Sippin’ Me Some Dingleberry Dew.

Back during Prohibition (1920-1933), this Johnson County road – originally named **Thompson Road** – was home to moonshiners **Peter & George Dingleberry** – famous for their “Dingleberry Dew” whiskey.

Prohibition began in January 1920 as a national effort to “cure” society of alcoholism, family violence, and saloon-based political corruption. Supporters, who called themselves “drys,” thought banning liquor would be a victory for public morals and overall health. The movement gained momentum through a national grassroots group called the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and then the Anti-Saloon League, winning traction in the last years of WWI. In 1919, the 18th Amendment was ratified in Washington D.C., with full prohibition taking effect one year later – on January 17, 1920. As you probably know, this great American experiment in legislating morality failed miserably, being repealed with the ratification of the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933.

*Iowa “experimented” with Prohibition on numerous occasions over its first 80 years. Read more about the beer-makers of Iowa City and their fight against Prohibition in the 1880’s.*

Did you know that here in Iowa, Prohibition actually took effect four years earlier – in 1916 – because the good people of the Hawkeye State decided we would help lead the way – becoming one of three key prohibition states that banned the selling, manufacturing, importing, or exporting of liquor prior to the adoption of the 18th amendment in 1920?

In truth, this statewide ban on alcohol (1916-1920) spawned a whole new “cottage” industry across the Hawkeye State. Bootlegging, moonshining, or ‘making hooch’ was its name, and with such an abundance of corn, Iowans had a great supply of the key ingredient needed to make home-brewed whiskey. And while it was illegal to do such profiteering, for some Iowa farmers who were facing dropping corn prices, bootlegging became the most profitable way to support a family in a tight economy.

Charles Dingleberry (1838-1919), and his wife, Catharine Crouse Dingleberry (1846-1889), came to Iowa around 1866, settling on 300+ acres of farmland in Graham Township of Johnson County (see map below) with Rapid Creek running directly through their property. Hold onto that fact, as it will play into our Dingleberry Dew story a bit later!

According to family census records, the Dingleberrys had nine children – Peter (b-1865), Mary (b-1867), Margaret (b-1869), Emma (b-1873), George (b-1874), Katie (b-1875), Charles, Jr. (b-1878), Lillian (b-1885), and Maude (b-1887).

Above is the **1870 U.S. Census** which shows **Charles** (age 30) and **Catharine** (age 24), with **Peter** (age 5), **Mary** (age 3), and **Margaret** (age 1). Note that Charles’ father – **George** **Dinglebary** (age 73) is listed as living with the family as well. The records indicate that George was born in Bavaria (circa 1797). Below is the **1880 U.S. Census** which shows **Charles** (age 41), **Catharine** (age 34), with **Peter** (age 15), **Mary** (age 13), **Maggie** (age 11), **Emma** (age 8), **Georgie** (age 7), **Katie** (age 5), and **Charles, Jr.** (age 1).

Sadly, Momma Catharine died at the early age of 43 on December 4, 1889, leaving her large family in the hands of Poppa Charles.

**Catharine Crouse Dingleberry** (1846-1889) was born in Prussia, and is buried in the old St.Joseph’s Cemetery in Iowa City.

While the records of most of the Dingleberry children are now lost, we do know that after their daughter, Margaret (Maggie) married Samuel Bowers, the older Dingleberry sons were left to run the family farm on Thompson Road. Poppa Charles lived on until 1919, dying at the ripe old age of 81. Census records (see below) indicate that there were at least two Dinglebary households as the older sons grew up, while Charles and Charles Jr. kept the original homestead going.

Charles Dingleberry was born in Pennsylvania in September 1838 (not 1836) and passed – at age 81 – on December 4, 1919 (exactly 30 years after Catharine’s death) and is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City.

You might have noticed in our reporting, thus far, that there is a discrepancy in the spelling of the Dingleberry (Dinglebary) name. It wasn’t until 1991 – which we will mention in some detail later – when the records were actually straightened out. But, by that time, enough history had passed that the traditional spelling – Dingleberry – prevailed.

The 1920 U.S. Census shows George – age 46, and Peter – age 55, living on the Dingelbary farm in Johnson County. A hired hand – Joseph Donovan – lived there as well.

According to the most reliable records, after their father’s death in 1919, the two confirmed bachelors – Peter & George Dingleberry (Dinglebary) – took over the family farm. Which brings us now to our Dingleberry Dew story.

*In telling our Dingleberry Dew story, we’ll be using many sections of the 1978 article by Irving Weber – ‘Dingleberry Dew’ – Iowa City’s ‘White Lightning’*.

As we mentioned earlier, beginning in 1916 (in Iowa), and continuing, nationwide, until 1933, Prohibition shut down all sale of alcohol, resulting in a massive increase in the illegal pursuit of moonshining. And yup, you guessed it. One of Johnson County’s largest “distributors” of home-made hooch were the Dingleberry Brothers – Peter and George – who, according to some old-timers, made some of the best “white lightning” that money could buy. Irving Weber tells us more…

You see, Peter and George had the perfect location for their stills. First, they lived on a 330- area farm that could produce an abundance of corn – the primary ingredient of sippin’ whiskey. Secondly, they had unlimited sources of water – coming from a fresh-water spring bubbling up on their land, adding to the cool, never-ending waters of Rapid Creek which ran directly through their property on Thompson Road. According to old-timers living in Johnson County at the time, the Dingleberry Brothers would brew their Dingleberry Dew, using their own corn and spring water, bottle it up, and then lower their inventory into the quiet waters surrounding Rapid Creek – which kept the hooch both cool, and hidden from public view! Apparently, when someone placed an order with the Brothers, they’d hide the bottle(s) in the ground alongside a row of crops (which were numbered), telling the customer which dirt pile hid the treasure. Pretty smart marketing, don’t you think?

Yup, Peter & George Dinglerberry’s moonshining business was quite the operation, until…

On June 17, 1927, Johnson County Sheriff Frank Smith and four of his deputies (see pic above) raided the Dingleberry farm. The team arrested Peter and George for moonshining, and brought back to Iowa City, as evidence, 21 gallons of hooch, 400 gallons of mash, 30 gallons of wine, and a 40-gallon still. Once again, Weber tells us more…

The story of the Dingleberry’s arrest made the local news, and we’re guessing a good number of customers were quite saddened, while an equal number of the Dingleberry’s competitors were smiling!

By the time the court case finally came to trial in November 1927, Peter Dingleberry – age 62 – had passed away. George Dingleberry, on the other hand, was found guilty, fined $300, and given a six-month suspended sentence in the Johnson County Jail. In truth, a slap on the hand, and we’ll leave it at that. It’s not known if George ever picked up his lucrative business again, and from Weber’s reports, it looks like none of the old-timers would ever say.

We don’t know much more about the Dingleberry family after this ‘hooch’ incident in 1927. We do know that Peter & George’s older sister – Margaret Dingleberry (1863-1937) and her husband, Samuel Bowers (1861-1936) – lived near the Dingleberry farm, had three children who stayed in the Iowa City area, and are buried in the old St. Joseph Cemetery. As for Peter Dingleberry, he died in 1927, at the age of 62, sometime after “the moonshine heist”, but before the trial in November. His younger brother, George Dingleberry, on the other hand, passed in 1942, and is supposedly buried alongside his mother, Catharine, at St. Joseph’s as well, but a controversy in the early 1990’s makes us believe that both Peter and George just might be buried with their father, Charles, at Oakland Cemetery. In either case, their Johnson County graves are unmarked.

So, in 1990, sixty-three years after the Dingleberry raid, Thompson Road – where the Dingleberry Farm was originally located – was renamed, you guessed it – Dingleberry Road. It’s our guess that it was Irving Weber and his 1978 Press-Citizen article – which was republished in Weber’s second paperback volume of Iowa City history – that stirred the Johnson County supervisors to rename the road. Which brings us, now, to Robert “Chug” Wilson – the original owner of Wilson’s Orchard – who strongly opposed the name change because of the negative “connotations” associated with the word “dingleberry”. So, in 1991, in an effort to change the road’s name to something a little less controversial, Wilson took it upon himself to get that job done. Below are several of the many newspaper articles written at the time…

Interestingly, while Wilson was not successful in his pursuit, it did cause the city to investigate the Dingleberry family history, which uncovered the facts we’ve shared with you earlier. First – Charles & Catharine Dinglebary never spelled their family name with the “berry” ending, but were the Dinglebary’s – not the Dingleberry’s! Secondly, it was discovered that the Dinglebary Brothers’ graves – Peter (1927) and George (1942) – were never marked, and that there are two other unidentified bodies buried with poppa Charles Dingelbary at Oakland Cemetery!

Yowsers! Me thinks these two bodies tucked beside Charles are The Dingleberry Brothers – Peter and George. But, as it is with most legends, we will probably never know for certain. So, in the meantime…

It’s only appropriate that, today, Wilson’s Orchard – located very near the original Dinglebary farm off Dingleberry Road serves up some of the best hard cider in the county. And gosh, this time – it’s all legal!