10,000

Written and researched by Abby Saunders

Transcript:

Hurstories Script

ABBY: I’m your host, Abby Saunders, ready to tell you all about Frank “Bolo” Dovishaw, his undercover gambling ring, and his unfortunate demise.

First thing’s first – have you heard of the mafia? I think that a lot of people stereotype the mafia into a general group… criminals. The mafia is more like a family, though! No, literally. Mafias from around the world are most often run by groups of families, kind of like a ‘family business.’ Just like fathers in the farming industry pass down farming traditions to their sons, fathers in the mafia pass down mafia traditions to their sons. Boys are taught skills specific to running the business, and girls are taught how to be inconspicuous and lay low.

Mafia members become like family members. It is not unusual to find men from different families acting brotherly to their business partners. Also, it is not uncommon to kill family members that act up in the Mafia. This idea will pop up later on, so, stay tuned.

Just like in other bureaucratic business, there are leaders and followers. Mafias are typically hierarchal, with a general, boss-like position at the top of the chain, and then a bunch of levels below him.

Mafias, in some way or another, exist all over the world. The most popular mafias originated in Italy… and more specifically… Sicily. One popular mafia that originated in Sicily and then migrated to the United States is the Cosa Nostra group. This group settled in New York, but then spread to surrounding cities along the Eastern coast of the country.

Some major cities in the north east region of the United States where the mafia operates are Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. Interestingly enough, though, the city directly in the middle of all of these 3 cities, Erie Pennsylvania, had no major mafia activity until the 1950s. Even when the mob came to Erie, though, it was slight and almost insignificant compared to the major criminals and con men of the time[1].

Now, since mafias were on the rise in the United States, the federal law enforcement agencies were busy chasing and arresting various leaders from all over the East coast. This happened especially in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. When a mafia leader is taken out, their section, well, family, may or may not fall. It is very difficult to count how many mafia groups there are in the United States for this reason[2].

Our story starts and ends in Erie, with Frank “Bolo” Dovishaw: one of the most recognized organized crime leaders in Erie, Pennsylvania. Now, you might be wondering why the hell I just explained what mafias are for 2 minutes, even though our main character today was not a member. Here is why: Dovishaw acted as if he were a member of the mafia. But in order for you to see this, you must know what he did to deserve the title: an Erie Goodfella.

Picture Erie in the 1950s and 60s. It is a smaller city in the North West corner of Pennsylvania, right next to Lake Erie. There were neighborhoods full of immigrants and past-generation Americans alike, but one neighborhood that stood out was Little Italy. It is located between 12th street and 24th street, with an eastern boundary at Sassafras Street and a western boundary around Cranberry Street. Little Italy is like its own little self-contained town. There were barber shops, stores, churches, schools, and even funeral homes. With all of these good businesses, though, come some pretty illegal ones. There were many criminals in Erie in the 1900s; heck, there still are[3]!

Our story starts in 1960 when Frank Dovishaw worked at Dee Cigar Store. On December 10th, 1960, Dovishaw was arrested for burglarizing the store. According to a newspaper article, around $7,000 worth of checks and cash were stolen. Dovishaw had worked at the cigar store for about a year and a half, and he was the main suspect. Although he tried to implicate a couple other individuals, Dovishaw was inevitably found to be the prime burglar. Multiple thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen goods were hidden and buried in a metal box by Dovishaw in St. Mary’s Cemetery. Dovishaw was only 24 years old when this happened[4].

Now, since organized crime was still at a low in Erie, smaller criminals were able to flourish…and then, sometimes, inevitably fall. For example, in 1954, Erie’s mayor, Thomas Flatley, was arrested for corruption, abuse of power, and illegal gambling. After hearing the allegations, he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and for violating his oath of office. Flatley later resigned and faced jail time, along with multiple fines[5].

A lot of the early organized crime in Erie dealt with gambling and sports betting. Frank Dovishaw was the go-to guy for this. He had everyone in the city working for him. “In local shops, factories, and pubs throughout the city, old ladies bet pennies, kids traded nickels, and laborers put down dollars on a chance to walk away with the daily take.”

Dovishaw and his partner Ray Ferritto conducted their business all around Erie county. They tried to stay out of Little Italy out of fear that their close friends and family members would find out. They had so many individuals wrapped around their fingers and doing their betting, from police officers to children. Ferritto ran number rackets all across the United States, not just in Erie. He was arrested and spent time in prison for it, too! He did time 2,000 miles away from Pennsylvania in a state penitentiary in Chino, California.

Ray Ferritto even killed people. There was a “mob war” when the Irish Mob, led by Danny Greene, moved in on a Cleveland mob family. The Cleveland group was run by ‘Jack White’ Licavoli and Angelo ‘Big Ange’ Lonardo.’ Over 40 car bombs were involved in the mob war, but not much success was gained. After some time, the Cleveland mafia asked Ferritto to step in and finish the job against Danny Greene. He finished it.

The numbers racket sports betting went on for multiple years with Frank Dovishaw at the head. Thousands of dollars were made, and many Erie residents either gained or lost money throughout this time period.

One thing to keep in mind about mafias and mafia-like groups is that the members rarely call the police. If something weird happens, the members just handle it themselves.

January 3rd, 1983 started off like any other day. Dovishaw and Ferritto made their usual rounds around the city and took bets. It was a Monday, and the Dallas Cowboys were playing the Minnesota Vikings. Dovishaw always ate meatball subs from Damore’s on Mondays, and that is exactly what he did.

Ray Ferritto dropped off Dovishaw at his home on West 21st street around 6pm. When he was home, Dovishaw would always call his employees to gather information about the day. He would never write anything down or leave any messages. If anything was documented, it could be used as evidence. When Dovishaw was not home to answer the phone, multiple other lines in other houses would ring until someone answered the call.

So, when Dovishaw got home that Monday evening, he was supposed to make some calls. Around 7pm, Ferritto called Dovishaw to catch up on the night. The phone call went to the next person… and the next person… and the next person; Dovishaw did not answer the multiple calls that Ferritto made to him.

Ferritto wondered if he was with one of his “gypsy strippers,” if the police caught him, or if he was just laying low for the night. His curiosity got the best of him because Ferritto ended up driving to Dovishaw’s house to see what was the matter. He knew that the police had been investigating Cosa Nostra for the past few decades, so that was high on the radar for Ferritto.

 Ferritto arrived at Dovishaw’s house on West 21st Street. Since the house was his late mother’s, Dovishaw lived alone. Ferritto searched the whole house and ended up in the basement. There, he saw his friend and colleague dead.

Dovishaw was bound by his mother’s old dresses, his hands were cut off, and he was shot in the head execution style[6].

Here is the newspaper article that was published on January 5th, 1983:

“Frank ‘Bolo’ Dovishaw, reputed head of one of the largest illegal gambling operations in northwestern Pennsylvania, was found shot to death in the basement of his West Side home Tuesday night. Authorities said Dovishaw had been shot once in the head. Police refused comment on the shooting, except to say they were treating it as a homicide. It was believed that Dovishaw’s killer or killers may have fled in his 1979 green Cadillac. As a result, Erie police asked officers in Pennsylvania and nearby states to be on the lookout for the car with Pennsylvania license plate 9U7-469 and hold its occupants for questioning in the death[7]”

ABBY: That is all for this episode of Hurstories! Thank you for tuning in and hope to see you next time.  

[1] R Anderson, 1965, From Mafia to Cosa Nostra. American Journal of Sociology, 71(3), 302        310. Accessed on January 16, 2020, available at www.jstor.org/stable/2774452

[2] J Jacobs, C Panarella and J Worthington, 1994, Introduction. In Busting the Mob: The United States v. Cosa Nostra (pp. 3-28) (New York: NYU Press) accessed on January 16, 2020, available at www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qfvw4.5

[3] J Wertz, Erie’s Goodfellas: A Look at the Unholy Murder of Ash Wednesday, accessed on January 16, 2020, available at eriereader.com/article/eries-goodfellas.

[4] Erie Clerk Says he Took $7,000; Robbery Faked, Jamestown Post Journal, December 10, 1960, accessed on January 16, 2020, available at https://fultonhistory.com/Newspapersv

[5] J Wertz, Erie’s goodfellas.

[6] J Wertz, Erie’s Goodfellas.

[7] Reputed Crime Boss Killed, Latrobe Bulletin, January 5, 1983, accessed on January 16, 2020, available at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/27584084/latrobe_bulletin/

Written and researched by Rachael Wilson

Transcript:

The landscape of rural northwestern Pennsylvania is quite the beautiful place. There are rolling hills, stretching fields full of crops and wildflowers, and the historic French Creek rolls throughout Mercer, Erie and Crawford counties of Pennsylvania. 

For almost two thousand years, the Iroquois people lived in western New York and Pennsylvania, as well as southern Ontario and Quebec. They stayed within the areas of the Great Lakes, specifically lakes Ontario, Huron, and Erie and lived utilizing the land.[1] Those who lived in what is what is modernly known as Waterford, Pennsylvania – about twenty minutes south of Erie – relied on the resources in and around the French Creek watershed, including the nearby Lake LeBoeuf.

The Iroquois knew how to take advantage of the landscape that they had been given. The Pennsylvania woods were too thick to hunt and grow food, so they were able to create spanning meadows to grow food and hunt the game of the area.[2]

In the mid-1700s, settlers from England began to come to the New World and settle in the area. The French followed right behind. Both British and French forces began to build forts like Fort Duquesne, Presque Isle, and Venango. Tensions began to build between the two nations in their colonies. 

Fort de la Rivière au Bœuf, Fort LeBoeuf as it is commonly referred to as now, was second out of four forts that was operated by the French forces who had come to Western Pennsylvania. The fort sat on the bank of LeBoeuf Creek, after which the fort was named. Along with Forts Presque Isle, Machault, and Duquesne, these forts built the line of French bases across western Pennsylvania. Presque Isle was built along the banks of Lake Erie in Pennsylvania, Machault in modern day Franklin, Pennsylvania, and Fort Duquesne in what is now Pittsburgh. These forts, LeBoeuf in particular, was used to trade throughout French territory from Fort Presque Isle and Canada and to protect Presque Isle from any sort of raid.[3]

Great Britain did not that all too much. As a result, in 1753, Governor Robert Dinwiddie assigned 21-year old major George Washington – yes, that George Washington – on a mission up to the forts to demand that the French leave the territory ASAP because the British had claimed it. As marked by the journal that Washington had written throughout his trek up north, the journey took him about ten weeks and one thousand miles “by horse, foot, canoe, and raft.”[4] Young Major Washington left Williamsburg on October 31st of 1753 and was accompanied by a team made up  of a surveyor, a French translator, four traders, and eventually met up with various members of native tribes, including a man referred to as the “Half-King.” George’s journal details every single thing he did and saw on his journey. His training as a surveyor came quite in handy when it came to writing his observations down.

Once they reached Logtown, a town in what is currently Beaver County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Pittsburgh, they were directed towards Fort LeBoeuf, about 110 miles north. With Washington was a letter a for Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, a French military commander who was the man in charge at Fort LeBoeuf.[5] The letter was the ultimatum posed towards the French from the British. While Washington was generally received pretty well by those who were in Waterford, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre was not a big fan of the message that George brought him. The French king thought that the letter from Dinwiddie and England was ridiculous and his claim to the area was “incontestable.”[6]

At the same time as Washington’s trek to the French forts, the French and the natives begin to engage in trade in an unprecedented change in way of life for the natives. Their survival began to depend on it. Frenchmen learned to fight the “Indian Way,” engaging in guerilla warfare, “which was by stealth, surprise, ambush, and frightening terror.”[7] This greatly helped the French as tensions between the British were beginning to come to the surface. When the Seven Years War began in 1756, their new way of fighting was key to their survival while British soldiers were killed, tortured, disfigured, or scalped by the natives.

Six years into the war, in 1759, the French were defeated by the British, at least in the colonies and North America as a whole. Forts Duquesne, Machault, LeBoeuf, and Presque Isle were all burned to the ground. The next year, the forts were rebuilt, and named Pitt, Venango, LeBoeuf, and Presque Isle, respectively. Pitt, formerly Duquesne, was built to be a strong fortress and Presque Isle was also built to be tough. But LeBoeuf and Venango? Not so much.

In 1766, General Jeffery Amherst called for an attack on all British garrisons in order to ensure that the Natives would stop getting any more of the European guns and weapons that had receiving in trade. This attack backfired on the British, causing the causalities of 450 British soldiers and citizens, with little to damage for the Natives. 

After the final fort was demolished, the Judson family built their house and settled on what is believed to be the placement of the original fort. Patriarch Amos was a powerful man in Waterford, working odd jobs until he opened his store in 1823. Judson also was the owner of the Eagle Hotel, which sat across the street from his house.[8]

While the fort has not been standing for hundreds of years, Waterford’s Fort LeBoeuf Historical Society is very active in making sure that the area knows about its rich history and the people behind it all. The buildings in the district covered by the historical society display buildings ranging from the time of Judson up until the cusp of World War II.[9] The Judson house still stands, as does the store that he ran until his death. The Eagle Hotel still operates as well, but no one stays here anymore. Nowadays it’s a restaurant that serves Amish style food throughout the summer and autumn months. Part of the land originally taken up by the fort is covered by the post office, but some of that space is dedicated to a museum that displays Waterford’s part in the Seven Years War on the front of the New World. Waterford looks like a sleepy town, but the locals are proud of our crown jewel: our statue on the outskirts of historic downtown.  

In 1922, locals in Waterford commissioned a statue of our nation’s first president in a way that no other. After a hefty price of $13,000, a statue of George Washington was placed in what would come to be known as Washington Park. George was quickly used as a part of the culture of Waterford with students from the local high school dressing him as a prank. The local members of the Daughters of the American Revolution had set aside parts of land, some structures were restored, and the statue was placed on that property. This statue, the only statue of President Washington as a young man, proudly stands in Waterford in the spot where it was moved by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission in 1945.

[1] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Iroquois.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., January 24, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iroquois-people.

[2] “Rich Cultural History.” French Creek Valley Conservancy, July 18, 2019. https://www.frenchcreekconservancy.org/rich-cultural-history/.

[3] “Fort LeBoeuf Museum.” Fort LeBoeuf Historical Society, n.d. http://fortleboeufhistory.com/campus/museum/.

[4] Washington, George. The Journal of George Washington: an Account of His First Official Mission. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1959.

[5] “Ten Facts About George Washington and the French & Indian War.” George Washington's Mount Vernon. https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/french-indian-war/ten-facts-about-george-washington-and-the-french-indian-war/. 

[6]“Ten Facts About George Washington and the French & Indian War.”

[7] “Fort LeBoeuf Museum”

[8] “Amos Judson House.” Erie's Historic Buildings, n.d. http://www.eriebuildings.info/buildings.php?buildingID=46009058000100.

[9] “Historic District.” Fort LeBoeuf Historical Society, n.d. http://fortleboeufhistory.com/around-town/historic-district/.

Written and researched by Deana Hale

Narrator: Hello and welcome to this episode of Hurstories. My name is (name First and last) and I will be your host for this episode. Let us begin. 

Narrator: Now, I want you to imagine yourself as a person trying to get a job to support your growing family. You find a job in the newspaper at the local GE plant, this means that you can potentially get a job. Once you get hired for the job you were taken to an orientation, where they proceed to tell you about the amazing wages and good benefits you were about to receive. 

Narrator: But that was a complete and utter lie, it was like those seen on TV items that you pick up in a supermarket. They have these flashy and sugar coated words slapped onto the packaging, but in the packaging it was a big fat lie and it would fall apart in less than a few months. [sigh] I am getting off topic, we are not here to talk about my hatred for those infernal items and get back to our topic.  

Narrator: In this episode we are going to be discussing the strike that happened at the GE plant. I will be talking about how it started, during the event, and the aftermath of the event. 

Narrator: Back to the GE, the employees now have it much better than the ones in the past, it was because of this strike that the conditions of the facilities as well as the wages and benefits increased for the workers. But it was 70 years of struggling for it to come to that. 

Narrator: Now the reason why this started could be from multiple factors from wages, working conditions, to the management or owners of the facility running it like total garbage. While strikes in general have a dual nature usually consisting of the employers and their employees, usually they try to reach a middle ground or have the errors be  righted in some way in a civil matter before having it come to a strike. 

Narrator: This is not the case in the matter of GE, because on December 6 of 1918 there was a letter sent to the Department of Labor about a potential strike happening at GE’s Erie Plant, but they dismissed and rejected the claim. This in turn infuriating the workers and in turn had the gears turning for the strike to occur even without their consent of the Department of Labor.

Narrator: Though this was because their wages were not adequate and the workers knew that they were entitled to it. John Nelson, the head of the United Electrical Union for the General Electric Employees, told the workers that the board denied them from initiating an organized strike, but he claimed to them that if they were not going to get a raise, then by all means they were going to get a raise. 

Narrator: Though GE knew about the strike and that it would happen eventually, they took no action in preventing or solving this issue before it got to that point. Their reaction was before the strike took place was to have examiners go into the plants and decide which employees stayed and which had to be cut loose.

Narrator: Though this was able to prevent the strike that started in 1946, major corporations like GE had made record profits from the World Wars. While making major profits, all of their employees' wages were let’s say frozen for the entire duration of the war. Not to mention the fact that the workers suffered from the massive increase to the cost of living during the wars. It came down to the employees of not only GE, but also the Auto Workers and Steel Workers, they started to combine their abilities to create a bargaining contract.

Narrator: In November of 1946 will always be remembered by the Union members, around 500,000 aut works struck General Motors, though in GE, they only realized it after the union gave its notice. GE offered to raise their wages by 10 cents, but it still was falling short of the demanded wage the the workers asked for. In total there were around 200,000 UE members in both GE and Westinghouse who went on Strike from New England to California.  

Narrator: Though within 1946 is when the Cold War struck, thus the corporations were determined to weaken the labor movement. They wanted to make it incredibly difficult for unions to organize and take action for issues that were present. The chairman of GE, Charles E. Wilson, said that the problems within the United States could be summed up within two statements, “Russia abroad and labor at home.”

Narrator: Though admittingly, the union movements were subjected to ceaseless barrage of charges of being a communist plot against the United States. The union workers knew what was going on and one by the name of Jim Matles said “the damnable slander of communism as a line of propaganda against us started, to the best of my knowledge, on the same day the CIO was found.”  

Narrator: Within 1950, that’s when things started to get interesting, there were two rival unions UE and IUE. Then in the middle of the decade, GE  decided to brag that they have dealt with other unions, though all of them with local contracts. The company decided to seek out a five-year contract for peace workers and local understandings including compulsory overtime.蜉 Though with this contract, the aspects were that the workers were to receive retirement at 65 for men and 60 for women, their pension was to be $125/month (that included social security), and pensions after 20 years.

Narrator: In the years 1950 to 1969 became known as the age of Boulwarism, due to GE’s Vice President was named Lemuel Boulware. He was troubled by the strength that the Union had with the employees and the general public. He got an actor and started a TV show called GE Theatre. This basically has the actor travel across the country making speeches that were opposing unions as well as taxes and government special programs. Boulware then changed the slogan of GE to “doing the right thing voluntarily” which meant that he was no longer going to negotiate with its employees’ unions. 

Narrator: There wasn’t a union that could take on the company by itself, IUE tried, but ultimately failed. Their strike lasted three weeks and it collapsed in on itself. 蜉 This convinced GE to start to call for repeated joint consultations and action with the other unions, but this was to no avail. This resulted in GE dictating the terms of six consecutive national agreements from the years 1950 to 1966. In this mess, GE workers found themselves falling behind in work compared to other industries. It even went as far as taking away the cost of living protection in 1960. 

Narrator: Though in 1969 this is where the unions had enough and the leaders finally agreed for the first time in 20 years. The unions created a joint strategy and kept in communication, they waited for when the contract expiration drew near. Though GE stuck to their Boulware formula, its first and final “offer” was that the wage offer was 20 cents the first year, but there was nothing guaranteed the years to come. That’s when the unions presented the contract from 1938, the company proposed that newly organized shops were to not automatically come under the National Contract, this would have weakened the union’s right to strike. In October of 1969, over 150,000 workers walked out in their first national strike in 23 years. 

Narrator: GE spent millions trying to undermine the strike with news articles, radio shows, TV ads, but the strikers had support that was widespread. GE tried to have a movement that got them back to work, but it flopped as soon as it was out of the gate. After New Years that’s when it finally came to an end and the two saw their sides. In February, after 102 days on the picket lines that’s when they made a settlement between each other. 

Written and researched by Steven Mooradian

Koehler Beer and the Prohibition Era 

Steven Mooradian 

Hello! Welcome to this episode of the Hurstories, a history podcast presented by Mercyhurst students. My name is Steven Mooradian and I will be your host for this episode. 

Any good Erieite will tell you, there’s a church on every street, and a bar on every corner.  

Erie’s long history with beer extends to the first large waves of immigration, bringing their brewing practices with them, none more locally famous than the Koehler family. 

Their persistence through 13 years of prohibition propelled them into local legend, and the Koheler name remains a staple in northwestern Pennsylvania. 

Erie, Pennsylvania has been a Mecca for immigrants for over a century and a half. Groups of Italian, Polish, German, Irish, Russian, Greek, and other European immigrants have historically found a small slice of Erie to call home. Even more recently, large contingencies of Nepalese, Bhutanese, Syrian, Central African, and Latin American groups have found their sanctuary and safety in some of the same areas. Though Erie’s population has decreased significantly since the mid 20th century, these groups are almost single-handedly keeping those numbers steady. There is truly a connection between the success of immigrants and the success of Erie. 

Erie has a small, urban center. It is centrally located between three major cities: Buffalo, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. And it was a center of commerce and industry for a better part of the 19th and 20th centuries, perfect for establishing economic success in anything from paper to beer. When immigrants arrive they bring their interests and talents, making Erie one of the most diverse cities in America for well over a century. 

Charles Koehler, a Dutch immigrant who arrived in Erie in the mid 1800’s, knew Erie held for him some of these opportunities. He worked for Frederick Dietz, who owned a brewery at 17th and Parade Street. Dietz died in 1858 and Charles took it over, though he left only a few years later in 1862 to begin a new brewery with his sons at 26th and Holland. Charles son Fred inherited the business, but it was his other son Jackson Koehler, who would take the family name and make it a brand.1  

The first brewery built at the site of 21st and State Streets in Erie in 1855 was by George Frey and Peter Schaaf. Frey was himself an immigrant, from Germany, and is credited with introducing the lager style of beer to the Greater Erie-Buffalo region.2 

Schaaf would go on to find a new partner several years later, a man by the name of Henry Kavelage, who in 1863 became the sole owner of the operation and named it Eagle Brewery. 

Twenty years after, in 1883, Jackson Koehler purchased the brewery, calling it the Jackson-Eagle Koehler Brewery. 

Erie in the 1880’s had multiple brewing operations, consisting of four lager plants, one ale, and one porter breweries. They all shared the market, but it didn’t take long for Jackson Koehler to surge to the top of the game. In 1890, Jackson commissioned Louis Lehle, a Chicago architect to design the new brewery. 

On April 1, 1899, several of those other breweries, the Fred Koehler and Co. (Jackson’s brother), Cascade Brewery, National Brewery, and Eagle Brewery merged under the command of Koehler now going by the name Erie Brewing Company.

The Koehler name became synonymous with beer in the Erie region. 

The brewery ran with few flaws for years, until the bombshell hit. 

Prohibition became the law of the land, cemented as the 18th amendment to the US Constitution in 1920. 

Prohibition was particularly tricky in PA. Lots of working-class people, meant both strong adherence and strong resistance. Labor Unions were some of the fiercest opponents of the eighteenth amendment. However, other unions were avid proponents of prohibition, because labor leaders felt that with their workers boozed up, gave them a disadvantage on negotiations. 

Gifford Pinchot, a successful conservationist running for governor during the lead up to prohibition ran under the pretense that he would strictly enforce the prohibition laws. 

Unsurprisingly, he drew much of his support from groups like the Women’s Anti-Temperance Movement, which led the charge against prohibition, but also from several types of unions and farmers. 

Pinchot won his election in 1923, just three years after the 18th amendment was adopted, and served as Governor of Pennsylvania until 1927. 

He began cracking down on the prohibition laws, however, to his dismay, crime and usage increased while the enforcement of the law decreased dramatically by police departments.

Whether it was a direct defiance of the governor, or simply lazy police work, is unclear, but needless to say, prohibition wasn’t going as planned for Governor Pinchot. 

Despite his overall failure on prohibition, Pinchot won again in 1931, serving a nonconsecutive term until 1935. He also helped to establish the PA Liquor Control Board and hoped to deter alcohol use by making it quote, “as inconvenient and expensive as possible”. 

Meanwhile, rum-running and bootlegging were becoming a massive industry along the Lake Erie border. 

The proximity to Canada made it easy for smugglers to get across the international border in a hurry. Canada had no prohibition laws.8 Boats would speed across the lake, pick up cargo in places like Port Dover, Ontario and other lakefront towns, and come back to Erie or the Pennsylvania lakeshore. These trips were so frequent, it has been suggested there are hundreds of unopened bootlegged alcohol bottles at the bottom of Lake Erie. Much like the prohibition era on land, the policing of the waters was so ineffective, it was essentially non-existent. 

Even today, restaurants and bars in Erie, like Rum-Runners Cove, Smugglers Wharf, and the former Bootleggers Bar and Grille pay homage to this history.  

President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill in March of 1933, legalizing the sale and consumption of wine and beer and by December of the same year, the 18th amendment had been repealed and the 21st amendment ratified, ending prohibition. 

Prohibition forced the closure of breweries for Koehler and many others; however, Koehler was so popular, that in 1933, the year prohibition ended, he reopened the Erie Brewing Company resuming normal operations.  

Prohibition was viewed as a complete failed experiment. The usage of alcohol was not eliminated and may very well have even been elevated. The implementation of the eighteenth amendment also brought forth several unintended consequences.  

Many marginalized groups were targeted. Anti-alcohol meant anti-immigrant as Europeans like Germans, Polish, Irish, and Dutch were the primary brewers. 

Catholics were also notable drinkers and the 1920’s saw a great resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan as well as other extreme sects of White Anglo Saxon Protestant vigilantism. Organized crime including the likes of Al Capone and other notable gangsters was also elevated, in this time period.  

As for Koehler, the brewery operated normally until the 1970’s when the it was closed down in 1978. 

The historic building sat empty for many years, and unfortunately for history, the complex was demolished in 2006. 

However, in 2018, two brothers Bruce and Bryan Koehler, brought the name back. 

They are unsure if they are directly related to Jackson Koehler, but they are sure of their connection to Erie. 

They’re from Pittsburgh but their grandparents lived in Millcreek and remember passing the plant as kids, even remarking that Koehler is the only beer their family drank. 

The brothers operate the new Koehler Brewing Company out of Grove City, PA, about an hour away from Erie. The Koehler brand is still one of the most recognizable in Northwestern Pennsylvania. Many families tell stories of drinking Koehler beer with their loved ones and Koehler memorabilia is highly sought after. Though the building does not exist anymore, the original Eagle Brewery sign survives and can be seen inside the BrewERIE at Union Station, which preserves some of Erie’s brewing heritage.  

The survival of Koehler, bootlegging, and the prohibition era in Pennsylvania is just a snapshot of the Roaring 20’s, but it’s a legacy that the Erie region is true to, and in a lot of ways is proud of. 

With its recent reemergence, generations of Erieites can kick their feet up, drink a Koehler, and tell stories, just as their fathers and grandfathers did.  

Something has to keep those bars open! 

We’ll see you next time on Hurstories, until then, I have been Steven, and thank you for listening. 

In today’s ‘Hurstories’ episode, we’re going to be talking about Mercyhurst’s strong Black Student Union in the 1970s. While discussing Mercyhurst’s BSU from that time period, we are also going to look at the greater context of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements on college campuses across the country.

Get the transcript and Show Notes at hurststories.wordpress.com

On this episode of Hurstories, is Jordan Kessler discusses Mercyhurst's College of Older Americans in the 1970s. 

Get the transcript & Show Notes at hurststories.wordpress.com

Written & produced by Addison Richmond

Two yearbooks sit side by side, both the same standard size, both about the same thickness, both with the same school’s name (Mercyhurst college) in scrawled on the front. But there is were the similarities end. One is bound with a classic, marbled paper cover, the other is bolder, louder, bound with bright colors and curvy font. If we peer inside these yearbooks, we can see further evidence of their differences. The first is filled with classic senior pictures: largely dominated with girls, dressed in neat skirts, with smart jackets. Standing proudly and with an air of professionalism that we’d expect to find in a large corporation’s directory.[1] The second is much freer. It’s still mostly dominated by female students, but something’s a little different. The tight pinned curls are replaced with loose straight hair. The stiff pencil skirts are replaced with slacks, and the occasional shorts. Even the settings of the pictures has changed, students frolic in daisy fields, pose in front of abandoned train tracks, and hang out of oak trees. Every photo seems to reflect a new sense of freedom and independence. But also, in those pages are subtler hints to more serious questions lurking behind those smiling faces and flower crowns. Picket signs with peace symbols beg the question of war versus peace. Pictures of the first African American Mercyhurst graduates beg the question of equality and diversity. And the increased number of male student photos beg perhaps the most controversial question faced by Mercyhurst, the question of sexual equality and feminism.[2]

Get the full transcript and show notes at hurststories.wordpress.com

[1] “Mercyhurst 1968 Yearbook.” Mercyhurst Archives.

[2] “Mercyhurst 1969 Yearbook.” Mercyhurst Archives.

Episode written & produced by Alexandra Strauss

Depending on your religious affiliation, the month of May holds significance for upholding religious celebrations. You could celebrate the goddess of spring or Mary, the Mother of God. For some countries, May even holds significance for laborers and the working class with International Workers’ Day. Beltane is a traditional Celtic ritual that is celebrated on the first of May. May Day is a Catholic celebration that is dedicated to the Holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary. Many Catholic churches host a May Crowning in honor of Mary, and Catholic schools took up the practice of having a girl from the oldest grade crown Mary. I even crowned Mary for my eighth grade May Crowning!... Mercyhurst College held May Day events from 1932 until 1968! I’m your host, Alex, for today’s Hurstories episode on May Day!