52 Ancestors Week 47: Wrong Side of the Law

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 47

This week's theme is "Wrong Side of the Law." Scoundrels. Ne'er-do-wells. Criminals. Every family has them. This week, explore someone like that in your family tree. 

Breakin’ the law! Breakin’ the law!

When it comes to being on the wrong side of the law, I’ve never been too sure if anyone in my family tree had ever committed a crime. It’s not like I’ve never looked for newspaper articles about them! I have. Everyone seems to have been on the straight and narrow for the most part. For example, you’d be hard pressed to find anything about the Mafia in my tree. Let’s face it. Don Giovanni isn’t going to keep paperwork on file about the capos working under him and you won’t see Mafia records on Ancestry! You’d have to go somewhere else for that kind of information and if you do, you’d better watch your back. Remember what happened to Fredo!

This doesn’t mean that everyone was a goodie two shoes. No, no, no, no, no. Everyone has got a story and everyone has a past. History isn’t all sunshine and rainbows and sometimes someone unexpected could do something that certainly was a crime in his day.

I recently learned that my great-grandfather, Alfred Hamel used to help run liquor during the Prohibition. Prohibition in the United States ran from 1920 to 1933 and was a nationwide law which strictly prohibited the sale, production, importation and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Many people didn’t like that law and found various loopholes and consumed alcoholic beverages in secret in places called “speakeasies”. 

While I am fairly certain that Alfred here wasn’t tending bar at one of those speakeasies, I am sure that he found other ways to be useful during those dry times. During the Prohibition, Alfred was working on boats prior to opening his Fix-it shop in Newburyport, Mass. The city is situated at the mouth of the Merrimack river and so he had his hands full tending to the boats of various rum runners hoping to sell their wares up and down the river. As far as I know, he never got caught!

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the city was a hotspot for rum running. Newburyport was also known as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Even though the river can be a bit choppy on even the clearest of clear days, it was still an important river as goods and people could be transported around fairly quickly. Rum runners would be hard to detect if they were sailing around in the wee hours. However, there were hazards along the way. 

Speakeasies were still raided from time to time and the people running the booze had to make tracks for the harbor. Once there, they has to quickly board ships and make tracks for international waters just three miles off of the Massachusetts coast. These weren’t necessarily sailboats, by the way. These were speedboats rushing out of the river to meet up with larger vessels which were full of all kinds of contraband!

Many rum runners were still caught and as you can imagine it didn’t deter people one bit. Let it be known that we humans will do anything to get that glass of scotch! For some interesting stories about Prohibition era Newburyport, check this article out.

It’s crazy to think that at the center of all the Prohibition drama Alfred was fixing the boats for the rum runners. Sadly, you’d wouldn’t be able to find any information and solid evidence of his actions. Like I said he was never caught and you can bet that the police would have loved to have talked to the guy who was fixing their boats. 

There must have been some code the runners went by. They didn’t want Alfred to get in trouble so they didn’t squeal on the repairman. That’s honestly pretty cool. It’s like there was a “honor among thieves” situation. He’d help them and in return he wouldn’t be identified should a sailor running booze be caught by the US Coast Guard.

So, the question remains. How did my mother find out about this? Apparently, there was a family discussion about this ages ago and she remembered the stories her own grandfather told her while she was growing up. Whether or not this was family lore is up for debate. I can definitely see all of this happening. Let’s look at the facts.

1. Alfred was good with his hands and he certainly had the means to repair the speedboats.

2. He talked about the experience with his family and this showed that he knew a great deal about speakeasies up and down the Merrimack. Oh and let’s not forget that the port city where he lived was a hotbed of illicit activity.  For detail on the speakeasy experience, check this article out.

It’s a shame that there is basically little to no information on Alfred’s involvement. I know it’s hearsay since it’s family lore. However , it is possible given the time and place he lived. It’s cool to think that he was involved in such a counter culture movement. I have so many questions I’d love to ask him. Why did he do it? Did he have any interesting stories to tell? How did you avoid getting caught?! My family tree already has cool stories and this is one I definitely want to hear more about. Family history has shades of gray and you have to admit some stories like this are the ones worth telling!

See ya next time!