Nansemond County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Newspapers.....Moonshine, 1908 

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Moonshine still raided, near Holland, 3 Jan 1908, 
   3 arrested - William J. BYRD, son W. Preston BYRD, & Algie H. BUTLER; 
   Algie H. BUTLER convicted, 14 Jan 1908 


Times Dispatch, Number 17794, 4 January 1908 
p. 1, col. 6 

STILL RAIDED NEAR HOLLAND 
Three Alleged Moonshiners Captured and the Plant Seized. 
  [Special to The Times-Dispatch.] 

  SUFFOLK, VA., January 7.- County officers to-day raided an illicit liquor 
distillery near Holland, Va., and captured three alleged moonshiners, W.J. 
Byrd, his twenty-one-year-old son, W. Preston Byrd, and Algie Butler.  The 
men were carried to Holland, where at a preliminary hearing before Justices 
J.F. Deberry and Elihu Joyner, they were sent on to the Circult Court grand 
jury for indictment.  All were locked up, but their attorneys say application 
for bail will be made.  The still warm corn whiskey, meal and other 
accessories of the plant were seized and were shipped to Suffolk this 
afternoon to he held as evidence. 

  The raid was planned by Sheriff A.H. Baker, who has been worklng on the case 
for several weeks, but who was too ill last night to take the trip.  Hurricane 
Branch and Will Jernigan were sent, and arrived about 10 o'clock.  They got 
there in time to hear the door of the secluded building slammed as the 
operators were leaving for home. Wishing to catch the men red-handed they 
waited in the woods all night without bed or blankets or sleep, and made the 
capture early this morning.  The still was yet hot.  The building in which the 
whiskey was distilled is on the old Byrd farm.  It is constructed so that not 
a ray of lamp light can penetrate through the cracks. 

  The internal revenue officials had no part in the seizure, and the accused 
will be handled in the State courts before being prosecuted by the government. 



Times Dispatch, Number 17795, 5 January 1908 
p. 5, col. 5 

  Alleged Moonshiners Bailed. 
  [Special to The Times-Dispatch.] 

  SUFFOLK, VA., January 4.- W.J. Byrd and Preston Byrd, alleged moonshiners 
arrested yesterday in a raid near Holland, Va., to-night were bailed in $500 
each.  Algie Butler also captured there, is yet in jail. 



Times Dispatch, Number 17805, 15 January 1908 
p. 4, col. 2 

WEPT IN COURT. 
Moonshiner Broke Down When Sentence Was Pronounced. 
  [Special to The Times-Dispatch.] 

  SUFFOLK, VA., January 14.- The first jail sentence over imposed in Nansemond 
county for the illegal manufacture of whiskey was inflictcd in the Circuit 
Court to-day, when Algie H. Butler was fined $20 and sentenced to thirty days 
in prison. Butler broke down down when the verdict was brought and cried like 
a child.  He denied the charge vigorously.  Butler was one of three alleged 
moonshiners arrested near Holland.  William J. Byrd was indicted for the same 
offense.  He turned State's evidence against Butler and the indictment was 
nolle prossed. 

  Albert Johnson, a negro, to-day was given three years in State's prison for 
breaking into the residence of Commonwealth's Attorney, now State Senator, 
E.E. Holland.  The crime occurred last summer when Colonel Holland was in the 
mountains. 


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These cited newspapers appear online as part of the Library of Virginia's 
   Virginia Chronicle newspaper database, at: 
   https://virginiachronicle.com/ 

William J. BYRD (1866-1939) & William Preston BYRD (1886-1960) 
   are buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Norfolk. 
   Norfolk City VA USGenWeb Archives Cemeteries, Forest Lawn list: 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/norfolkcity/cemeteries/forestlawn/flc09-burg-capps.html 

"Algie" Algernon Hatcher BUTLER (1871-1937) was buried at home, Nansemond Co.; 
   site not known (Apr 2020) to the Southampton County Historical Society 
   {SCHS} Cemetery Project. 


Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
File Manager Matt Harris (zoobug64@aol.com). 

file at: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/newspapers/19080104td.txt