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This photograph is of the St. Mary's Temperance Society taken in 1907, at the St. Mary's Block at 56-58 East Genesee St., former site of the Skaneateles Press. The auditorium pictured above was located on the top floor. Father Purcell started this Temperance Society as well as St. Bridget's Temperance Society in Skaneateles Falls. St. Bridget's was a substantial building located two doors north of St. Bridget's Church, which was torn down about 1950 and became the Long House at Onondaga Nation. The temperance societies started well before prohibition and both of these societies were comprised mainly of Irish Catholics. There was also the WCTU in Skaneateles and these temperance movements were the predecessors of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919, the start of prohibition.

I am aware of numerous stories of bootlegging and speakeasies in the town, the ones I'm most familiar with are those generally along the Skaneateles Shortline Railroad. I am also familiar with the fact that many of the farmers between the Glenside and Bear Swamp also had their own way of making hard cider and certain wines, which even continues to this date. You could always get a cool glass of cider at Wellington's, Baumgartner's, Greenfield's, Foote's, Fisher's and others on the west side.

Prohibition was revoked by the 22nd Amendment in 1933. This was the only U.S. Constitutional Amendment that was passed by conventions. In our state, various delegates were elected to the convention to cast their vote, and in Skaneateles the "Wets" carried the ballot, although in two of the six election districts the "Drys" prevailed.

We had a particular problem in the Glenside, given my father was the justice of the peace, my Uncle Sarto was a young sheriff during prohibition and a cousin, Martin Dillon, was a state trooper. Although there was a strong temperance society in the Glenside, there were numerous places you could buy wine, beer and pretty good whiskey.

Andy Rodak ran, as Sarto explained, a "real first class speakeasy" at his home on Phillips Street in Stump City. The sheriffs had not been able to catch Andy as he had lookouts at the south end of Phillips Street. If a sheriff's car was spotted approaching, everybody had plenty of time to clear out, carrying any bottles to a hiding place in the woods behind the Rodak's residence.

On one particular occasion, Sarto was ordered to get the Rodak's at any cost," as the sheriff had been receiving complaints from a neighbor of Rodak's, Mrs. Honors, who was disturbed by the number of people at the Glenside Woolen Mill coming across the foot bridge to Rodak's, one of whom was her husband. Sarto knew a route through the woods north of Phillips Street across Skaneateles Creek so that they could sneak up on the Rodak's without being spotted.

However, this was a close-knit community, and my grandfather, Tom Major, ran a barbershop in a barn owned by the Rodak's. Sarto just happened to mention to his father that he was going to be conducting a raid, but not to tell anyone. Of course, my grandfather, being a free tenant of the Rodak's, immediately tipped them off so the raid went real well, except they really didn’t get anything as the Rodak's had moved all the booze into the hiding place in the woods. As the story goes, they did get Andy for some minor violation, of course, my father, as justice of the peace, dismissed the charges and embarrassed his own brother.

If you went up the line you would find similar activities at the Paradise Inn and the Big Dish, in an area known as Long Bridge. The Minetta family ran the Big Dish, which was a substantial restaurant with a dance hall and a ball park adjoining it for baseball games played on the weekends which attracted large crowds and obviously sold a lot of liquor. It was also difficult to catch them as the bottles of Liquor were hidden in a space between the first floor and the basement ceiling. There were certain boards that could be lifted up, exposing long lines of bottles, but if a raid was coming, everything was placed back in the floor, covered up and no one knew the difference. The Big Dish went out of business just before World War II and the family moved to Fulton, where "Doc" Minetta now operates a great Italian grocery on Route 48. In Mottville there was Big Tony's on O'Neill Lane and Pitno's on Railroad Street along with a few others.

The village was not exempt from raids either and sometimes they were embarrassing. One time Sarto raided a household across the street from the present village DPW and during this daylight raid they caught "Bog" Luddington and Mayor Sam Kane at the bar having a drink. In Sarto's first raid he learned a good lesson: when you go into a place you don't know you hit the first person you see because on his first raid he went in, announced his presence and was promptly hit on the head with a chair by the lady of the house. This was when it became necessary for him to invest in dentures. The irony of this is that now nine of the establishments north of the village that existed in this area for many years are all gone. It looks like temperance took over and all the "wets" reside in the village, or are they just tourists?

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