Watching for Rum Runners on Lake Erie – May 1920

Rum-running – the illegal smuggling of alcohol beverages ashore or across a border – is one of the colorful legacies of the cities located on the south shore of Lake Erie, such as Lorain and Avon Lake. Here's an interesting newspaper account of it that appeared in the Lorain Times-Herald of May 25, 1920 on its front page.

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POLICE WATCH RUM RUNNERS ON LAKE ERIE

Search Canadian Steamer When Reports of Smuggled Whiskey Are Received

Reports of rum runners operating from Canadian shores to Lorain harbor have kept police and U. S. custom officers busy here since Sunday, it was learned today.

Police received a tip Sunday that the Key Bell, Canadian steamer, booked here for coal, landed in port with a cargo of whiskey alleged to have been smuggled from Canada for distribution here.

Lieut. Pat Ryan and Officer Kist were detailed to the case after U. S. Customs Officer Harry Groene had been notified.

Board Vessel

Groene, Lieut. Ryan and Kist made a thorough search of the steamer. They were unable to find any liquor outside of the allowance which captains of Canadian steamers are permitted to carry, police said.

The "tip" received at police headquarters said that the boat had arrived with its cargo of whiskey which was being hauled in trucks from the docks to distribution centers in three or four different sections of the city.

Following the search of the boat, which revealed nothing, the officers visited several places in the city where it was reported the whisky had been taken.

A search of these houses revealed nothing more, officers said.

Police today said the nearest they could come to the solution was evidence which told of one of the sailors carrying a suitcase full of liquor ashore from the boat, unknown to the ship's officers.

This, police believed, was being boot-legged through the city.

Groene Discredits

"If any liquor has been smuggled into Lorain, it has not come in over the boats," said Customs Officer Groene today. "Deputy officers and myself have kept a close watch night and day on all incoming vessels."

"There'll be no whiskey smuggled in here via the lake route," added Groene. "If it comes in at all it will be by the overland route over which we have no jurisdiction."

Police discredited the rumor circulated today that whiskey was being shipped into the city and hauled through the main thoroughfares by the truck load.

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Elsewhere on that same front page are several items of interest, including a raid on the farm of Frank Lachmeyer, Stop 112 L. S. E. which resulted in the confiscation of a still and "a quantity of raisin jack whisky" by the Sheriff and the Lorain Police Department; a proposal to build a clubhouse of the Lorain Powerboat Club on the lakefront east of Black River; the demolition of a fortune teller's tent by young boys; the inability of the city of Lorain to pay city employees, causing many of then to quit their jobs and seek new positions; the passing of 95-year-old Thomas O'Brien, originally from County Cork, Ireland, who had been a resident of the city for more than 50 years; and an update on shooting victim Stanley Jacoboski (whose sad tale was included in local author Don Hilton's book Murders, Mysteries and History of Lorain County, Ohio 1824 - 1956.