Seeking Temperance Info

In the 19th and early-20th centuries, many Licking Countians supported the Temperance Movement, which sought to lessen the consumption of alcoholic beverages.  Temperance advocates believed that the drinking of alcohol significantly contributed to vice and other social problems.  Other county residents opposed the movement.  Some depended for their livelihood on businesses such as The American Bottle Company, which produced beer bottles, or on the operation of saloons.  Conflicts over the issue led to climactic events in 1910, when a detective who was investigating illegal alcohol sales was lynched in Newark.


Carl Etherington was a young detective who was investigating speakeasies in Newark. 
He shot a man in self-defense who later died.  Etherington was imprisoned in the
Licking County Jail and later lynched.  Jail Register pages such as this one contain
information on Licking County prisoners.
 

Do you have any pictures, artifacts or other items related to the Temperance Movement?  We are creating an online exhibit on the subject, which will include images, history and other information.  If you have any material that you could loan, or information which you could provide, please contact Bill Markley, Reference Archivist, at tel. 740-670-5121, or send him a message at http://www.lcounty.com/frmFeedback.aspx.

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