Alcohol and Drinking History in America: A Chronology

Temperance Movement Grows

1870s. By the 1870s, the temperance movement exerted great influence in American life and culture, as this example illustrates.

In the Currier and Ives print of 1848, George Washington bid farewell to his officers with a toast in his hand and a supply of liquor on the table.

Reflecting the power of the temperance movement, a re-engraved version in 1876 removed all evidence of alcohol. Gone is the glass from Washington's hand and the liquor supply is replaced with a hat.¹

1870.

• Whiskey began to be sold in bottles sealed by the distiller to ensure that the brand wasn’t diluted or even replaced with a cheap substitute by the retailer. Until then, it was sold to retailers in barrels.²
• The American Association for the Study and Cure of Inebriety was founded and published a journal promoting the disease theory of alcoholism.³

1871.

• The first vinifera (European grape) vines in Washington State were planted at Yakima.⁴
• One hundred seventy-seven Catholic temperance societies from ten states and the District of Columbia, representing a total of 26,481 members, created the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America. Gravestones of members are sometimes marked with the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America abbreviation, CTAUOA.⁵

1872.

• Adolph Coors Brewing Company established in Golden, Colorado. It was originally called the Golden Brewing Company.⁷
• The Knights of Father Mathew was a total abstinence organization founded in Ireland by Father Theobald Mathew. popularly called Father Matthew) The Knights of Father Mathew organization in the U.S. was established in St. Louis, Missouri, on 26 April 24, 1872.⁸

1873-1874. The Woman’s Crusade began in Hillsboro, Ohio, the day after Boston minister Dr. Diocletian Lewis gave a lecture on temperance in the small town. The next day, Eliza Thompson (“Mother Thompson’) led 70 women from a local church to the saloons. “Every day they visited the saloons and the drug stores where  liquor was sold. They prayed on sawdust floors or, being denied entrance, knelt on snowy pavements before the doorways, until almost all the sellers capitulated."¹⁰ The Crusade spread quickly and one enthusiastic writer asserted that "In fifty days it (the Crusade) drove the liquor traffic, horse, foot, and dragoons, out of two hundred and fifty towns and villages, increased by one hundred percent the attendance at church and  decreased that at the criminal courts in like proportion."¹¹ The Crusades ended during the spring of 1874, but inspired many women across the country to become directly involved in the temperance movement. ¹²

1873.

• The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in Cleveland, Ohio. The correct name is “woman’s” rather than “women’s.¹⁴
• The 4,131 breweries in the country produced nine million barrels of beer.¹⁵

1874.

• Over 200,000 retailers sold liquor, which was 120,000 more than only ten years earlier.¹⁶
• The Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.¹⁷

1875. The Whiskey Ring was broken. It was a group of Treasury Department officials, politicians, and distillers who successfully conspired to evade federal liquor taxes. The taxes were sometimes as high as eight times the price of the liquor itself. Treasury Department officials pressured distillers to join a conspiracy to avoid the high taxes. “Some distillers participated readily in giving illegal kickbacks in lieu of the tax, while those who hesitated were charged with technical violations of the law until they agreed to cooperate.” One hundred and ten people were subsequently convicted of crimes.¹⁸

1876. Beer was first pasteurized.¹⁹

1877.

• Teetotaling First Lady Lucy Hayes resisted lending her name to the controversial dry cause. Nevertheless, she banned alcohol from all White House events, earning the nickname “Lemonade Lucy.” However, “It was actually the President who made the decision, recognizing how vital the support of the Prohibition Party was to the Republican Party.”²⁰
• George Ehret of New York was the largest brewer in the country.²¹

1879.

• Dr. Leslie Keeley, an American physician who asserted that “alcoholism is a disease and I can cure it,” established his first “bicloride of gold” injection treatment center. He sold franchises for over 200 centers around the world and died a millionaire (worth about $25,000,000 in today’s purchasing power.) He claimed that 95% of the patients were permanently cured. When former patients resumed drinking, he insisted that they were cured of their disease, but drank because they chose to do so.²³
• There were about 18,000 acres of vineyards in Napa County.

1880s.

• During the 1880s, a number of U.S. states adopted state-wide prohibition within their borders.²⁴ National Prohibition of Alcohol in the US describes this subject in more detail.
• By the late 1880s there were over 100 anti-alcohol organizations in Arkansas with hundreds of chapters and many thousands of members.²⁵

1880.

• The first national vineyard census was taken.²⁶
• The Department of Viticulture and Enology was established at the University of California at Berkeley, and moved to the University of California at Davis in 1906.²⁷
• The The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) established its powerful Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction in Schools and Colleges, with Mary Hunt as the national head. Mrs. Hunt became the de factor judge of which physiology books would be acceptable for adopted in all the states and territories of the country.²⁸
• Georgia was the sixth restrictive wine producing state.²⁹
• Kansas became the first state to enact a constitutional amendment establishing state-wide prohibition.³⁰
• About 100,000 copies of the temperance book Ten Nights in a Bar Room had been purchased by 1880.³¹

1881. It was discovered that French grape vines grafted onto American rootstock resisted the the deadly phylloxera parasite. By the end of the century most French vines were grafted onto American rootstock and today virtually all vineyards around the world are grafted onto American rootstock.³²

1882. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) began a successful campaign, under the direction of Mary H. Hunt, to require anti-alcohol education in every state in the U.S. as well as its territories and possessions. ³³

1883. The World Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was organized by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. It, like the WCTU, still exists. ³⁴

1884. The WCTU sent a representative on a trip around the world promoting the establishment of World Woman’s Christian Temperance organizations in all countries.³⁵

1885. Dakota Territory approved prohibition by a vote of 15,570 to 15,337.³⁶

1886.

• Coca-Cola was introduced as a temperance beverage.³⁷
• Mary Hunt, head of the WCTU’s Department of Scientific Temperance Education, convinced Congress to require the use of WCTU- approved texts in Washington, D.C., and all U.S. territories.³⁸
• The first brewery in Alaska was established in Juneau. ³⁹

1887. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld enforcement of a newly enacted state prohibition law that did not compensate brewers whose property could no longer be used for their intended purpose and subsequently lost most of their value.. It was a major victory for prohibitionists.⁴⁰

1888.

• The Frederick Miller Brewing Company began in Milwaukee with the name of Plank Road Brewery.⁴¹
• Clinton Fisk, after whom Fisk University was named, was the Prohibition Party’s presidential candidate in the election of 1888. Winning 249,506 votes, his was one of the best showings of any candidate ever fielded by the Party.⁴²

1889. The Pabst Brewing Company began in Milwaukee as the Best Brewing Company. ⁴³