Templeton Rye has a fascinating history—one that the company plays up heavily in its marketing, where it touts its “Prohibition era recipe.” The Templeton whiskey that’s for sale today, however, is not distilled in Templeton, Iowa, nor is it made using a recipe from the Prohibition era. Whether that matters has been the subject of considerable debate, but that’s a blog post for another day (for tomorrow, to be precise).
Unlike many of his fellow officers, Wilson was committed to stopping bootlegging. “Wilson would define himself, and find his passion, with the enforcement of the state’s liquor laws. In doing so he would learn a lesson among the most important for any Prohibition agent: when it came to bootlegging, sometimes the good guys were the bad guys,” Bauer writes. The local sheriff in Templeton, for example, would wear a hat only when there was a raid going on, to tip off the bootleggers that prohibition agents were closing in. But while Wilson was very effective at catching bootleggers, eventually becoming the top alcohol officer in Iowa, Irlbeck proved to be an elusive target.
As the rye industry took off, nearly every household in Templeton was involved in some aspect of its production. Whiskey making so permeated the city, even some of the children knew what was going on: one afternoon, when a stranger arrived in town searching for a drink, he met a boy on the street and asked him where one might be found. “Mister,” the boy replied, “see that house next to the church? That’s the rectory. Any house but that one.”
The boy wasn’t being truthful, of course. There was most certainly booze in the rectory, and it wasn’t just sacramental wine, either.
