document
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.

label levels:

Monson, a town in southern Hampden County, Massachusetts, had some flush years after the war. The town's industries, included a large granite quarry, a woolen mill, and a straw and felt goods factory, boomed, bringing in large numbers of working people. This new and potentially uncontrollable population must have caused the town's leaders some concern. A group composed of the leading citizens such as William K. Flynt, who owned the local granite quarry and was president of two of the town's banks, began an effort to prohibit the sale or consumption of alcohol. Monson's effort to suppress the sale of alcohol was part of a national effort for temperance and prohibition that gained great strength during the 1870s and 1880s. After 1871 Massachusetts towns could choose whether they would allow alcohol sales, and a spirited debate arose in Monson, like in many towns.

top of page