Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-10-14
KENTUCKY'S GIRL
MOONSHINER.
(New York World.)

huge powders in Eastern Kentucky
a woman who has not yet seen her
thirtieth birthday is calmly, intrep-
idly aud successfully defying the
mighty government of the United
States.
A few days ago, single-handed, she
beat back a posse of the best revenue
officers Uncle Sam could muster. Her
aim is true and her belief in her SOW
ereign right to make her own brand
of whiskey from her own corn is
supreme and immovable.
Mary Fouts, aged 81, is Americas
|Moniy moonshine maid, and she Is a
pmoonshiner by birth, inclination and
training. Her father was moon
sinner before her, and the several
ramifications of her family hold rec
ords for battle with revenue officers
that any mountaineer might envy.
For forty years the Beaver Creek
District, on the Knott-Floyd-Letche
border, has been moonshine strong
hold, the scene OF many a pitched
battle between moonshiners and gov
.ernment officials. Blood of both
sides has stained it's narrow ravines
and picturesque mountain paths. If
record Of lives sold for the noun
tain brew had been kept, doubtless
the greater number Of notches would
have been cut by Uncle Sam. But
when it came to this woman, this
tall, stalwart, calm-eyed, sure-aiming
young woman on her native heath,
Uncle Sam was bafled. Chivalry
died hard, even when backed by law
and justice, and to send his picked
J shots against a woman was more
than even Uncle Sam wanted to do.
In time the clash had to come, yet
the woman won against the law and
it's armed officers.
Mary Fouts was born in the rude
home where she now distills what is
said to be the best brand of whiskey
obtainable in all Kentucky. Her baby
eyes studied the still, and her baby
ears learned to catch quick, ominous
whispers. Just as the child of the
proverbial artist accepts poverty as
the price Of parental genius, as the
child of the king believes that royal
ty can do no wrong, so this child of
the mountains believed that making
whskey without government consent
was the inalienable right Of hill peo-
pie.
Her parents were ambitious for the
little Mary, however, and sent her to
school, where she proved exception
ally bright, and acquired an amount
of "book learning" which dazzled her
humble relatives. But she never for
got her love Of the mountain life and
never lost her grip on mountain tra~
ditions.
When other girls were writing
notes to each other in school or MAX
ing paper dolls, Mary Fouts was
drawing pictures Of stills, and finally
she presented to her astonishe !
teacher a perfect production of a
still, including the worm" which she
had evolved from some odd bits of
copper that came her way.
During her twelfth year, when
home on her vacation, she made a
run of very fair moonshine whis-
key in an old coffee boiler in her
mothers kitchen. At sixteen her ed
ucation finished. Mary Fouts declar-
ed against muslin frocks and cross
roads dances. She wanted the free,
If hazardous, life of the moonshiner
A woman Sinner! Even bold
Kentucky gasped.
Women there were who had pro-
tected their "men," and fought for
their men and even died with their
"men'-but a woman who wanted to
be leader Of men in moonshining,
well, that was going some!
A few years later Mary Fouts came
into her own. Her father died, and
she became the head Of the house
hold and the manipulation of his fam
Gus still.
And what was more, Mary Fouts
made whiskey Of no mean reputa-
ton. She raised her own crop of
corn ann coaxed 1t as only a farmer
who loves his growing things can
coax. And then she made 1t into the
right sort Of whiskey, pure and un-
adulterated.
II would not adulterate my whis-
key for any price, nor for the whole
world" said Miss Fouts in a recent
interview-and she meant It. No