Were there really 50 saloons in Bemidji, 100 saloons? Or just how many were there really? When Charles V. Vandersluis was mayor, there were 28 saloons running with an annual license fee of $1000 each, generating $28,000 a year in revenue for Bemidji. When the saloons closed, and the city of Bemidji fell into financial trouble, Vandersluis put the city on a cash basis and fought to eventually get the city back on track and financially stable.
Bemidji was ripe for the saloon trade, as it had an influx of lumberjacks at the end of each winter season, and with that came the card sharks and the ladies of the night as well. In addition, it was a thriving marketplace and jumping off point for homesteaders and railroaders. Bemidji was wide open.
One could assume the saloons were close to the railroad tracks and located in the same neighborhoods as the hotels and restaurants. They were – and the neighborhood of 2nd and 3rd Streets between the lake shore and Park Avenue hosted most of them.
The City of Bemidji issued 25 liquor licenses for the fiscal year Feb 12, 1901 to Feb 12, 1902. Yet, the Bemidji Pioneer reported on Dec 26, 1901: “Saloon number 41 opened this week in the building formerly used by the Boston store, with the enterprising Pelry & Co. as proprietors. The building has been thoroughly remodeled, refloored and papered, and with its expensive fixtures and roomy apartments, is in the “swell” order.” Walter Brooks, early Bemidji banker, recalled, “In 1901, we had forty-two saloons open twenty-four hours a day, without a key, and they were each paying a thousand dollars a year license fees to the village.” There seems to be a discrepancy between what was popularly believed and what the fiscal record tells.
Bemidji was founded in 1896, and the saloon trade only lasted until Nov 30, 1914. Bemidji’s saloons were ordered closed years before Prohibition and the Volstead Act. Why?
Bemidji was found to be in Indian territory in 1910, and all the saloons in northern Minnesota covered by the 1855 Treaty were ordered to close.
One of the first confrontations between the federal government and two saloon owners happened on November 16, 1910. As the agents of the Indian bureau went into town, they faced a shot gun in the hands of one of the liquor men who, a moment before had hit Agent Matulys on the head, knocking him from a high platform where he landed on a broken beer bottle, inflicting a gash on his leg.
The first place the agents entered was Dudley & Mahan’s, which was located in the heart of the business district. Dudley carried a large stock and did a thriving business with the middle class. T. Brents, who was in charge of the Indian bureau’s sub-agency in Bemidji, assisted Agent Matulys. He approached Mr. Dudley and told him that he had ignored three warnings from the government and that he had re-opened his saloon after being closed by the government. Brents had received a telegram with orders from W. E. Johnson, head of the Indian Bureau, that he should destroy Dudley’s liquor stock.
The work of destruction began at once, barrels were broken open, casks dumped and bottled goods smashed. Destroyed in this one place were 21 barrels of whiskey, 2 barrels of alcohol, 11 cases of bottled goods, 3 cases of bitters, 10-gallon keg of whiskey, cases of fancy whiskey, 4 cases of champagne, and 4 barrels of wine.
From the Dudley & Mahan place, the agents marched on the Lakeshore saloon on Second Street. Louis Anderson offered no resistance, and after taking a drink of his own whiskey, turned the place over to the government agents, who quickly destroyed 5 barrels of whiskey, 10 cases of bottled whiskey, 2 cases of Rock and Rye, 10 gallons of wine and 10 gallons of gin. Anderson did object, however, to the fact that the agent also dumped a barrel of cider, and he felt that since cider was not a liquor, someone should have to pay him for it.
When agents returned in December 1910 to close the saloons, there were 24 places doing business. The agents went to each saloon and told the proprietors to clear the place out, lock the door and have their supplies packed and ready for shipment out of Bemidji by 6 p.m. There was no resistance but as soon as the two agents returned to the Markham Hotel, Deputy Sheriff Rutledge served them with injunctions prepared by Bemidji Attorney E. E. McDonald. The two federal agents accepted the injunctions without protest and proceeded at once to St. Paul to determine the next course of action.
Under the protection of the injunctions, twelve saloons re-opened after being closed for three hours, and as they were the only saloons open in the entire territory, they were soon doing a thriving business. The twelve saloons were conducted by: John Dalton, John Larson, H. Gunsalus, F. E. Brinkman, A. Marshik, J. E. Maloy, Ed Fay, J. H. Sullivan, E.E.Gearlds, Edwin Gearlds, Frank S. Lycan, and L. J. Kramer. Three saloons had voluntarily quit business, owing to the fact that their supplies had become exhausted. These places were run by Frank Lane, Chris Olson and Jesse Anderson.
After the saloon keepers went into court and got the injunction, this was reversed by the Supreme Court in May of 1914. The liquor interests filed an application for a rehearing, but the United States Supreme Court again went on record upholding the 1855 treaty as the law of the district.
When the closing order came down in October 1914, there were 25 saloons were doing business here. Frank Gagnon, A. B. Hazen, M. H. Hazen and M. J. Sullivan were granted renewals but they did not take out licenses, cutting the number to twenty-one. On November 16 the license of Frank S. Lycan expired and on November 19, that of John Dalton. Both were granted renewals by the council, but the licenses were not taken out. This left the number in operation on November 30 at nineteen.
When the final order came through, there were no more protests. Frank S. Lycan, who operated a bar in connection with the Markham hotel, was the first man upon whom the closing order was served. Larson then made his way from saloon to saloon, politely introducing himself as Henry A. Larson, special Indian agent, and left a copy of the closing order.
Fred E. Brinkman took out the last license on October 18 and had operated on it little more than one month when he was closed. Frank Lane and Andrew Dahl took out licenses as late as August.
The saloon keepers who were forced to close their places of business on November 30, were: McKinnon brothers, George A. Tanner, Ole Anderson, Thomas McCarthy, John E. Croon, M. Gustavson, J. W. Oppie, John Bye, Andy McNabb, Lars L. Lind,; Gennis & Layon, J. E. Maloy, Matt Thome, Harry Gunsalus, E. K. Anderson, Larkin & Dale, Frank Lane, Andrew Dahl, and F. E. Brinkman.
Over the next two years, the saloon owners sought to get refund of their unused license money, and the local newspaper covered that fight until mid-1916.