Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913

Corn and Bootlegging in Frazer, 1922.

This photo shows Til Hagen to the left and Clyde Flint holding some pretty tall corn in front of the Frazer Hardware store in 1922. The corn stalks were from Sherman McCune's broom corn south of the river. Frazer was a busy town during this time, as it was a place for bootlegging traffic. Clyde took out a $2,500 loan to help a man known as Mr. Rice, who owned a few lumber yards. Rice was in financial troupble. Rice had been buying liquor up in Canada and bringing it to Glasgow where he'd hand it off to the bootleggers. Rice and Clyde planned to take a load of whiskey to Glasgow to pay the bank loan back. Unfortunately Clyde became ill with pneumonia when the exchange was to take place. Two other men joined Rice to attempt the drop off and a the car broke down which made plans change. It took weeks for them to unload the whiskey without getting caught, but much of the whiskey was consumed by another man, a Herman Flint, not related to Clyde. It remained hidden in a hole at the local bank for several weeks before they could find a bootlegger. The $2,500 loan was nearly half charged off by the time the adventure was over.

 

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