The Bootlegger: A Story of Small-Town America

by John E. Hallwas

Tells the story of Kelly Wagle, a small-time bootlegger whose still-unsolved murder early in the twentieth century revealed the secret undercurrents of small-town life in a struggling American mining town made up of British immigrants. UP.

Genres: Nonfiction

274 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1998

Reviews

[Jan C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting tale. Essentially the life and death of a small town in Illinois. The first portion of the book is basically about small town life in the late 1800's and early 1900's. And this book pretty much follows the life of the Wagle family. Kelly Wagle was The Bootlegger. Kelly was pretty much the wild one. And we learn about his wild life.

But the real upshot is that Colville was a coal mining town in western Illinois, right near Macomb, which may also have started out as a coal mining town. Matter of fact, they were rivals in most things. Except that Macomb changed with the times and Colville didn't. Colville talked about changing but it never got much beyond the talking stage. And Macomb actually did change - they put in a college and that ensured them a future.

[David]

One of the most intriguing and dangerous times in our country's history, and this author managed to take all of the excitement and action out of it.
I almost did-not-finish a few times, but I am not one to just drop a book (although there have been a few that I just HAD to stop reading).

The book is more or less a haphazard chronicle; a bunch of loosely-connected vignettes about the town of Colchester, its inhabitants, its industries, and its people. It's a story of an always-small town with big-town dreams and the people who did the best they could with what they had.
There are some stories about liquor, legal and illegal, and the town's struggle with its dry or wet status, and some stories about bootlegging, but none of it is especially compelling or interesting. I was not reading it in anticipation of some really cool "nugget" or event after about a third of the way through. It just lacks and narrative flair and fire.

But it is BORING. It is not really very interesting, even accidentally, in many places at all. Even the murder of Kelly Wagle lacks any kind of urgency, excitement, anticipation, and tragedy. It's just kind of "these four things happened this day and then he was shot dead."

Hallwas's last two lines of the book, in the epilogue, read thus:
"The last of the old townspeople, those who knew Colchester in the 1920s, are almost gone. But the story of the bootlegger remains, and it gets better all the time."

Man, I hope so, because this particular version of the story was terribly told.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great. Using for my US Hist class.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only read fiction, but received this book as a gift, so had to change my ways. I loved the book. At first, I had thought that I would be bored with it, as he starts out with Wagle’s funeral, then jumps backwards to telling of his descendants, and how Colchester became a town. The coal miners lives, the hardship people faced just to make a living, and the close knit community that was formed was all very interesting. It was a view of late 1800’s and early 1900’s in a small town that became, then slowly died. Wagle himself can be called a good man, and a brutal man. He was a product of his time.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very readable book by a scholar who has written on Illinois history and literature. Entertaining--I read it in a few days.