Cheese factories cranked out moonshine during prohibition

During the heart of prohibition in late 1922, not one, not two, but three Mount Horeb-area cheese factories were raided by federal prohibition agents. All of them showed some evidence that they had been producing moonshine.

The case of Frank Funkhauser went to trial in February of the following year. Funkhauser, the owner of one of the cheese factories, allegedly had two 50-gallon moonshine stills in operation in the factory when it was raided, according to the Capital Times. In addition, agents said they discovered more than 20,000 pounds of moonshine mash and 50 gallons of moonshine during the raid.

Theodore Baumann, a worker at Funkhauser’s factory, was arrested and given a $500 fine, plus costs and three months in the county jail. He was unable to pay and was put to work under the state’s fledgling Huber Program. The Capital Times reported that Baumann “turned state’s witness” and implicated Funkhauser, the owner of the factory.

Funkhauser took the opposite approach. He opted to fight the charges. His gamble paid off. On February 21, the same newspaper reported that Funkhauser was found not guilty after just two hours of deliberation by a jury.

In the same year, the Capital Times reported two days before Christmas that “a modern liquor distillery, in which 200 gallons of booze had already been manufactured ready for delivery, was uncovered by Sheriff W.H. McCormick and officials near Mt. Horeb” on the prior afternoon. The cheese factory allegedly used steam-powered machinery to run the large still. The newspaper said the sheriff “swooped down on the Tasher cheese factory” and busted the moonshine operation.

“Cheese factories do not operate in the winter months, as a usual thing, and undue activities around several such places during the past month has aroused the suspicions of the authorities,” the paper reported. Cheesemaker Leo Ambert was arrested and charged in connection with the Tasher bootlegging operation.

“A sweeping campaign against the liquor business, which seems to have been gaining a strong foothold in Dane county, is planned by county officials,” reported the Capital Times.

The local Mount Horeb newspaper, which always produced the definitive account of any news, wrote that when the feds dumped out the mash and moonshine, chickens feeding around the factory “promptly got a good jog on.”

Following the Funkhauser and Tasher raids, lawmen conducted yet another bust, this time at the Sandrock factory in the Town of Blue Mounds. Cheesemaker John Urban was not arrested, however, despite police finding a hidden still on the property.

The local newspaper pointed out that the trio of raids likely meant “the thirsty ones” would have to “travel further to another oasis.”

While most people know of prohibition as the period from 1920 to 1933, in which bootlegging, crime and violence were rampant, Wisconsin’s first effort at prohibition actually occurred in 1853, when the question of whether the legislature should enact a law prohibiting the sale of liquor in the state was submitted to a vote of the people. It was carried affirmatively by a vote of 27,579 to 24,109. In 1855, the legislature enacted a law prohibiting the sale of liquor, but Governor Barstow vetoed it.

Prohibition became federal law on January 29, 1919, with the ratification of the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the sale, manufacture, or transportation of intoxicating liquor starting in 1920. On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment was ratified, ending national prohibition.

This story was brought to life using archival resources compiled and shared by the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society. The MHAHS collection is accessible to the public for free on an appointment basis. For more information, call 608-437-6486 or visit www.mthorebhistory.org.