Great Falls daily tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1895-1921, 1921-01-05
RAIDS ON MOONSH|NE
PLANTS IN KENTUCKY
ARE BLOODLESS NOW
Either Shooting Eye of Mountain
Men or Revenuers Gone, or
Have Less Desire to Kill.

Lexington. Correspondence of
the Associated Press. )--Raids upon
moonshine stills in the mountains of
Kentucky have become bloodless, accord
ing to the government agents who re-
Gently conducted one of the. most i'm
portant raids made in years.
Whether the shooting eye" of the
mountaineer or the secret service agent
has become dimmed or whether the de-
sire for less killing has reached into the
far mountain recesses, is a disputed
point, but the fact remains that II reve-
nue. agents raided and destroyed eight
large stills in Whitley county, fired
numerous shots, were fired at numer-
GUS 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, senteries posted
apparently by moonshiners watched the
operations of federal prohibition offie-
ers during the recent sensational raid
in the South America" section of Whit
ley county, according to members of the
party
Raiders Are Retlcent.
The raiders from the office of Chief
Field Deputy u. g. Mcfarland were re-
ticent about the battle reported to have
ragged about the stills There wasn't
thing to it." they were unanimous in
saying I'VE just went in there and
destroyed eight stills. There were 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 Winfrey, who
were the leaders of the raid. J. 81. Reyn-
Odds and Joe Cavanaugh. They were ac-
companied by Sheriff Renfro of Whitley
county and seven deputies.
Steve Cornet, after some persuasion,
told of the raid. I'VE left Williamsburg
and went via Holden, Tenn, the nearest
railroad point, into the section Of Whit
ley county, known to the natives as
South America" he said. 1--WE hunted
there for stills in the hollows of Laurel
fork and Olean fork, sources of the
Cumberland river. We destroyed eight
stills in ALL
Arrest Three Gibsons.
THE first still destroyed was one
owned by Dewitt Gibson We arrested
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 destroy
ed were owned by persons whose names
we could not ascertain. We had no
trouble the first day although quite a
number of shots were fired in the dis
lance. / 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 winding around the banks of Laurel
fork, which I believe is the crookedest
stream in the world. Sometimes it is
hard TO tell which way it runs.
THE second day We continued the
search along the Laurel fork. 1t was
at this time that the nearest TO any real
trouble occurred. We left an old man
guard the mouth of hollow while we
searched it. Just after we left the
guards. mountaineer popped cut from
behind tree, fired several shots at the
guards with pistol and ran.
Find Two Stills.
eve gave chase, firing as we ran.
The man fell but when we searched we
could find no trace of him. x This led
to one of the amusing incidents of the
trip. During the chase we found two
stills of which we had no inkling. The
man led my party directly to an SO
gallon still which We destoyed. Another
section of the party-we had become
divided during the chase-found the sec
ond still on the opposite side of the hill
from that down which the fugitive ran.
We did not find out who owned either
still.
I'VE then went up a hollow where
we found another. still. This was a
rough hollow, and we had to climb over
boulders and hang on to trees to get
to the still. We then started in the
direction. Two miles down an
other rough hollow We found the last
still destroyed.
a lot of shots were fired on the
second day by the natives and ourselves,
but nobody was hurt"
MIR, Cornet could not say how much
whisky or beer was destroyed. I'VE
didn't keep track of it" he said
The prisoners taken by the raiders
were taken to Pineville and warrants
sworn out for number of other men.
The warrants were left in the hands Of
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