A Tragic Toast to Christmas -The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Massachusetts

By Jacqueline T. Lynch

More than 100 people died of a companionable drink in several towns and cities in New England on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1919, nearly half of them in the city of Chicopee, Massachusetts. How this came to happen, and even how it came to be forgotten are both intriguing aspects to the tragedy.

The story of the grisly incident of unknowingly ingesting poisonous wood alcohol and how it played out in one New England city might stand as a microcosm of the conflict created between the legal production and sale of alcohol, those who would prohibit it, and those who would do anything to profit from it, not only in the years up to 1919, but in the tumultuous decade that followed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jacqueline T. Lynch
• Release date: Feb 12, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224689569

Jacqueline T. Lynch

Jacqueline T. Lynch has published articles and short fiction in regional and national publications, several plays, some award winners, one of which has been translated into Dutch and produced in the Netherlands.   Her several books, fiction and nonfiction, are available in eBook and print online.  She has recently published the first book on the career of actress Ann Blyth – Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.  She writes a syndicated newspaper column on classic films: Silver Screen, Golden Years, and also writes three blogs: Another Old Movie Blog (http://anotheroldmovieblog.blogspot.com)  A blog on classic films. New England Travels (http://newenglandtravels.blogspot.com)  A blog on historical and cultural sites in New England. Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. (http://annblythactresssingerstar.blogspot.com) website: www.JacquelineTLynch.com Etsy shop: LynchTwinsPublishing --  https://www.etsy.com/shop/LynchTwinsPublishing?ref=search_shop_redirect

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A TRAGIC TOAST TO CHRISTMAS –

The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Massachusetts

––––––––

Jacqueline T. Lynch

Published by Jacqueline T. Lynch

P.O. Box 1394, Chicopee, Massachusetts  01021

Copyright © 2024 Jacqueline T. Lynch

All rights reserved.

Acknowledgements

Much appreciation to Chester Kobierski and Joe Pasternak for research materials, and to the Chicopee Historical Society of Chicopee, Massachusetts, for which I first presented a talk on this topic in 2019; and also to Mr. Ferd Mireault for the fascinating quest he shared to discover the story of his great-grandfather.

Author photo is by Gretje Ferguson

Hanging Around the Saloon 5 p.m. Chicopee Falls June 29, 1916 at the Cyran & Gierlasinski Café, 9 Grove Street, Chicopee Falls, Mass.  Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine,

Library of Congress online collection.

More than 100 people died of a companionable drink in several towns and cities in New England at Christmas 1919, nearly half of them in the city of Chicopee, Massachusetts.  How this came to happen, and even how it came to be forgotten are both intriguing aspects to the tragedy.

One hundred years later, in 2019, the Chicopee Historical Society of Chicopee, Massachusetts, received from Mr. Ferd Mireault of Ontario, Canada, a query and information about the death of his great-grandfather, who had lived in Chicopee from about 1902 to 1919. 

Some years ago, Mr. Mireault helped his sister trace their family tree.  They never knew much about their great-grandfather, Rodolphe Mireault, but discovered that he died in 1919 and was buried in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Searching through newspapers on microfilm for an obituary that might tell them more about his life, Ferd instead found out something quite shocking about his death.  Rodolphe Mireault died a victim among mass deaths in an incident of wood alcohol poisoning.[1]

The story of that grisly incident and how it played out in one New England city might stand as a microcosm of the conflict created between the production and sale of alcohol and those who would prohibit it, not only in the years up to 1919, but in the tumultuous decade that followed.

The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol, was ratified in January 1919, eleven months before this incident.  It was to go into effect in January 1920, some three weeks after the wood alcohol deaths.  One may presume the holiday drinkers were trying to enjoy one last spree before the official start of a permanent national Prohibition.

The temperance movement, in which the legislation for national prohibition had its roots, began in the middle 1800s in the Midwest, largely as a pushback against immigrants from European nations where drinking alcohol was part of the culture: predominantly Italians, Germans, Irish, and Poles.  This social movement obviously had political roots, not only anti-immigrant, but anti-urban as the rural and agricultural areas of the nation fought with the larger cities over control of national affairs.

In Chicopee, as in the rest of the United States, views on what was called the temperance movement went back much farther than 1919.  In a typical announcement in the Springfield Republican in February 1849: ‘The Sons and Daughters of Temperence’ are to hold a festival in Cabot Hall, Chicopee, on Thursday evening.  The avails are to be appropriated to the cause of Temperence.[2]Three hundred attended and raised $180.[3]

With the influx of Irish immigrants in the 1840s, some Yankees painted the Irish as drunkards and rowdies, and even scapegoating them for the terrible cholera epidemic, due to poor water and sanitary conditions, in the Cabotville section of town in the late 1840s, locally called Cabot Fever.[4]  A recurrence of cholera in the 1850s brought more calumny down upon the Irish and their principal neighborhood in town, called the Patch.  The Chicopee Weekly Journal commented, "There have been five or six more deaths on the ‘Patch’—owing to...swinish filth and miserable liquor. Most of