Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1921-01-13
WHISKY RAIDS
ARE BLOODLESS
Eight Stills Are Destroyed in the
Mountains of Kentucky With
out a Casualty.
MAKES INTERESTING STORY
Although Numerous Shots Were Fired
by Revenue Men and Mountaineers,
Not a Death Is Reported
Chase Leads to Stills.

"-NA'iS 'SAis upoA
shine stills in the mountains of Ken
lucky have become bloodless accord
ing to government agents who recent
~ conducted one of the most impOr-
tant raids made In years.
Whether the shooting eye" of the
mountaineer or the secret service
agent has become dimmed or whether
the desire for less killing has reached
into the far mountain recesSeS is Il
disputed point, but the fact remains
that ~ revenue agents raided and de-
stroyed eight large stills in Whitley
county, fired numerous shots and were
fired at numerous times, but, so far
as is known, not casualty was re-
corded.
Standing i'm clumps of sparse shrub
hery on the top Of knobs along Laurel
Fork. in Whitley county. sentr.es
posted apparently by moonshiners
watched the operations Of federal pro-
hibition officers during the recent 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
the battle reported to have ragged about
the stills. "There wasn't thing In
it," they were unanimous In saying
"We 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,"
Number Of Shots Fired.
The raiders from the local office
were Steven .Cornet and Charles Win
frey, who were the leaders of the
raid; j. H. Reynolds and Joe Cava-
naugh. They were accompanied by
Sheriff Renfro of Whitley county and
seven deputies.
Steve Cornet after some persua-
sion, told of the raid. 1--WE left Will
liamsburg on the morning of December
3 and went via Holden, Tenn, the
nearest railroad point, into the sec
ton Of Whitley county, known to the
natives as South America" he said.
1--WE hunted there for stills in the hol-
lows of Laurel Fork and Olean Fork
sources of the Cumberland river. We
destroyed eight stills in all.
THE first still destroyed was one
owned by Dewitt Gibson. We ar
rested the three Gibson boys without
any trouble. They were at their home.
The next still we believe belonged to
Il man named Williams. The next two
destroyed We're owned by persons
whose names we could not ascertain.
We had no trouble the first day al
though a number of shots were fired
in the distance. | could not say posi-
lively that the shots were fired at us,
but think that possibly they We're sig
nails 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 Laurel Fork,
which, l believe, is the crookedest
stream in the world. Sometimes 1t Is
hard to tell which way it runs.
"The second day we continued the
search along Laurel Fork. 1t was at
this time that the nearest to any real
trouble OccuTFeu. we lelt I'LL Olu Hlttl
named Parsons and another man to
guard the mouth Of hollow while we
searched 1t. Just after we left the
guards mountaineer popped out from
behind a tree, fired several shots at
the guards with pistol and ran.
Chase Leads to Stills.
I'VE 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 ink
ling. The man led my party directly
to an 80-gallOn still, which we de-
stroyed. Another section of the party
1--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 powders and hang on to trees
to get 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, but nobody was hurt"