Township History
Cedar Creek Township Remains “Wet”
The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Wednesday, August 30, 1916, page 12.
A local-option election keeps the township’s two saloons, at Leo and Grabill, by a narrow margin; the Leo W.C.T.U. (Woman’s Christian Temperance Union) works the polls from six in the morning. The Leo saloon was Peter Gerber’s; see Leo Saloon Man (1913).
Transcription
Unofficial transcription, prepared from the archive scan for ease of reading, copying, and searching. The printed page is authoritative. Original spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing are preserved. Nothing has been corrected or modernized.
Cedar Creek Township Remains “Wet”
Majority of Thirty-Five Votes Decides in Favor of Saloons at Leo and Grabill.
LEO, Ind., Aug. 29.—Cedar Creek township voted wet at to-day’s election with a total majority of thirty-five. In Leo the vote stood 119 “wet” and 76 “dry,” or a majority of 39 for the “wets,” In Grabill a total vote of 120 was registered. Of these 59 voted “dry” and 61 “wet,” or a majority of just two votes in favor of retaining the saloons.
There are only two saloons in the township, one in Leo and one in Grabill. About four years ago the township voted wet after a “dry” period of two years.
The election at both places was conducted in a quiet and orderly manner. In Leo the voting took place at the Masonic temple, where members of the Leo W. C. T. U. worked from 6 o’clock in the morning until the close of the polls in the cause of the drys. The people in Grabill voted at the town hall.
Notes
- The newspaper’s arithmetic does not add up, and the transcription is not at fault. Every figure was checked at high magnification: 119, 76, 39, 120, 59, 61. But 119 − 76 is 43, not 39; and 39 + 2 is 41, not the “thirty-five” of the headline. No single misprint explains all three. The raw vote counts are the most reliable numbers; the stated majorities are the paper’s own tallying.
- The comma after “wets,” where a period belongs, is as printed.
- W. C. T. U. is the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
- The dateline, Aug. 29, is the day of the election. The newspaper is dated August 30.
- The Leo saloon was kept by Peter Gerber, profiled three years earlier: see Leo Saloon Man.
About this clipping
- Source
- The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (Fort Wayne, Indiana), August 30, 1916, page 12.
- Archive
- Newspapers.com, image 29271229 (subscription site). The images and transcription on this page are complete and free to use.
- Copyright
- Published in the United States before 1931 and in the public domain.
- Images
- Cleaned from the archive scan for legibility. This is the full detail the archive scan holds; there is no larger version.
- Transcription
- Prepared by Robert J. Pfister, October 2026, and checked word by word against a magnified view of the scan.