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A Short Book On Prohibition in the Hudson Valley

April 3, 2021 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

Prohibition in the Hudson Valley bookEleanor Charwat’s short book Prohibition in the Hudson Valley, Along the Bootleg Trail (self published, 2017) looks back at the prominent role the Hudson Valley played in bootlegging during the Prohibition Era.

Local producers, distributors and sellers of illegal liquor were overshadowed and sometimes terrorized by New York City gangsters like Dutch Schultz, Legs Diamond and Salvatore Maranzano who came to the Hudson Valley to make money and escape federal surveillance.

Intrigued by a mention of bootlegging in the Hudson Valley in one of her father’s scrapbooks (he had a 58-year law career in Poughkeepsie), Eleanor Charwat researched the subject and created a talk and this 28 page book.  She’s presented the topic to over 20 historical societies, libraries and other community organizations.

Charwat is a Poughkeepsie native who has lived in the Hudson Valley most of her life. She was head of the School of Adult Education at Marist College, has been a newspaper reporter, a teacher of English as a Second Language, a Town of Poughkeepsie Councilman and an active community volunteer. She is a graduate of Cornell University and received her master’s in public administration from Marist College. She is the author of Small Town Lawyer: Highlights of Nathaniel Rubin’s Career and A Life Well-Lived, a Memoir.

For a copy of the book, contact Eleanor at echarwat@yahoo.com. The cost is $6.95 plus postage.

Books noticed on the New York Almanack have been provided by their publishers.

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Filed Under: Books, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Books, Hudson Valley, Political History, Poughkeepsie, Prohibition

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Comments

  1. Brenda Ross says

    August 18, 2021 at 9:49 PM

    My mother & family grew up in the Adirondack town of Hague. She told short stories about bootleggers being in Hague or going through. Does this book have anything north of Albany?

    Reply
    • John Warren says

      August 19, 2021 at 8:17 AM

      Hi Brenda, Nothing has been written about that area in particular, but there are a couple good books about Northern New York:

      Allan Everest Rum Across The Border and Larry Gooley’s Bullets, Booze, Bootleggers, and Beer: The Story of Prohibition in Northern New York, Volume 1: 1920–1926

      John Warren
      Editor

      Reply

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