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Joan of Arc, Rock Island Style

This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island. 

As with most rough river towns along the Upper Mississippi, Rock Islanders have had their share of sin. In 1903, Bishop Henry Cosgrove visited Davenport, Iowa, and declared it "the wickedest city for its size in America."

Not to be outdone by its rival across the river, Rock Island worked hard to keep up through such efforts as "the longest bar in the world. The forces of good finally had to send in Billy Sunday the evangelist to clean up the mess. In September of 1919, in an 8,000-seat tabernacle built just for his visit, Sunday preached to more than 20,000 people in three services on opening day. Before he left, Billy Sunday had converted 10,612 Rock Islanders.

Nevertheless, the influx of workers to the Rock Island Arsenal during World Wars I and II kept sin alive and well. It's always those outsiders, isn't it? By 1946, gambling had leaked into nearly every bar, fancy restaurant, and nightclub in Rock Island county. Punch boards, jars-of-fun, slot machines, and high stakes poker flourished safe from police.

Into this morass now steps an improbable heroine, a determined young Moline woman named Marie Van Muelebrock. Marie lived with her mother and sister in a home noted for taking in stray cats. Neighbors remember hundreds, but it was more likely only two or three dozen.

In 1948, Marie launched a personal crusade against gambling. Entering a bar, sometimes with her mother and sister, she called the police whenever she discovered gambling devices and remained there until the police arrived and forced them to make an arrest.

Late in 1948 she got carried away, threw a brick through a bar window, and went to jail. This gained her national attention in Life magazine, where she appeared as "the Joan of Arc against gambling."

Marie Van Muelebrock sparked the conscience of a newly elected states attorney, Bernard Moran, who launched a wholesale crackdown in Rock Island County. A single series of raids in August 1950 netted 1,293 violations. A victory, if not a knockout blow.

The real Joan of Arc could not have done better.

Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.

Community
Beginning 1995, historian and folklorist Dr. Roald Tweet spun his stories of the Mississippi Valley to a devoted audience on WVIK. Dr. Tweet published three books as well as numerous literary articles and recorded segments of "Rock Island Lines." His inspiration was that "kidney-shaped limestone island plunked down in the middle of the Mississippi River," a logical site for a storyteller like Dr. Tweet.