Iowa History
Don’t Mess With Marquette And McGregor
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Customers at Johnson’s billiard hall in Marquette didn’t take kindly to two strangers who wandered into the establishment one July night in 1930. They wouldn’t identify themselves and that made the local crowd suspicious. They chased the two strangers out of town—one account reported they first kicked the lights out on their car and “did everything in their power to embarrass” the two. The two strangers were actually federal prohibition agents, R.H. Taylor and H.H. Kirchman. They were in Marquette investigating possible violations of the Volstead Act — which prohibited the sale, manufacture, or distribution of alcohol.