The Temperance Movement in Cumberland County

Throughout the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century, temperance movements were prominent in Cumberland County. According to a 1989 article in The Sentinel, “prohibitions’ roots date back to colonial times, when attempts were made to control the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.”¹ Temperance movements in Carlisle date back to at least 1843, with the Washington Temperance Benevolent Society holding meetings in town.¹ 1872 was the dawn of the second wave of temperance throughout the United States, which lasted until roughly 1893.¹

During the 1870s and 1880s, many articles advocating for temperance appeared in the Valley Sentinel. “A Temperance Sketch,” appearing in 1874, told the story of a man who gave up drinking and subsequently inherited his boss’s business.² “An Angel in Saloon,” also from 1874, told of a widow who lost her husband to alcohol poisoning.³ She visits local saloons, encouraging the patrons to abstain from drinking. “A Few Words to Our Girls,” appearing in 1876, persuaded young women to “require in association and marriage… sobriety for sobriety.”⁴

The author of “The Liquor Interest,” an 1874 Valley Sentinel article, boldly claimed that “the question of American slavery was never anything but a baby by a side of the temperance movement.”⁵ Local option, a law that “permits jurisdictions within a state to decide whether or not to prohibit the sale of one or more forms of alcoholic beverage,”⁶ was adopted in Cumberland County in 1873.⁷ An article from the Valley Sentinel claimed that “little liquor is sold, and… drunkenness has been very much diminished,” with Mount Holly, Boiling Springs, Centreville, Newville and Shippensburg being mentioned as nearly dry. While the law had the “most violent opposition” in Carlisle, the author claimed that sales of alcohol had diminished even there.⁸ However, in March 1875, the local option law was repealed after just eighteen months in existence:⁷ “local option has now become history… we have no tears to shed.” Local option was defeated once again in 1877: “we are not surprised… we began to be called a nation of drunkards a hundred years ago, and we have been getting no better ever since.”⁹

dvocates for temperance, known colloquially as “drys,”⁶ cited many reasons for their beliefs. Most frequently cited was the Bible, which they claimed supported complete and total abstinence from alcohol. In a family Bible from 1903, a temperance pledge proclaims that the idea of moderation “is full of deceit,” and that “the Bible pronounces no blessing upon drinking, but many upon total abstinence.”¹⁰ Many “drys” truly believed they were fighting against the devil: “ought we not to be brave and plucky enough to defend the right, though the devil and all his legions oppose?”¹¹

While there were many who claimed the Bible advocated for total abstinence from alcohol, some other Christians disagreed with this assessment. The author of “The Temperance Movement Criticized,” appearing in The Daily Evening Sentinel, wrote scathingly that supporters of temperance had “rebellious character.”¹² He also called the movement “arbitrary and unchristian,” because “the gospel and politics do no go together.”¹² Still others questioned whether temperance conventions were even making any progress: “What have your crowded conventions done? … Is the present excitement to float awhile upon the wave of popular opinion and bring forth no substantial fruit?”¹³ This author also noted that “scarcely a dollar” was raised to help support the cause during a temperance meeting in Shippensburg in March 1881.¹³

In 1889, the temperance movement hit its peak. Pennsylvanians sent in mail to the general assembly, desiring to make prohibition a law.¹ The issue was hotly debated in The Sentinel and other local newspapers. A prohibitionists’ convention was held on February 19^th in the Harrisburg Opera House, where $6,200 was collected to support the cause.¹ However, these efforts were ultimately in vain as the prohibitionists lost the vote on June 18.¹ In Cumberland County, 4,448 voted against it and 3,780 voted for it.¹ Prohibition was to have its day a few decades later.

In January of 1920, the eighteenth amendment was passed, banning the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcohol.¹ Carlisle resident Lee Railing, who was 87 in 1989, remembers home brew being made in bathtubs. Railing, an ice deliverer, recalls how people at various businesses and clubs would offer him alcohol: “Anyone who had it used to like to give it to you to try. They wanted you to know what is was like.”¹ Railing also confessed to making home brew himself: “The other icemen would come in and drink it.”¹ Another resident, Arthur Herr, who was 80 years old in 1989, remembers his parents traveling over the mountains into Perry County to pick up bootlegged whiskey.¹

The twenty-first amendment was passed in 1933, repealing the eighteenth amendment. Legal alcohol production and sale then resumed throughout the country.¹