The Postmaster's Temperance Trap
O.P. Bruihl, the Winona postmaster, faces legal trouble in a case linked to a local community feud.
O.P. Bruihl, postmaster and merchant at Winona, was placed under $100 bonds by Justice Kirkland on Tuesday to appear in the superior court on a charge of selling a bottle of liquor at his store. The complaint was made by Station Agent Lambert, whose wife was recently fined $25 and $64.60 costs for assault with a buggy whip upon T.H. Wilson, a school teacher. Bruihl appeared voluntarily when informed by the sheriff that a warrant was out for him. He denies the charge.
“The complaint was made by Station Agent Lambert, whose wife was recently fined $25 and $64.60 costs for assault with a buggy whip upon T.H. Wilson, a school teacher.”
The intense social friction surrounding alcohol sales in 1900 Washington often served as a proxy for settling private grudges, much like public controversies today often mask deeply personal conflicts.
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