Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-04-02
LEWIS REDMOND.
Incidents in the Life OF the Moon
sinners Chief.
Some ofthe Daring Deeds OF the Desperate
Leader of Illicit Dlstillers His
Many Escapes. Final Arrest
and Punishment.

baskerville ~. c. Cor. Charleston News and
Courier.l
During those per;lous, busy days for the
revenue officers in Western North Caro-
lima, from 1868 to 1880, no name among no.
torious moonshiners Appropriated in no.
toriety that of Lewis r. Redmond, the
outlaw. Countless newspaper articles,
numbers of pamphlets and novels have
appeared during the last few years, Civ
ing more or less exaggerated and fictitious
narratives of the romantic life, the daring
adventures and the bold crimes of this
famous Illicit distiller OF the mountain dew
drop. He now lives in qaietude and re-
tirement just across the State line, in Up
per South Carolina, under the shadow of
the Blue Ridge Mountains, having recent
ly returned from Imprisonment q. Albany
IN. W pcnitentiary, where he had been
sent for term of four years. On the
grounds of ill-health he was not long since
pardoned, and is now apparently enjoy
ing the serenity of backwoods life on
small farm not far from the line be-
tween the Carolinas. Your COR
respondent some time since had the oppor-
tunity of an interview with the well known
moonshiner (among his friends known as
"The Major'0, and from him obtained
many facts in regard to his life and a num-
Der of incidents in his career.
He was born, he says. in 1854, in Georgia,
few miles from where the city of Atlanta
now stands. Early in his life his father
removed to the mountains of Western
North Carolina, locating in the picturesque
county of Transylvania. In 1873 he mar
ried Miss Adeline Ladd, of Pickens Coun-
ty, South Carolina. In 1879 he removed to
Swain County, this State, and, having
built him a house of logs on a small farm
situated far up on the Tennessee river, he
began the quiet life of a farmer and stock
man, but in 1882 he was arrested by party
of revenue officers and lodged in jail at this
place. He was then removed to Green
vile, s. c., tried and sent to Albany. Then
followed his pardon.
But by far the most sensational features
of this notorious moonshiner's life he, of
course, would not recount. There seems
te be no doubt Of the fact that he was the
boldest, shrewdest, most successful oper-
ator in this strange, sequestered craft,
whose workshops were rudely built in
natures most charming mountain re-
cesses, and among the remote peaks
and crags that rarely knew the foot
step of man. From information now
easily accessible, however difficult once for
the revenue officers, it appears plain that
Redmond had a well trained band of bold
and fearless followers who cheerfully and
faithfully yielded him their services. As
sentries they were stationed along the
routes by which the raiding revenue off,
GERS would come, and as workmen and
confederates they were employed about
the smoking still, whose fires, like those
of the vestal virgins, were never allowed
to go out, except in, however, those I'M
usual and rarely recurring instances
when the signals were given of the ap-
proach of the officers of the Federal law.
Then the fires and the distillers went out
together, and generally neither the one nor
the other are ever seen by these agents Of
the Government. The signals used by these
sen.ries, stationed on the elevations, down
In the settlements" and at points in o
valleys far below were, by day, colu INNS
OF ascending smoke, by night, the mellow
tones OF the huntsman's horn. By con-
slant vigilance this noted moonshiner al
ways escaped detection and apprehension,
while he remained among his favorite
haunts, coaxing into existence the average
mountaineer's favorite beverage. But on
several occasions, when on the road to
market with his contraband luxury, he
was overtaken by the officers of the law,
from whom, however, he always escaped.
In 1873 he removed further into the noun
tains, locating in Swain County, giving
up his old haunts and companions,
but by no means abandoning his Illicit
operations. 1t was at this new home that
be gained additional notoriety for his
bold. daring desperation. He was always
on the alert, fearing apprehension, and
many were the unsuccessful attempts
made by the officers of the revenue depart
ment- On one occasion when q posse Of
revenue officials swooped down on tbs
9F1slly vsll .haricadsd and defended vim