By Ann Noyes (1931-2023)

Why did prohibition interest me? From an early age I realized it had something to do with not drinking. My law-abiding (so far as I knew) family enjoyed their liquor, so what was the problem?

My mother used to sing this song to my brother and me:
I want a red automobile.
I want a red automobile.
When I get a jag on, I want a red wagon.
I want a red automobile.
Did she used to sing this with a group of social drinkers? I never asked, but I bet she did.

Prohibition or not, many Duxburyites enjoyed their liquor. Some didn’t, like the local WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union). WCTU ladies came to Sunday schools and asked children, including my father, to sign a certificate promising that they would never touch an alcoholic beverage. Dad told me he signed it like any eight-year-old would because it was pretty, and he wanted one. Years later he received another “certificate.” Actually it was a fine for smuggling two bottles of whiskey into the US from Canada.

Prohibition vocabulary included phrases such as: rum running, persons or vessels that brought liquor ashore or across state lines, and bootleggers who made, sold and/or transported liquor illegally.

To many Duxbury men, it was a profitable adventure, post WWI jobless veterans, young men with families, young men who were thirsty. There was no guilt involved. In postwar Duxbury it was almost a profitable game.

Where did most of the alcohol come from?

It came from two islands belonging to France – St. Pierre and Miquelon – off the coast of Newfoundland. Before that it probably came from distilleries in Canada and Belgium. Chances are these distilleries belonged to John Magnus. John Magnus was also head of the syndicate including Boston, Cape Cod, and Providence, RI.

The liquor came by boat. Mother ships arrived off the beach and smaller faster boats would bring the liquor in to shore, sometimes crates were tossed overboard and picked up as they floated toward the beach where they were stacked behind the dunes until they were picked up. They were also hidden in the many inlets along the Duxbury marshes, in gunning shacks, and boat houses along the shore.

On Standish Shore, it was hidden under the porches of summer folk who wintered elsewhere. It was hidden in the woods. It was even hidden in the barn of the local WCTU president. One Buck Freeman had a trap door in his Chevrolet garage where he stored liquor. He also stored it in a barn belonging to the Hillcrest Hotel on the Kingston Bay side of Standish Shore. Liquor was even stored in the Duxbury Yacht Club building.

John Magnus owned a Ford dealership in Boston. He had trucks disguised as S.S. Pierce delivery trucks. These trucks would pick up the illegal product. This worked well until the Ford Motor Company found out. John Magnus’ Ford dealership came to an end, but in no way did it bring an end to bootlegging in Duxbury.

Some deliveries were made inside the Bay. These were successful because of the vigilance of Frank Davis who was stationed at Gurnet Light. He would let the locals know when the “mother ship” or Coast Guard was coming. Davis also bought the old Cross Rip Lightship from the government and brought it to Saquish. He moored it in the inside creek and a high water at night, the rum runners would come in and unload. Boats from Duxbury would come and get the goods. Frank Davis was well rewarded. He built a solid brick house in Duxbury and later purchased the estate of Dr. Nathaniel K. Noyes on Washington Street, which consisted of a large house, barn, and land that became the Davis Boatyard, now Long Point Marine.

An incomplete Duxbury roll call would have included names like: Balboni, Bolton, Briggs, Byrne, Chandler, Chetwynde, Cushing, Edgar, Edwards, Freeman, Glass, Loring, Noyes, Phillips, Pierce, Redmond, Santheson, Wadsworth, Winsor, and others.

The Cushings and the Santhesons were better known. Both had radio contacts with “mother ships.” Both had very successful operations. Both had many working for them. The late Dorothy Wentworth mentioned that the mother of one of the families helped guide her sons by going to a designated area with signal lanterns. This was the same family that hired Sanford Winsor. San was an expert marine mechanic who knew how to “soup up” marine engines. Fast boats were a great help as the boys were often chased by authorities. During one adventure, the boys ended up in their boat hiding under the Marshall Street bridge – a great place, except the tide was coming in. They had to crouch down until the tide changed.

The Santhesons were most fortunate that in John Magnus favored them. I’ve been told that when he retired he turned his records over to them with the request that they would be kept private until his death. The Santhesons lived at the Bay Farm. The farm was owned by Mr. Loring and the father of the Santheson boys managed it. The Santheson boys and Peter Balboni, who was in charge of hiring, worked for John Magnus. Their ill-gotten gains were stored in a boathouse on the island at the mouth of Island Creek on Kingston Bay. From there trucks drove loads to the transfer stations in Pembroke, Plympton, Hanover and Halifax.

A few locals preferred self employment. Buck Freeman was one such man. He had several hiding places in the area, one under the floor of his Chevrolet garage, another in a building at the Hillcrest Hotel on Crescent Street. One of his hiding places was the woods that used to be in the back of Pilgrim Church. When he received word of a raid he would move his stash elsewhere, leaving just enough for the agents to find. The agents left satisfied and Buck would see that everything was returned to its previous location. Buck was successful in his ventures. He was able to build the large brick building at Hall’s Corner and move his Chevrolet dealership there.

John Smith was another very independent individual. John designed special oar locks so that none could hear him rowing out to collect his “treasure.” He also created ingenious hiding places, one being a hole in the marsh, a hold with a wooden floor and wooden cover. Another time when a load of his “treasure” was stacked on Old Cove beach, John had it covered with hay which was fine until the local children found a pile of hay to play in and on. John spent a great deal of time shooing them away until his “treasure” was picked up.

In a boat house at this same beach, some young girls were having a sleepover when they were made aware of some outside activity. Peeking out the window, they saw a large black car drive up. When someone got out of the car, the girls hid the best they could. One of the car’s passengers peered in the boat house window and left, borrowed a canoe, and paddled out to somewhere. Eventually, they came back and drove off.

Recollections from another era:

The Duxbury Coal and Lumber Company pier was a site of much activity. Priscilla White [mother of Ann Noyes] and her friend Ruth, dressed as boys, would hide to watch the unloading there.

Mr. Edwards, another teenager at the time, recalls doing the same. He also recalls seeing a red-haired stranger directing activities at one time. Someone told him it was Red Bryant. Later, when he heard that name, it was in reference to the same Red Bryant who had been murdered in Providence, RI.

A Standish Shore resident was told by her dad that she must never go to a certain gunning stand. Like many youngsters, “Daddy said No,” so I’ve got to go. She found a number of cases of ill-gotten gains. Her father also told her mother that if she was driving at night she should never stop for anyone even if it meant running them over. She was stopped but couldn’t bring herself to running them over. Later, the same family was asked to allow an agent to be posted in the house. That request was denied with the excuse that small children lived there.

Other shared memories:
Requests to turn the lights off until…
Watching the lights of trucks as they traveled to and from the beach
Locals stealing crates from the piles hidden in the dunes

As a toddler, Ann Noyes remembered Santheson milkman delivering milk to her house. She always wondered why he stopped to have a drink when he had a whole truck full of milk. Later she was told her father Edwin had a small still in the kitchen.

Many people made their own “moonshine.” There have been stories of overactive fermenting beverages, causing some alarm as the caps were popping off the bottles. More than one person thought the sound the beginning of a raid.

A woman recalled someone coming to the door and asking her mother to put the lights out and stay away from the windows. The mother, being a creative Yankee type, showed her how they could watch the lights from the outside activities in their mirror.

There are more Duxbury stories out there somewhere, I’m sure. Hopefully they will be written down and saved to share with later generations. The Prohibition era was an important part of Duxbury history.