By Tim King
The Land Correspondent
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Minnesota 13 is an open pollinated corn variety developed many years ago by the University of Minnesota. Minnesota 13 was also an internationally known bootleg liquor developed largely by the innovative farmers of Stearns County. Finally, "Minnesota 13" is a well-researched and interesting book, by Elaine Davis, that tells the story of the liquid version of Minnesota 13.
The outlaw in most of us tends to romanticize the era of the prohibition of making, owning or consuming liquor. But as Davis' book makes clear, it was a time of near lawlessness and moral decay that can be compared to parts of the drug war ravaging Mexico today.
Davis points out that between 1920 and 1933 there were 479 Minnesota citizens who spent time in the U.S. Penitentiary for Prohibition violations. Large numbers of them were Stearns County farmers who turned to making bootleg liquor as their only viable economic option. A still could provide the means to pay the mortgage at a time when commodity prices did not, but a still could also pave the road to ruin.
"For many Stearns residents, the federal prison time was a huge emotional and financial hardship; without the head of household to provide income, farms were lost. Many came back to nothing - the family had lost everything from a federal lien on the property or inability to make mortgage payments. For some, the Leavenworth experience broke spirits and families."
The stakes were high and for some, the money was more than enough to pay the mortgage - if you weren't caught. As in all lawless times, violence, the threat of violence, and fear were all part of a social cocktail mixed with a shot of bravado.
Davis recounts a joke that circulated through Stearns County during those days: "A man in a suit came to the door and asked the boy where his Dad was and he replied, "Out by the still." He asked where his mother was and he replied, "She's out there too." The Fed asked the boy to show him the way out there and the boy replied, "You gotta pay me a dollar." The man said he would pay him when they came back and the boy replied, "You ain't comin' back."
Davis writes that the federal agents were zealous, over-zealous, and sometimes criminal in their enforcement of the law. In response, Stearns County farmers, who would normally have respected law and order, became routine lawbreakers and were occasionally violent. That lawlessness spread to local law enforcement officials, judges and county commissioners.
When Stearns County Commissioner Val Herman was arrested in the New Munich Pitzl Brewery raid, shots were exchanged and a federal agent ended up in the hospital. Davis suggests Herman got off with a light fine and no jail time because, unlike many Stearns County farmers who went to Leavenworth, Commissioner Herman was well-connected.
Mixed in with local hooligans, were hooligans of national stature such as John Dillinger and Al Capone. Davis' research unearthed evidence of both of them, as well as Minneapolis gangsters, visiting Stearns County to do business.
Davis does an excellent job of putting the Stearns County bootlegging into the larger historical perspective of, first, the national temperance movement, followed by the 1919 passage of the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and finally, in 1920, the passage of the Volstead Act which started more than a decade of prohibition and disastrous public policy.
Davis' "Minnesota 13" is a well-told tale of what happens when the law is on the wrong side of the people in a democracy. It is also a tale about the spirit and tenacity of recent immigrants and small farmers who will do what is necessary to protect their families and their farms. The era of Prohibition is not missed and should not be romanticized.
The era of the small ingenious and independent farmer is waning but should be recovered. Davis says that many Stearns County old-timers would prefer to forget the bad-old-days of moonshining. Perhaps.
But in the tale of Prohibition, and "Minnesota 13", is a lesson in the marketing and distribution skills of those old farmers.
Independent-minded rural people should study and emulate not the illegal practices of those old farmers but their capacity to turn a largely worthless commodity into a valuable product.
"Minnesota 13" is available from the author, Elaine Davis, 1506 Calvary Hill Lane, St. Cloud, MN 56301 or at (320) 230-5150. You can also order it online at http://minnesota13.us/id47.html. The book is available in a number of bookstores in St. Cloud, Little Falls and Alexandria.
