Before we get into this week’s Willie’s Adventures about him and Patches stumbling on a likker still, a little background on moonshining might be helpful.
Abundance of corn, coupled with lack of economic opportunities, made moonshining an attractive option for many residents along the many tributaries of the Pee Dee River during the early nineteen hundreds. It provided a source of income in an otherwise harsh and unforgiving landscape.
To make things even rougher on moonshiners was the government men or what some called revenuers. These revenuers waged a relentless war against Shiners by raiding their stills, destroying equipment and trying to arrest anyone involved in making and selling shine.
Although distilled likker had been made for years it was during the prohibition era that when one still was busted more than two took its place. One reason was because moonshiners were always changing their tactics to stay one step ahead of the law.
Moonshiners often employed lookouts to watch for anyone entering their territory. The still operation and storied likker were often camouflaged. Sometimes stills and likker jugs would be hidden in caves, hollow logs, underground bunkers or hidden in deep swamps but a still always had to have a good water supply close by.
To go back to Wille Hudson, he and his friend Patches were both around ten years old at this time. Seems what times they weren’t working on their family’s farm they were out roaming all over those Riverhills. Both had become good trackers and could read signs made by animals or humans.
So happened one time Mr. Hudson’s cow got out during the night and the next morning he asked Willie and Patches to track her down and bring her back to the barn by milking time that evening.
Well, it wasn’t long before the boys found fresh cow tracks headed down the dirt road toward Grassy Island. It wasn’t long before another set of cow tracks appeared and one set went on down the hill while the other set headed down the hill toward Coleman’s Creek. This small creek makes its way through the hills and runs into Pee Dee River at Grassy Island.
Don’t rightly know why but the boys followed the tracks heading toward the creek. As the boys got down the creek the tracks went into the water and seemed to make their way up the creek.
The boys got into the creek and waded up the creek still noticing on every sandbar that they were on the right track.
After going up the creek for a hundred yards they noticed a large thicket of laurel bushes on the right side of the creek. It was there that the boys saw that the cow tracks left the creek and went into a small path leading into the thicket. Now if you know anything about laurel bushes to get through them you either crawl on your hands and knees or cut yourself a path.
The boys just figured the cow had gone into the bushes to cool down so down the path the boys went right into the middle of that thicket.
What the boys found in that thicket won’t no cow but a running likker still! Why, there were two to three wooden mash barrels working off, a large copper pot with a copper worm right on top of the pot.
Patches looks at Willie and says, “Willie, we bestest be getting away from here before somebody comes!!” But unknown to them it was too late!!!
As the boys started back out the path they ran straight into a large man wearing a white flour sack over his head with holes cut out for eyes. In his belt was a pearl handle pistol and his shoes looked like a set of wooden cow hooves were wired on the bottoms (an old moonshiner’s trick to throw off the law.)
“What you young’uns doing around here?” gruffed the man. Why them boys was so scared that they couldn’t say a word. “I know who you are and where your families live,” said the man. Then the man put his hand on his pistol and said “If’en either of you boys say a word about what you saw or heard here I’ll be paying you and your family a visit and it won’t be friendly one.” The man then rolled them devilish eyes and said, “Now ya’ll get out from here and I better not catch either one of you snooping around here no more!!” as he seemed to disappear right out of the path.
Why did those two boys take off like scared rabbits!!! It wasn’t till two moonshiners died and was buried on Sugarloaf Mountain that anything was ever mentioned about the day the boys stumbled across the likker still on Coleman’s Creek. You see folks learned that what you saw or heard on Sugarloaf stayed on Sugarloaf.
By-the-way, the cow found its own way home.