At the regular monthly meeting of the Forest Park Business Men’s Association in November 1916, certain grocery and market men protested the custom of raffling poultry in saloons and pool rooms around Thanksgiving. As many turkeys were “disposed of in this way,” it interfered with the trade of the meat markets in town. The Business Men agreed to take the matter before the mayor and council to “instruct the police department to prohibit such raffling in any of the business houses hereafter.” The village council, which met the next evening, did vote “prohibiting the raffling of turkey and other fowls.”
Jill Wagner
Image: Harlem Meat Market, circa 1900, located at 22 Madison (today 7218 Madison St.). Notice the wood sidewalk, dirt roads and the poultry on display.
www.forestparkreview.com/2020/11/25/harlem-meat-market-to-fat-duck/
