Wikidictionary defines a “blind pigger” as someone who operates a ‘blind pig’ or speakeasy. The Modesto Evening News headline “Blind Pigger Pays Big Fine to County” was definitely an exaggeration. Joe Vosti didn’t run a speakeasy…but he did have some trouble with the law.
Joe Vosti spent the day in jail on May 6, 1913. He and Louis Podesto were picked up by Constable Davis in Salida , CA on charges of selling liquor without a license. The two men were brought before Justice Jennings in the Stanislaus County Court and were released on $1,000 bail each. That’s about $25,000 in today’s dollars! The charges were violating the anti-saloon license and “selling wine in quantities of less than a fifth of a gallon.” (Modesto News)
Ken Vosti remembered that the cellar underneath his grandparent’s ranch house on Toomes Road in Salida always smelled like wine and was filled with old wine barrels. It was cool and dark and, he was told, it was where his grandparents used to store the wine they made at the ranch.
The Italian Swiss often made their own wine. It was normal to sell it to friends and neighbors. Or it was until May of 1912. Well before nation-wide Prohibition went into effect in 1920, the citizens of Modesto, Salida and other nearby towns somewhat unexpectedly, but very decisively, voted yes to the Anti-Saloon Crusade’s proposed Ordinance 54 that made Stanislaus a dry county. The “No-Saloon” ordinance won by over 2,000 votes…a decisive majority at that time.
Supporters of the ordinance had reassured voters that it would “not prevent any man form having liquor in his home for his own use and for treating his friends.” Rather the new law was designed to shut down saloons which “menace the safety of society.” But it also prohibited the “selling, storage, delivery, possession, disposal, distribution, or giving away of liquor.” The vote in Salida where the Vosti’s lived, was 157 in favor of and 15 opposed to the ordinance (Modesto News). We don’t know how Joe Vosti voted, but we can guess.
Joe got off with a warning in 1913 after he promised the judge he would stop selling liquor in violation of the new ordinance. According to the Modesto News, Joe was warned again about selling liquor sometime later in 1913. In May of 1914, Joe was picked up once again by Constable Davis after the constable received a phone call tipping him off that one Frank Leonard was “going to purchase wine from Vosti” (Modesto News). Constable Davis arrived at the Vosti ranch in Salida just in time to see Leonard leaving. He arrested Leonard as a witness, arrested Joe, and grabbed the evidence…”the gunny sack which contained the wine.” (Modesto News).
When Joe appeared before Justice of the Peace J.B. Jennings, he was charged with selling wine and violating the county “dry” ordinance. The judge said that due to Joe’s past history, he would be fined $500 and warned that if he was caught selling wine again, he was doing to jail for six months with no alternative. At first Joe hired an attorney and pleaded “not guilty,” but by late afternoon, after thinking it over, Joe changed his plea to “guilty” and payed his fine immediately.
As far as we know, Joe was never arrested again for selling wine. He definitely didn’t stop making wine, but he either stopped selling it or he was much more discreet about how he did it!
Nation-wide prohibition did not end until 1933…five years after Joe Vosti’s death. Ironically, in 1927 Joe’s oldest son, Henry Vosti, married Lois Curtis, the daughter of Bertha Eveland Curtis…head of Salida’s Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
Joseph Vosti – Vosti Family Tree, #2
Sources:
Blind Pigger Pays Big Fine to County; Modesto Evening News; 27 May 1914; Modesto, CA; retrieved 21 May 2020 from Newspapers.com
County Goes Dry; Modesto News; 15 May 1912; Modesto, CA; retrieved 21 May 2020 from Newspapers.com
Podesto and Vosti are Released on $1,000 Bail; Modesto News; 06 Mar 1913; Modesto, CA; retrieved 21 May 2020 from Newspapers.com
Blind Pigger Definition; Wikitionary
Stanislaus County, Wet or Dry; The Modesto Herald; 11 May 1912; Modesto, CA; retrieved 21 May 2020 from newspapers.com