an 1859 town ordinance prohibited sales of alcohol in westerville. by the 1870s, a burgeoning conflict between pro- and anti-temperance forces boiled over into the so-called "westerville whiskey wars". twice, in 1875 and 1879, businessman henry corbin opened a saloon in westerville, and each time the townspeople blew up his establishment with gunpowder. westerville's reputation for temperance was so significant that in 1909 the anti-saloon league moved its national headquarters from washington, d.c. to westerville. the league, at the forefront of the prohibition movement, gained its greatest triumph when the eighteenth amendment to the united states constitution was ratified in 1919. the league printed so many leaflets in support of temperance and prohibition—over 40 tons of mail per month—that westerville, by then known as "the dry capital of the world", was the smallest town in the nation to have a first class post office. the league's westerville headquarters was given to the westerville public library in 1973 and now serves as a museum attached to the library. after prohibition ended, westerville remained dry for most of the twentieth century.