My mother says that her Uncle Joe was a cook in the Joliet State Penitentiary. However, she doesn’t know whether he was an employee or an inmate. Many members of the Haeb family were excellent cooks and worked in restaurants or some other kind of food service throughout their lives. Joe worked as a cook in various restaurants until 1920 and possibly later.
Joseph John Haeb, the fourth of seven children, was born in Germany on March 23, 1885 to John Joseph Haeb, Sr. and Susanna (Shoup) Haeb. Joe was nearly eight when the family immigrated to the United States from Beuren Germany, leaving from Bremen on the SS Stuttgart and arriving at the Port of Baltimore on May 4, 1893. Their final destination was Elkhart, Indiana.
Joe was 21 when his mother Susanna died in 1906. During the next 40 years, more often than not, Joe, his father, and his unmarried brothers, John, Jr. and Matthew resided together. Occasionally one or another of them would strike out on their own, only to return to the family. Joe married Lulu Anna Smith on June 29, 1927. Their marriage was stormy one, as indicated by Joe’s living arrangements throughout the years. The last year I found them living together was 1945. At the time of his death on September 9, 1950, it does not appear that they were still together and she is not named in his obituary.
In pursuit of an answer to the question of inmate or employee, I found an article in the October 3, 1908 Elkhart Weekly Review, revealing that Joe was employed by Joy Lee’s Chop Suey Restaurant in Elkhart. The article indicates that a man “. . . flourished a revolver, extended the other hand and commanded Lee, Joe Haeb and James Grimes, the three inmates, to replace in his hand a five-dollar bill which he claimed to have dropped on the floor. . . .” I was confused by the use of the term inmate. Were they on some kind of work release program, or did the term have another meaning in 1908? Dictionary.com’s archaic definition is, “a person who dwells with others in the same house.” The New Oxford American Dictionary defines the word similarly. It appears that the newspaper item expanded that definition. Regardless, the usage of the word in this case, seems unrelated to Joe’s history of incarceration.
It is unknown exactly when Joe was at Joliet, but it was probably earlier in his life. A time-line using Elkhart City Directories and Federal Censuses indicates that it may have been in the 1908 to 1914 period. I have been unable to find him in any city directories for this period or in the 1910 census. His younger brother Ted was living and working in Moline, Illinois at the time of the 1910 census. Is this a clue? Moline is 140 miles west of Joliet, so I don’t think so. However, if Joe had lived with Ted and committed a crime, he might have been sent to Joliet. On the other hand, Joliet was a maximum security prison, so I don’t know. I have manually searched (three times) the 1910 Census for Joliet Prison with no luck. Of course the census does represent only one day in time. My inability to find Joe may simply be because of many ways Haeb can be misspelled.
In mid-1911, Joe was arrested several times on various charges, including intoxication. An article in the June 7, 1911 Elkhart Daily Review describes Joe as, “. . . an inoffensive sort of fellow when not under the influence of liquor.” In the same article Joe says, “When I am intoxicated I seem always to get it into my head to peep in at windows.”
In April of 1919, Joe was arrested for illegal possession of liquor. Upon disembarking from a train at the Elkhart depot, Joe spotted a police officer and began acting suspiciously by hiding behind a nearby truck. His suitcase contained 12 quarts of whiskey which he had purchased in Chicago. (Prohibition was passed in Indiana in 1917 and became effective in April of 1918, 21 months before the XVIII amendment took effect.)[1]
Found guilty of bootlegging, Joe was fined $130 and 30 days at the Penal Farm. However, if unable to pay the fine, he would have to serve an additional 130 days. I believe this was the Indiana Penal Farm in Putnam County, Indiana. An article, in the Fort Wayne News and Sentinel, published shortly after the first anniversary of prohibition becoming effective in Indiana, states that “[T]he number of inmates at the state penal farm had been reduced fifty percent.” “Before prohibition the majority of those housed there were men convicted of drunkenness. In the past 12 months, the majority is made up of bootleggers and ‘blind tiger keepers’.”
So, was Joe an employee or an inmate? Sorry, I still don’t know. Joe’s work experience and history of incarceration do not preclude either possibility, however, so far I have been unable to find him in Joliet or in the State Penitentiary. At some point I’ll be going to the Illinois State Archives in Springfield to check the registers of prisoners. Obviously I am assuming inmate, but this story may end as many family legends do; with some truth, but with little resemblance to the story passed down.
[1] Jason S. Lantzer, Prohibition is here to Stay . . . (Notre Dame, Indiana: Notre Dame Press, 2009).
Great Info,and so fun to read ,Thanks for sending! :}
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