Sin at Tipperary, among Pleasant Township's hills

Lucas County's legendary Tipperary, a mining camp located in the wilds of Pleasant Township east of Williamson from 1914-1927, had a well-deserved reputation as sin central in its day --- providing you considered gambling and the manufacture and consumption of alcoholic beverages to be sinful.

Of course nowadays we have a large casino to amuse us at Osceola, just a few miles west, and Hy-Vee sells about any alcohol-based concoction you can imagine in its liquor section --- but sin in many instances in America is a fluid concept.

Tipperary was headquarters for gambling kingpin Chicago Mike as well as the location of countless home-brew operations in large part because of its remote location among the hills, reached only by unimproved roads and a railroad branch line that dead-ended there.

Like Topsy, it had "just growed" around the mine, making it disorganized and hard to regulate --- unlike the nearby mining camp of Olmitz, a friendly place designed for families with rows of neat houses, a church, even for a time a high school.

Law enforcement did its best to regulate goings on at Tipperary, but never managed to subdue it. Here's a report from The Chariton Leader of Sept. 23, 1920, reporting on the latest raid. The Volstead Act had just gone into effect the previous January, so the officers now were enforcing the laws not only of the state but of the nation, "dry," as a whole:

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Tipperary and its contributory points are suffering from a temporary spell of aridness due to the activities of the sheriff's office of Lucas county. Monday, Sheriff C.C. Lyman and Deputy Sheriff Will Knotts engaged in the activities that have left a parched sensation in the throats of illicit liquor users of that vicinity.

Monday morning, the officials made a search of the home of Mrs. Jack Jones, a widow, living near Tipperary, and their efforts brought forth pronounced results. they found white corn whisky in several states of development, from the finished product to a barrel or more of soaking corn. There was also a considerable amount of a peach and prune concoction and some grape wine that wasn't intended for sacramental purposes. The find covered about 100 gallons of the several mixtures.

Samples of these various brews were taken and the balance was thrown out on the ground. From all that could be learned, the ground was the only thing soaked as a result of the plans of these home brewers.

The officials also found a fully developed still with all the necessary equipment for the carrying on of a miniature brewery. This still is now in the possession of Sheriff Lyman. Luther Burton, son of Mrs. Jack Jones, is under arrest in Knoxville for bootlegging, but so far Mrs. Jones has not been placed under arrest. She has left her former home among the hills of Tipperary. United States Prohibition Officer Webb was in Chariton Wednesday to investigate this case and other matters.

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The map here is based on a 1912 land ownership plat in the Lucas County Historical Society collection. Someone has penciled in the locations of Tipperary and Olmitz and I've circled those. I've also added the location of Pleasant Township's cemeteries.