Albert, Frank Kelly and I. Ben Miller -- were used by Baumgartner's attorneys to establish his reputation here. Judge Faris noted, in sustaining the demurrer, that the excellent character witnesses aided in his making up his mind to dismiss the case...

Published April 13, 1922:

BAUMGARTNER ASKS TAX TO BE REFUNDED

Application for the return of $141.56, paid as a tax assessed for the alleged manufacture of stills, was filed in the Internal Revenue Department here today, by (A.M.) Spradling and (Kenrick) Burrough, attorneys representing Joseph Baumgartner, proprietor of the Cape Sheet Metal Company.

Tax was paid under "coercion and protest," the application for return states. Baumgartner paid the tax only after the officers threatened to levy on his property, the application points out.

Under a federal law a tax may be collected on the manufacture of stills. Baumgartner was charged with the possession of articles designed to be used in the manufacture of a still, and the Internal Revenue Department at once asked that he pay the tax assessed for the privilege. Attorneys for Baumgartner asked that the tax be held up pending the trial, but the Internal Revenue Department refused to do this.

Charge against Baumgartner was dismissed by Judge Faris on Tuesday. Application is to be sent into the head office in St. Louis, it was stated today in the offices here.

I have been unable to find any articles revealing whether Joseph Baumgartner was refunded his money.

His obituary says he came to Cape Girardeau in 1916 from St. Louis, where he learned his trade. He ran a sheet metal business at 418 rear Broadway and later was a foreman at Preston Neon Sign Co. in Cape Girardeau. He and his wife, the former Celia Sandman, resided at 28 N. Fountain St.

Baumgartner died June 19, 1972, at a nursing home in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery at Valley Spring, Missouri, in Ste. Genevieve County.