The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1920-12-27
BLOODLESS RAIDS
ON MOONSHINERS
Desire for Less Killing Has Reached
Into the Mountains of
Kentucky.

| LtAlIHtOUY hysy DtN- lAhih0 hp'i
moonshine stills in the mountains OF
Kentucky have become bloodless, ac-
eording to government agents who re-
Gently conducted one of the most i'm
portant raids made in years.
Whether the shooting eye" of the
mountaineer orsthe secret service agent
has become dimmed or whether the de-
sire for less killing has reached into
the far mountain recesses, is 4 dis
puted point, but the fact remains that
twelve revenue agents raided and de-
stroyed eight large stills in Whitley
county, fred numerous shots, We're
fired at numerous times but so far as
is known, not casualty was recorded.
Standing in clumps of sparse shrub
berry on the top of knobs along Laurel
Fork in Whitley county, sentries
posted apparently by moonshiners
watched the operations of federal pro-
hibition officers during the recant sen.
sational raid in the South America"
section of Whitley county, according
to members of the party The raiders
from the office of Chief Field Deputy
U. G. Mcfarland were reticent ABOUT
Tic Ddtllt itDOl itu W nave lhSth
about the stills. There wasn't thing
to it," they we're unanimous in say
ing. "We just went in there and de-
stroyed eight stills. There were a lot
of shots fired but how many of them
were fired at us we don't know. That
was all there was to it,
The raiders from the local Office
were Steve Cornet and Charles Win
frey. who were the leaders of the raid,
j, II. Reynolds and Joe Cavanaught.
They were accompanied by Sheriff
Renfro of Whitley county and seven
deputies.
Steve Cornct, after some persuasion,
told of the raid. I'VE left Williams
burg on the morning Of Dec. 3 and
went via Holden, Tenn. the nearest
railroad point, into the section of
Whitley county known TO the natives
as South America" he said. "We
hunted there for stills in the hollows
of Laurel Fork and 0lean Fora,
sources of the Cumberland river. We
destroyed eight stills in all.
"The first still destroyed was one
owned by Dewitt Gibson. We arrest
ed the three Gibson boys without any
trouble. They were at their home.
The next still we believe belonged to
a man named Williams. The next two
destroyed were owned by persons
whose names we could not ascertain.
We had no trouble the first day al
though quite number of shots were
fired in the distance. ! could not say
positively that the shots were fired at
us, but think that possibly they were
signals to warn the countryside that
raiders were about. We could see men
standing on the top of the knobs
where they could see the road wind
ing around the banks of Eaurel Fork,
which | believe is the crookedest stream
in the world. Sometimes it Is hard
to tell which way il runs.
"The second day we continued the
search along the Laurel Fork. II was
at this time that the nearest to any
real trouble occurred. We left an old
man named Parsons and another TO
guard the mouth of hollow while we
searched il. Just after we left the
guards, mountaineer popped out from
behind tree, fired several shots at
the guards with pistol and run.
Eve gave chase, firing as we ran.
The man fell but when we searched We
could find no trace of him. This led |
to one of the amusing incidents of The |
trip. During the chase we found two
stills of which we had had no inkling |
The man led my party directly to an
eighty gallon still which we destroyed. |
Another section of the party, we had
become divided during the chase,
found the second still on the opposite
side of the hill from that down which
the fugitive ran. We did not find out
who owned either still.
1--WE then went up hollow where
we found another still. This was a
rough hollow. and we had to climb
over boulders and hang on to trees to
pet to the still We then started in
the opposite direction Two miles
down another rough hollow we found
the last still destroyed
a lot Of shots were fired on the
second day by both natives and our
selves hut nobody was hurt"
Mr.. Cornet could not say how much
whiskey or beer was destroyed we
didn't keep track Of it, he said.
The prisoners taken by the raiders
were taken 10 Pineville and warrants
sworn out for a number Of other men.
The warrants were left in the hands
az Sheriff Renfro and his men for