1893 Union Parish Louisiana Moonshiners Submitted by: Shawn Martin Date of Submission: 12/2008 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================== ================================================================================== 1893 Union Parish Louisiana Moonshiners From New Orleans "Times Picayune", issue of 6 September 1893 ================================================================================== ================================================================================== MOONSHINERS IN UNION PARISH. Inspector Gates Returns from a Hunt For Illicit Stills in the Country Parishes, And Succeeds in Breaking Up Half a Dozen. Considerable Property Destroyed, But no Arrests Made — The Authorities Prosecuting Actively. Inspector David F. Gates, of the internal revenue department, returned to the city yesterday, after making a successful raid on some illicit distilleries in Union parish. Mr. Gates left Friday night for the scene of the mills that manufacture “mountain due.” At Monroe he was joined by Deputy Revenue Collector Leon W. Colvert. The two gentlemen went immediately to Farmerville, a distance of thirty-five miles. At Farmerville they were joined by Sheriff E. L. Daniel, of Union parish. The services of the sheriff were secured, and the three men departed from Farmerville to the places where the distilleries were supposed to be located. The country through which they traveled was wild and unsettled, and was well adapted to the operations of the manufacturers of “wild cat.” When the officers had, arrived at the house of Wm. Hunnicut the sheriff got out of the vehicle in which the party was riding, and approached alone the log cabin of the moonshiner. Gates and Colvert remained out of sight. Thick woods surrounded the den, and it was altogether a dangerous looking place. Hunnicut has a ferry-boat, and when a stranger occasionally happens in his neighborhood he crosses D’Arbonne bayou at Hunnicut’s ferry. There were no signs of lifeabout the place when the sheriff approached it. “Hello!” cried the sheriff, at the gate. “Hello!” came the response from the cabin and immediately the bold moonshiner appeared at the door. He cast his eyes about and greeted the sheriff, with whom he was acquainted, in a cordial manner. “There are two gentlemen in a buggy out in the road, and they want to see you, Mr. Hunnicut; I think they want you to set them across the bayou,” said the sheriff to the moonshiner. If Hunnicut’s suspicions were aroused, he did not display them by any exhibitions of nervousness, but accompanied the sheriff coolly to the trap that awaited him. When close to the buggy Mr. Gates told Hunnicut his business and what he wanted with him. “We have positive information.” said the revenue officer, “that you have been conducting a distillery in violation of the law.” In a perfectly cool manner Hunnicut acknowledged that he had, and when requested to lead the officers to the spot where he had been making whisky he compiled readily. The distillery was found about 200 yards from Hunnicut’s house, in a thick batch of woods near a spring. The still was made of copper, and had a capacity of about eighty gallons. Three hogsheads of mash, the material that is boiled, and from which the spirits are made, were found near by. The still was destroyed. The officers, in the presence of its silent owner cut it in pieces with an ax. The mash was poured upon the ground and scattered all about the place. The masonry was torn down and the whole thing annihilated. Hunnicut said that he had only been making the liquor for private use, but the three hogsheads of mash showed that he wanted to use several barrels of the article, and the officers could not be convinced that one man wanted a dozen barrels of “wildcat” for his personal pleasure and entertainment. After the distillery was destroyed the officers returned to the house of Hunnicut. His cabin was a regular fortress, and it would take a dozen officers, at the risk of their lives, to dislodge him if he had not been approached in the manner related. He bears an unsavory reputation in Union parish. If the sheriff had not gone in advance of the two revenue officers he would have armed himself before answering their call, and would doubtless have resisted the arrest. The officers made Hunnicut set them across his ferry before they turned the moonshiner loose and bade him go free. Hunicut owns several hundred acres of land, where he lives and cultivates it to some extent. He was once jailed for house burning, but the proof was not conclusive enough to convict him. After crossing bayou d’Arbonne the officers went about a mile and found where distillery had once been situated. One mile further still they went up a hollow near a house and found another illicit distillery. It belonged to a man named Elias Taylor. It was an ordinary pot still of forty gallons capacity. Taylor came upon the scene while the officers were destroying his establishment, but he did not interfere. Taylor admitted that he had been making peach brandy. Eleven mash barrels were found and broken up. Taylor had borne a pretty good reputation in Union Parish, and tried to excuse himself on the grounds that he was making the brandy for family purposes. A short distance from Taylor’s “Still,” another one was found and destroyed. Union Parish is prohibition in sentiment and law, and the local authorities and the good people have been having a hard time with “wild-catters” and “blind tigers.” Six men are now in jail for selling whisky illicitly and for making it. The people of the parish assist the officers on all sides in suppressing the business. Dr. O’Bannon, a rather prominent citizen in the parish, has been mixed up in the moonshining business and was recently put in jail for the second time. He made his escape a few nights ago and has not been heard from since. The state laws impose a fine of $500 or 4 months imprisonment for making whisky without a license and goes hard with the backwoodsmen when they are arrested. “Hunting moonshiners and illicit distilleries is rather a skittish business,” said Mr. Gates, “and it arouses curious feelings when one is approaching the den of one of those desperate men. They do not know the value of life and care about as little for their own as for that of other people. Their hate of a revenue officer is cherished and enduring. They never forget an injury or an insult, and are as revengeful as Indians. But if anybody goes to the house of a moonshiner, provided he is not connected with the revenue department of the government and asks to stay all night, or asks for something to eat, he is sure to be treated in a most cordial and hospital manner.” ############################################################# File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/union/newspapers/articles/1893moonshiners.txt