Episode 4: When Apples Were King

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Bibliography:

Okrent, Daniel. (2011). Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. Scribner.

Mockridge, Ella. (1961). Our Mendham

Emmonds, Kate. (1973). Through the Years in Mendham Borough. Self-Published.

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Theme Music:

Howard Harper-Barnes / La Danse Timide / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com

Transcript:

In the fall of 1919 Thomas Loughlin was tired and worried. In all his years of selling cider in New Jersey - first in Newark, now here in Mendham - it had never been harder to turn a profit. 

Twenty years ago, business had been booming. The year 1904 in particular had produced a bumper crop of the best apples New Jersey had ever seen. Not so great for the farmers who had to sell their apple crops at record low prices - but great for cider manufacturers like Loughlin. From the pomace of those superior New Jersey apples, Loughlin was able to bottle and distribute quality hard cider and applejack - the American name for apple brandy. 

1904 was also the year Loughlin got an opportunity to expand his business, eventually moving his cider press from its original location in the center of town, into the old Nesbitt grain mill three miles west on Mendham Road. It had been a calculated risk to convert a grain mill into a cider mill, but it had paid off for over a decade. 

But then there was the 18th Amendment, which had been ratified earlier that year, in January of 1919, making the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol illegal. Prohibition would soon be in effect. 

But as Thomas Loughlin reflected on the events that brought his business to its knees, he undoubtedly wondered what the future looked like for his mill in Mendh