A new article has been added at Newspaper Abstracts > United States > Kentucky > Calloway http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/index.php?action=displaycat&catid=2719 Direct link to article: http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?id=34483 Submitted by: Gigimo Article Title: New York Times Article Date: January 23 1883 Article Description: A Raid on Moonshiners. Two Illicit Distilleries in Kentucky Destroyed by Major BARNES. Article Text: Louisville, Ky., Jan. 22.--Major George F. BARNES, Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue, and a posse of four men returned this morning from a successful and daring raid on the moonshiners of Calloway County. Last week Major BARNES went to this famous moonshiner district with his gun and dog, ostensibly on a hunting expedition, but while there he discovered the situation of two illicit stills, and immediately returned and organized the expedition. The first still captured was a small one, and the operators had escaped. After a further ride of a dozen miles the party came upon the second still, the real object of the trip. This still was probably the largest crooked one in the State, and consisted of two large copper stills, with an estimated capacity of 40 gallons every 24 hours. The location is on a stream known as Yellow Spring Branch, about 300 yards from the Tennessee line. The still is surrounded by an almost impassable bamboo and buckleberry swamp. The operators were six men of desperate character from Tennessee, headed by two men named SMITH and WINN. The still was fortified by a stockade built of heavy logs. The officers approached it in broad daylight and found it in full operation. They got within 20 yards of the stockade before they were discovered by the moonshiners, who, thoroughly surprised, dropped everything and took to the woods. The officers gave hot pursuit, firing several shots after them,! but the natives were too nimble-footed, and reached the Tennessee line in safety. The posse then returned to the still and began to destroy it. They found 18 mash tubs, the stills mentioned above, 12 worms, 8,000 gallons of beer and 200 gallons of whisky, amounting in value, with other apparatus, to $2,000. The work of destruction was barely completed before the woods were echoing with the yells of the moonshiners and their friends, who had flocked from all quarters at the alarm to fight the officers. The latter, fearing they would be overpowered by superior numbers, began a retreat. An exciting chase ensued for several miles, both parties keeping up a running fire. But the officers finally cleared the woods and escaped uninjured. It is not known whether any of the moonshiners were shot. This was the first daylight raid ever made on the Calloway moonshiners, and hence they were taken off their guard. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ KY-Old-News ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ NewspaperAbstracts.com - Finding our ancestors in the news! TM http://www.NewspaperAbstracts.com