Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1897-04-17
She Sells Mountain Dew.

f'ss, - 80
Chicago Record.
Betsy Mullens is the largest woman in
Tennessee. She lives in a little log
house on top Of Newman's ridge, in the
mountains OF Hancock county, where
she earns a living by the sale of ~illicltly
distilled whisky IN open defiance of the
government officers, who have time and
again been sent to arrest her, but have
never been successful. Her ayoirdupois
Is about $40 pounds, and this accounts
for the woman never having been ar
rested.
1t was in the fail of the year just
passed that ] visited the Mullens home,
in company with the revenue officers
from Knoxville, says a writer in the
Atlanta Evening Constitution. The
place where she lives is sixteen miles
from the railroad, and by no
easy of access. As you NEAR the foot Of
the ridge where the woman lives you
can see her cabin on the top. A con.
veyanCe n wend its way to the
home. ana those who wish TO see the
largest woman in Tennessee, and one
who has caused more talk than any
other woman i'm the state, have 10 leave
their conveyance behind and make it
III wv w ~ SttNp llpulbdlI$lL'
rppTOaChlng the house, the first thing
out OF the ordinary which attracted my
attention were four mounds in the brick
yard. which, upon inquiry, ! learned
were the graves of her husband and
three sons, the latter having given up
their lives I'm mountain fights ana had
been buried in the yard, where the
mother could turn i'm her bed in the lit
Vla h,t,-., ap,l tra e.. a. III. st,Af- t,.hS,1,
contained beneath their grassy sod all
that WAS mortal of those who were so
near and dear to her.
For years the woman has been bed
ridden. Not that she is sick, but her
immense size is such that she is unable
70 walk or move around like other pso-
pie. Her husband was for years an in
valid, and the family was without visi-
hla means Of support until Betsy con
ceived the idea Of selling whisky. There
are any number of Illicit stills In the
mountains near by. and just across the
line in Kentucky, and with their oper-
ators Betsy made arrangements for her
supply of mountain dew" 1t is brought
10 her in stone jugs, and from her bed
sid she can reach down and pOur out
any amount of whisky which the pat
i'iiT u iltl pace NAY hNSIiN.
In open defiance Of the law has Mrs.
Mullans carried on this method of liquor
selling for years. The federal grand
jury has indicted her time after time,
and officers have been sent to arrest her,
hut that was all. They would come 10
her bedside and serve the papers. but
could not take her to court on to Jail.
Her size bafied them, 1t would take
hole d, IN. 4,.,. ..- -
out Of the house, and when the outside
was reached they would not be able to
get her to the o at the bottom Of the
ridge, as it is impossible to get a wagon
to the top, where her cabin is located.
Every time the officers call at her
house she simply laughs and says:
Take me If you can The officers can
not take her ana that is the end of it.
In Mrs. Mullens will be found the per-
sonitication Of ignorance. Her knowl-
edge Of the world Is confined to a radius
of three miles of her home. She was
born near the place where she lives,
and has never been off the ridge. New
er saw the little county town Of Taze-
well, the county seat of Tazewell coun-
~, and has never seen a railway train.
although she is at present nearing the
DUN limestone OF nei mOlOtOnOuS lie.
She delights to have visitors call TO see
her and talks interestingly.
During all the years that Mrs. Null
lens has been confined to her bed she
has seen her three sons and hsuband
pass to the beyond. She could not at
tend the funeral services at the little
church, which is situated several miles
from her home, and the funeral services,
if such they might be called, were held
in the room where the mother and wife
lay on the bed and their bodies were
laid TO rest just outside the door in the
back yard, where she could witness the
interment.
The woman takes her misfortune good
naturally, and says that she will con-
tinue the sale of whisky until her tins
TO die has come, and then she, too, eX.
poets TO be laid to rest beside the bodies
of her husband n sons in the little
plat in the back yard known as the fam
burying ground of the Mullens fam.
lily.