In 1883 the National Temperance Society and Publication House printed  
a paperback "Liquor Laws of the United States". It's a list of all  
the different state's liquor laws and for those with license includes  
the age restrictions. It appears the restriction was to  
"minors" (most) or "18 years old" (NY, NJ). There are a few mentions  
of parents/guardians allowing children to drink. I only checked some  
of the states as it's dispersed within text. I don't know if it's a  
reprint of H. Faxon's book of the same title, but his name isn't on  
it anywhere.

Someone who might know or have run across such information is Elaine  
Frantz Parsons, author of "Manhood Lost", 2003 - a book about women  
exercising their rights via civil damage laws of the late 19th  
century. As of April last, she was teaching at Duquesne University in  
Pittsburg ( [log in to unmask] )


On Dec 1, 2007, at 3:47 PM, David Fahey wrote:

> Is there any systematic study of minimum drinking age in the USA  
> before National Prohibition?  Any comparative dates for other  
> Western countries in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?  
> I assume that in the USA the minimum legal drinking age was 21, but  
> I have no evidence for it.  By the way, I know that in recent times  
> before the principle of equal rights for men and women had been  
> accepted, there sometimes were different minimum ages for their  
> drinking (as for their right to marry without parental consent).  I  
> vaguely recall that Oklahoma (?) may have set a minimum drinking  
> age for men at 21 and for women at 18, paralleling the marriage law.