The Granville Historical Society Museum is showcasing a new exhibit that examines the community's two-hundred-year conflict between intemperance and temperance. Through a series of stories and artifacts, the colorful history of Granville's temperance movements comes to life.
In the early 19th Century, migrants from New England were accustomed to consuming large quantities of hard cider. However, on the Ohio frontier, apple orchards were not readily available, but sizable harvests of wheat, corn, and rye could quickly be produced. Thus, begun a boom of local distilleries. The first tavern in Granville was opened by Timothy Rose on the town square in 1805 and the first distillery was erected around 1811 along Cold Spring. By 1820, there were 38 operating stills in Licking County, roughly a dozen within Granville Township.
According to records, in 1826 the average alcohol consumption among the men of Granville was close to two quarts apiece each week.
The first settlers were not strictly temperate people. The first Granville temperance crusader, Congregationalist Rev. Jacob Little, arrived in 1827. Appalled by the intoxication of the community, Little launched a thirty-eight year crusade to bring temperance and morality to the community. Through temperance pledges and organizations, he pressured the citizens of Granville to refrain from consuming all forms of alcohol. The Rev. Little's most aggressive tactic was his New Year's Day Sermons, where he publicly shamed members of the community into sobriety.
Ultimately unsuccessful in bringing complete temperance to Granville, Little laid the groundwork for future successful efforts. In the early 1870s, the Granville Women's Temperance League began the next crusade through a temperance pledge and pub- lic demonstrations in front of local taverns and saloons. In 1874, the League suc- cessfully lobbied the village council to prohibit the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol in the village, including intoxication in one's private home.
A Granville bootlegging industry sprung up in Granville Township as taverns and saloons migrated out of the village. The temperance advocates continued their crusade and may have engaged in arson when the Blue Goose, next to the present-day The Station restaurant, mysteriously burned to the ground in 1886. Granville Township outlawed alcohol production, sale, and consumption in 1890.
For a hundred years, until 1974, the Village of Granville was dry. The entire nation was dry during prohibition, 1919 to 1933, but Granville was dry before and after National Prohibition. After several attempts, beginning in 1963, intemperance crusader Sallie Jones Sexton, owner of the Granville Inn, successfully overturned Granville's dry status at the ballot box in 1974. The residents of Granville Township voted to become wet in 1980.
The Granville Temperance Crusades is also the first exhibit to employ audio guides creating an enhanced approach to sharing this rich history of this movement.
To hear the complete history of the Granville Temperance Crusades, please visit the Granville Historical Society Museum and use the new audio guides.
