Gentlemen Bootleggers: The True Story of Templeton Rye, Prohibition, and a Small Town in Cahoots

by Bryce T. Bauer

2014 Benjamin F. Shambaugh Award Winner

2015 Spirited Awards Top Ten Finalist During Prohibition, while Al Capone was rising to worldwide prominence as Public Enemy Number One, the townspeople of rural Templeton, Iowa—population just 428—were busy with a bootlegging empire of their own. Led by Joe Irlbeck, the whip-smart and gregarious son of a Bavarian immigrant, the outfit of farmers, small merchants, and even the church monsignor worked together to create a whiskey so excellent it was ordered by "Templeton rye." Just as Al Capone had Eliot Ness, Templeton’s bootleggers had as their own enemy a respected Prohibition agent from the adjacent county named Benjamin Franklin Wilson. Wilson was ardent in his fight against alcohol, and he chased Irlbeck for over a decade. But Irlbeck was not Capone, and Templeton would not be ruled by violence like Chicago. Gentlemen Bootleggers tells a never-before-told tale of ingenuity, bootstrapping, and perseverance in one small town, showcasing a group of immigrants and first-generation Americans who embraced the ideals of self-reliance, dynamism, and democratic justice. It relies on previously classified Prohibition Bureau investigation files, federal court case files, extensive newspaper archive research, and a recently disclosed interview with kingpin Joe Irlbeck. Unlike other Prohibition-era tales of big-city gangsters, it provides an important reminder that bootlegging wasn’t only about glory and riches, but could be in the service of a higher producing the best whiskey money could buy.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Crime

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2014

Reviews

[Magpie67 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I must own, so I can re-read at my leisure. What a fantastic story of prohibition in Iowa and oh the things I learned about the state I live in now. Bath tub gin and the KKK took on a new meaning. The laws, the deceit, the wets, the drys. Prohibition was so much more than speakeasies, jazz music and flappers... funny how those things are the first images to come to mind. The mob, the government and the running of bootleg whiskey along with the individuals who were on either side of the fence during one of the most abused amendments to our Constitution. Alcohol was once seen as a poor man's drink until the 18th amendment happened. Speakeasies meant you had to have money and with that era, a whole new line of drinks and tastes followed. An interesting look of how a town came together to earn money and make a drinkable product unlike some of the carpet baggers making the bad stuff, 'bath tub gin'. One has to ask the question: Would we have had the mobs, if the 18th amendment never became a law? Hmm.... I know gambling is a whole nother story..... extortion etc. etc... I now want to read another book about this time, to see how the great wine fields of California survived the almost extinction of alcohol. I love history!!! The other interesting story was the abolishment of the German language and the book burning that took place as well as the Lutherans who split down the middle: English vs German and formed their own churches. This change had to do with WWI. Propaganda was a tool used in the government and mass hysteria claimed the rest... The sky is falling kind of attitude if one used German, spoke German or read a book in German. Terrible shame....

[Urbandale Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

The true story of Templeton Rye and life in Iowa during prohibition. Interesting read.--UPL Library Patron

[R.E. Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Templeton Rye launched its product several years ago, they accompanied it with a marketing campaign full of tales of Prohibition-era bootlegging and Al Capone. The company soon got itself into trouble in whiskey circles for its misleading claims of making a rye based on Iowa bootlegging recipes, when it was in fact bottling LDI’s 95% rye. As a result, many bloggers and whiskey diehards have viewed them with suspicion ever since.

Yet in the way that internet croakers often do, some of Templeton Rye’s critics took their invective too far, and in so doing wound up making statements as rank as the objectionable marketing ever was. What I’m referring to is the bogus claim made by some that there was never any bootlegging in Templeton, Iowa in the first place, a claim that now has a well-written book standing to refute it.

That objective probably isn’t what Bryce Bauer had in mind when he penned Gentlemen Bootleggers: The True Story of Templeton Rye, Prohibition, and a Small Town in Cahoots. Instead, he likely wanted to produce a well-written piece of non-fiction to feed the appetite for whiskey tales that has grown hand-in-hand with the thirst for whiskey itself. He achieved both goals, and handily at that.

Gentlemen Bootleggers is the entertaining tale of Carroll County, Iowa, an enclave of German Catholics in a sea of temperance-minded, Mid-Western Protestants. In many ways, the rural farming community reminded me of Marion County, Kentucky as a place where cultural clashes led to a place that viewed meddling outsiders with suspicion, and thus became a hotbed of moonshining when those outsiders came in and made alcohol illegal.

As Bauer ably relates, Carroll County had the added impetuses of the farm crisis of the 1920s and 1930s and the anti-German nativism of World War One pushing the region deep into bootlegging, the former driving farmers into making illegal liquor as a way to make money, and the latter ensuring most Carroll County residents didn’t rat the bootleggers out. With the scene set, Bauer then focuses his tale on Templeton’s whiskey baron, Joe Irlbeck, who was less a gangster and more the organizer of a co-op of moonshiners and rum runners. At one point, the county so reveled in its reputation for thumbing its nose at Prohibition that it erected a Yuletide display with a moonshine jug emblazoned with the words “Xmas Spirits” in town, a stunt that caught headlines around the country.

One almost expects to see John Dillinger blow through town and rob the bank, so well-crafted is this intersection story of Prohibition bootlegging and the Depression era Mid-West. Yet big American gangsterism is merely a tangential presence. A few of Al Capone’s thugs show up here and there, and Scarface himself is mentioned merely in parallel to Irlbeck, making this first and foremost a tale of Iowa farmers and small-town merchants trying to get by and resist the moral dictates of their overbearing neighbors.

Carroll County’s wave of illicit whiskey came mostly in the form of moonshine and other unaged whiskeys, but as Bauer’s tale tells us, there was also aged rye whiskey being made in the barns around Templeton, and that Templeton rye earned a solid reputation in the thirsty Mid-West. One thing a sharp-eyed, informed reader ought to ferret out is that the bootlegger Templeton rye was a small barrel whiskey, and was therefore something a modern distillery could have made and put on the market in a short period of time, just as the bootleggers did it and craft distilleries are doing it today. In other words, the modern Templeton Rye company should have studied their background as closely as Bauer did, because then they might have made rye whiskey in the same way the authentic Templeton bootleggers did, instead of choosing to use the story while sourcing the whiskey.

[Ursula Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bootlegging for the Community

This was an interesting story about a town that supported hometown bootlegging during the Prohibition era. The sense of community and common good made it much different from the rest of the country. The tales of the bootleggers and the law enforcement officers attempting to bring them down makes for heartwarming and heartbreaking reading, especially since the sale of the drinks was keeping food on the table for the hard strapped farmers during the depression. I found myself rooting for them not to get caught. I read this book using immersion reading while listening to the audiobook. Veteran narrator Jonathan Davis expertly brings this story to life beautifully.

[Robert Luebke · Rating 5 out of 5]

As one who enjoys history of the Midwest, I was particularly interested in this book because it gave much of the early history of Iowa and the effects of prohibition and the depression on its people. My neighbor across the street read this book and gave it to me to read. I didn't think I was interested at first, but picked up the book about a couple months later and found it so fascinating, that I read it in a couple of days. I enjoy history very much, but really hadn't read much on prohibition and how it came about. This book spends considerable time on the effect of prohibition in a couple of western Iowa counties and of course, Templeton, Iowa, a small Iowa town where Templeton Rye had its origins. An enjoyable and educational read.

[Russ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bootlegging Iowans make for a more interesting tale than most would expect. This is the well written history of a rebellious town in the cornbelt that survived Prohibition and the Great Depression by making and selling (and branding) its own whiskey. The author weaves together a series of characters to tell the tale including a short bit on Al Capone. There are tons of characters and some are hard to follow but the flow of the story keeps you engaged. It is an interesting bit of US history contrasting the worst of our society and government against the best and most innovative of our people.

[Diane Sharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a hidden gem on Prohibition. I came across this book as I had been doing research about bootlegging and rum running for fun. The life of Joe Irlbeck and his associates is overlooked in history. Never would I have thought that a whole town in Iowa would have been active in the make of whiskey. Fascinating read.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

It starts out a little slow, but once it gets going and the "plot" starts, it is a quick, fun and interesting read. I will say that if you are from that area it probably is more enjoyable. Great story.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is interesting and since I’m from Iowa I wanted to read it! I thought it was a little slow and like others, didn’t care for the writing style. It wasn’t quite what I expected but still an interesting read.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a history buff and have been on a kick about bootlegging lately. I had never heard of Templeton Rye. Throw Al Capone during prohibition into the story and I have to read it. It is a tremendous and historical read.

[James Kennedy Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolute favorite book that deals with Templeton, Iowa during the prohibition era and how the town maintained, grew and prospered together throughout that dark economic time period. Mentions of bootlegging, Al Capone, and some of my relatives running stills make this book my all time favorite read.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to bootlegging in the era of Prohibition.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Templeton is the wet Catholic town I think we all wanted to grow up in. My hometown didn’t even have (and still doesn’t have) one bar. Tragic.

[Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are several fine books that examine U.S. Prohibition of 1920-33 on a national scale, including “Last Call: the Rise and Fall of Prohibition” by Daniel Okrent, which I read in January 2015. But I also enjoy reading about local American history, and two books I read provided me an accounting of Prohibition on the county level: “Minnesota 13: ‘Wet’ Wild Prohibition Days” by Elaine Davis, which I read in August 2014; and “Gentlemen Bootleggers: The True Story of Templeton Rye, Prohibition, and a Small Town in Cahoots,” a 2014 book by Bryce T. Bauer, which I read in October 2015.
Davis’ book is about Stearns County, Minnesota, while Bauer’s book is about Carroll County, Iowa.
There are similarities between these two states in topography, ethnicity, and weather. However, there were profound differences between the residents of Iowa and Minnesota in regards to the consumption of alcohol and Prohibition, despite the proximity of the two states.
Over the years, Minnesotans showed little enthusiasm about prohibiting the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages. Between 1907 and 1919, Minnesota was one of only 14 states without statewide prohibition of alcohol.
But Iowa was different. “From its very beginning, Iowa was at the forefront, along with Kansas and Maine, of temperance activity in the nation,” Bauer writes. Iowa passed a state prohibition amendment to its constitution in 1882.
Carroll County in western Iowa was an exception. Largely because of its large German-American population, which liked its beer and whiskey, the county had opposed any prohibition of the making, selling, or drinking of alcohol. Like Stearns County in Minnesota, Iowa’s Carroll County was a renegade county whose residents defied national Prohibition during the 1920s and early 1930s. Templeton, a city in the county, had 428 residents according to the 1930 census and was known as the “far-famed oasis of the middlewest.”
Minnesota 13 whiskey was made from corn, whereas Templeton rye’s mash was largely sugar and with a little bit of ground rye flour. Despite large cornfields in the area, corn was not used to make Templeton rye. “Templeton’s whiskey cookers weren’t out to create a new market for their farm products: their goal was to simply augment their incomes. And using local ingredients would have only cut into their profits. Therefore early on they decided rather than using corn from the surrounding fields, they’d mostly use sugar.”
As was the case in Stearns County, most of Carroll County’s population made or transported bootleg alcoholic beverages. Bauer writes, “As the rye industry took off, nearly every household in Templeton was involved in some aspect of its production.”
There was a religious dimension to Prohibition in Minnesota and Iowa, as well as the rest of the country. Both states had large Catholic populations whose clergy and congregants had low regard for any prohibition of alcohol.
“Catholics had not only opposed Prohibition from the very beginning on grounds that it was both an intrusion and bigoted, but also because the church had a long history with alcohol: many monasteries brewed their own beer and distilled their own liqueurs.”
One aspect of Prohibition in Iowa that Bauer brought out I hadn’t realized. The KKK was strong in Iowa in early 1920s and claimed at its height to have nearly 100,000 members. Besides being anti-black, hooded KKK members were also anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, and despised those who flouted Prohibition, thinking them one and the same people.
There is a certain absurd humor involved when talking about Prohibition in the U.S. Among many funny anecdotes, Bauer relates a story about a hog farmer who ran the contraband rye hidden in his truck to Nebraska with one pig as a decoy. Then there was the funeral director who transported Templeton rye hidden in a few of his otherwise unused caskets.
Iowa was slow to loosen its liquor laws. The state opened state stores for takeout purchase of alcoholic beverages in 1934, right after the 18th Amendment was repealed. In his epilogue, Bauer reveals that Iowa allowed the sale of liquor by the drink only in 1963. The state closed its liquor stores in 1987, and private liquor outlets were established.
The book profiles Carroll County’s most famous farmer bootleggers as well as federal agents eager to catch them. The book looks at related issues such as religion, immigration, ethnicity, the overloaded justice system of the 1920s, anti-German sentiment in the Midwest during World War I, the political dimensions of Prohibition, and farmer protests during the Great Depression. Bauer’s research and writing skills have created an entertaining and informative book about Prohibition from the bottom up.

[Luke Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I would love this book. I mean I love whiskey and I love history, should of been a double win. However, the book was very lacking in my opinion. I think because of the title which I thought would be a history of the Templeton distillery, with heavy focus on the year of prohibition. It's not really that. Templeton Rye is somewhat of the focus here but much more in the sense of bootleg whiskey in general. The book never focuses on the distillery, the whiskey is only ever produced in illicit stills set up in garages and barns. Joe Irlbeck is a main character and we get a good chunk of his backstory but most of the other characters (especially the sheriffs and prohibition agents) just drift in and out of the story.

The book gets bogged down with too much numbers. When the agents do happen upon a still we get a roster of how much mash, how much new make, how much aged whiskey, how big the still is. Every court case we get a number of how much fines are paid. In general to much is left unclarified, not until the epilogue do we learn that the authors father worked for the company, but what his job was or anything beyond he was once an employee is never discussed.

The main thing for me was I did not care for the authors writing style, and what I mean by that is an extreme overuse of commas. Here is one example: On page 196 the author writes, "For, surely, the column went on, the way to "wipe out booze and crime" in "these Verunreinien Staaten" - a work play on the German "Vereinigte Staten" (the United States), meaning more or less "defiled lands," or, as the paper also wrote,......" and it goes on from there. That's about half the sentence and though rest of the sentence is mostly a quote there are still 5 more commas before the next period. Now I like an appositive as much as the next guy but that's too much. I wish that was a one time thing but there's commas all over the place and to many use of "....., of course,......"

I also feel that the book wraps up awkwardly. Yes, Prohibition ends, but this whole cast of characters: Irlbeck, other bootleggers like Steve Smith, the pro-booze Monsignor F.H. Huesman, all the Prohibitions agents, very little is said about their lives after the repeal of the 18th Amendment other than Irlbeck runs a bar for a few years and Agent B.F. Wilson dies in a car crash in 1963. Even though the book was published in 2014 there's no reference of Templeton Rye in the 50+ years to follow and no mention of what it is today.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

To paraphrase the start of another reader's review: history and whiskey, what's not to love? Unfortunately, the answer is plenty. Had I been paying attention, the problem was laid bare in the book's subtitle, "The True Story of Templeton Rye, Prohibition, and a Small Town in Cahoots," in which author Bryce Bauer made clear the sprawling ambition of the book. But he doesn't deliver, at least not consistently, and at a mere 235 pages, "Gentlemen Bootleggers" is both too long and too short by a rum-runner's country mile.

There's no doubt Bauer did his research, as the 36 pages of source notes and bibliography attest to. What's lacking, however, is enough primary material to adequately fill in the blanks. Instead there's an overabundance of exposition, speculation ("perhaps" gets a lot of use here), and padding (Al Capone keeps popping up in unrelated ways). As a result, despite the book's modest length, there were simply too many eye-glazing passages to consistently hold my attention.

Whether Bauer's problems could have been fixed by approaching the subject as historical fiction, by placing Templeton into the broader milieu of organized rural bootlegging operations throughout the Midwest (or by even acknowledging that there was, in fact, no analog to be found), by truly going bigger and weaving Templeton's story into the greater Prohibition narrative, or by bridging past and present by concluding with Templeton Rye's rebirth and its ascendancy in craft whiskey circles, I can't say. Never mind that Bauer doesn't even deliver on his own title: we never learn why these particular bootleggers are considered "gentlemen." I can say that John Hillcoat's film "Lawless" was more fun, that HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," which I'm currently watching, is more compelling, and that nothing "Gentlemen Bootleggers" has done will alter my appreciation for Templeton Rye.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up 20 miles from Templeton and have never heard many of the stories included here! This author presents the story of this infamous rye whiskey from a variety of market and economic perspectives including the impact of World War I on the migration of the rural population to cities, the passage of the
Volstead Act with an emphasis on what it meant for rural Iowa, and most significantly, the response to market conditions that caused Iowa farmers to be creative to meet the demands of Iowa's drinkers even though it was illegal under federal law.

The real story here is that Iowa farm families who would have otherwise lost their farms and not been able to feed or care for their families created a new product that meet the demands of a new market.

This book is quite meaningful to me because I went to school with many of the descendants of those Templeton farmers who were "cooking." My aunt is a native of Templeton and our dad bought TVs for Lem Schwaller in Templeton for as long as I can remember. One the men to which this book is dedicated, Louis Lauritsen, graduated from high school with my dad, aunt and uncle.

A special thanks to the author - a native of southwest Iowa - who has done extensive research and retold the real stories of how Templeton rye whiskey came to be.

[Trever · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books rating should have been 3 stars I gave it the extra star for two reasons.

1. I love templeton rye, I'm not big on whisky but love this stuff.

2. It is close to where I grew up, now I didn't grow up in Iowa, but grew up in Blair, Nebraska.

Good book... Good small stories about Iowa during the prohibition era.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was an interesting read and I enjoyed the writing but the structure was a little difficult. The book would jump from year to year and back as well as person to person so it was hard to follow a narrative.

[Patrick Macke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it ... Stupid thing that 18th amendment... Cheered for the bootleggers from the very first page ... There's many things that can bring a community together, why not booze? Great snapshot of a place in time, cool thing for someone whose people hail from Templeton

[Kathleen]

WSJ

[Shannon Smiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

So interesting and so much fun to read about the Templeton from my grandpa's time. I loved seeing his name in this book--and other familiar ones; only wish he was alive to read it.

[Sandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was fun to read about Iowas history of the Prohibition. Especially Carroll county and Templeman Rye

[Doug]

Interesting story about prohibition in northwest Iowa and those for and those against. The best part about prohibition is Templeton Rye came into existence. A good sip on a cold winters night.

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lively, anecdotal account of the Prohibition era in Carroll County, Iowa, with plenty of state, regional, and national context.

[Gwen - Chew & Digest Books -]

Needed a wee bit of basic fact-checking, like Canada was nearly dry with some wiggle room prior to the US Prohibition, actually, they started during the war to save on grain. Their allowances, nearness to Detroit, and our 19th Amendment shot their plans, which were much more sensible, to heck first.

[Jacob Kiper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic read if you are interested in the shenanigans of Prohibition.