CHESAPEAKE CITY DRY — On Aug. 17, 1914, someone passing through the canal in Chesapeake City penned a brief message on the back of this postcard. The traveler wrote: “passed through at noon. All sober. Dry town. . . .” Postmarked in Chesapeake City, the message was mailed to William Mauer, Norristown, PA.
In the decades before prohibition, Maryland had a patchwork of wet and dry counties and communities. State laws permitted local referendums on the question, and if enough local voters had an aversion to alcohol, sales could be banned in the municipality, district, or county. The divisive issue appeared on the ballot regularly, giving the citizens plenty of opportunities to soberly reconsider the matter of wet or dry.
In 1908, for example, 12 counties in Maryland were dry, including Cecil County. In 1914, about the time our correspondent was passing through the canal town, a majority of Cecil County elected to stay dry. In some earlier referendums, Cecil had gone with the wets.
For more on temperance and prohibition see
Beer Is Back They Shouted as They Raised a Glass to Prohibition’s Death Knell