Here it is Sunday morning, the 23rd of April, 2023, and there will be those out there who overindulged last night --- some in beer (most with 5 percent alcohol content), others in stronger stuff. So take a little time to remember that April marks the 90th anniversary of beer's legal return to Iowa --- and December, the 90th anniversary of the end of Prohibition.
Congress had proposed the 21st Amendment, rescinding Prohibition, on Feb. 22, 1933, and it would be ratified by the necessary number of especially-called state conventions on Dec. 5. But in the meantime, President Roosevelt signed into law, effective Friday, April 7, 1933, the Cullen-Harrison Act authorizing the sale of 3.2 percent beer and wine.
State authorization was required, too --- and several forward thinking legislatures (including Missouri's and Minnesota's) had passed the enabling legislation and were poised to take full advantage of "Beer Day." Iowa was not among them.
For Lucas Countyans, who could be identified by the big "59" on their license plates, Lineville was the nearest port of call on the shore of Missouri's vast sea of beer. Lineville, Missouri, that is --- joined to but separated by the state boundary from Wayne County's Lineville, Iowa.
On Sunday, the 9th of April, a reporter for The Chariton Leader headed for Lineville and points south to assess the situation for his readers, visiting first the makeshift saloon of Jack Craney. Here is his report from The Leader of April 11:
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Jack Craney, who not so long ago peddled mineral water from the once famed Lineville Springs to Chariton drug stores, was riding the crest of a new beverage wave Sunday as he extended the glad hand to thousands of visitors at his Lineville, Missouri, beer and sandwich shop. The visitors, many Chariton and Lucas Couty people among them, took Craney's welcome with one hand, and a bottle of 3.2 percent beer from one of his large corps of ever-ready assistants with the other.
Hundreds of cars bearing the familiar No. 59 on their license plates have made their way to Missouri, principally Lineville, since the sale of beer became legal there. To many, the magnetic Mr. Craney was no stranger. In addition to making visits here, he also managed a dance pavilion at Lineville a few years ago that was popular with the younger set of this vicinity on Sunday night.
Near 7 p.m., there was a lull in business at Craney's remodeled garage. The remodeling had stopped with the installation of three crude lumber tables with benches attached, a table with four chairs, and three counters --- one for beer, one for sandwiches, and the other for cigars.
The walls were decorated with three pictures on which the scense were scarcely discernible, and a large clock almost as battered as the walls themselves.
"I'm glad to see it slow down a bit," said Craney as he took a seat near some of his guests. "I was here until 4 o'clock this morning and came back again an hour later."
Asked how much beer he had sold, Craney said that he had his reasons for not telling. "I got 214 cases in this morning. The remainder is in the back room, and there isn't much of a remainder," he admitted.
Craney's beer was selling at 20 cents per pint bottle. Farther south, at Mercer, it was being sold in an oil station lunch room for 15 cents and one was given a dish of pretzels with each bottle.
Beer was being sold at only two places in Trenton, at a hamburger shop and at Hotel Plaza coffee shop, The coffee shop offered keg beer by the glass at 10 cents, or by the stein at 15 cents. A modernistic oil station near Trenton was selling bottles over a soda fountain.
Near Lancaster, a farmer had turned his home into a beer garden, and offered dancing as well as beer and food. It attracted a crowd nearest approaching the one at Lineville Sunday.
The carnival spirit reigned everywhere. The experience was new and the beer was new. "Too new," said many who remembered the pre-prohibition flavor. "But not bad," the majority added.
No one was seen in a condition resembling intoxication at the places visited Sunday. The crowds were almost evenly divided between men and women, and the majority preferred hot dogs or cheese sandwiches with their beverage.
Missourians said that few of the Iowa visitors left without taking a few bottles of the beer with them for the folks back home. They said, however, that they had not seen any large cargoes go into Iowa.
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Iowa's Legislature got busy with its authorizing legislation during the next week and by Tuesday, April 18, the Chariton City Council was prepared to license three applicants.
Class B permits were issued --- and the beer began to flow immediately after at the Ritz Drug Store, the Red Cross Pharmacy and Clark's Cafe. The cost? Twenty cents per bottle. Brand not specified in any of the reporting.
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