Prohibition Days in DeLand

1926 If you think the wild Prohibition days of the ‘Twenties, when alcoholic beverages were illegal, had nothing to do with Volusia County, look back at just one event in August 1926, as recreated by former newspaper editor, local historian and columnist Ronald Williamson and described in newspaper accounts at the time.

Before dawn on August 19, a sheriff’s deputy in New Smyrna Beach alerted Sheriff ED STONE that liquor was being unloaded near the old Coronado Bridge. Led by the sheriff, lawmen rushed to the coast where they arrested seven smugglers and confiscated their cars, filled with about 4,000 bottles of whiskey, gin, rye and German beer, plus 119 bags containing Scotch and American rye. Equipped for the liquor traffic, the cars had heavy springs, lowered floors and hidden storage areas to lessen suspicion. The men said they intended to drive to Chicago, where liquor was selling for $15 a quart and they could make up to $6,000 each. The haul may have been the single largest of the 1920-1933 era in Volusia County.

According to the DELAND DAILY NEWS account, confiscated liquor was stored in the courthouse vault and crowds often gathered to share the excitement after a raid. As bags of bottles were being unloaded and stacked, a landslide occurred. About 100 bottles broke, making “an odor that could be smelled a block away.” Williamson’s 2007 article includes the memories of DeLandite GEORGE JOHNS, who, as a youth, saw liquor poured out at the courthouse: “Oh, my goodness, that was strong stuff. Real Scotch, expensive stuff from the Bahamas.”

In early 1928, Sheriff Ed Stone reported that during the previous two years his department had conducted 704 raids, capturing 20,384 quarts of name-brand liquor, 36 autos and two seagoing boats. August 1926 was particularly busy: At Daytona Beach, three men were killed and five wounded in a running battle between rumrunners, hijackers and the Coast Guard; eight fishermen were arrested off New Smyrna Beach with 75 cases of liquor; and not long after, a deputy who stopped a truck on U.S. 92 near DeLand found 900 quarts of whiskey in sacks headed for Tampa.

 — SOURCES for the post: THE DAYTONA BEACH NEWS JOURNAL, Spilled Alcohol Drew Crowd in Prohibition Era DeLand, by Ronald Williamson, September 1, 2007; THE DELAND DAILY NEWS, August 19, 1926. The photo of the DELAND DAILY NEWS front page, with its rare banner headline, shows just how important the event was.