By CAROLYN CARY

Contributing Writer

Fayette County has the dubious distinction of having led the state a time or two in the production of moonshine. The time period generally runs from the 1930s to the mid- l960s. Perhaps one reason for it becoming such an industry here is that Atlanta was the capital of moonshine consumption.¹

In the 1930s one could suppose that making moonshine could be excused as vital income for a family during the Depression, but I wonder what the excuse was in the 1960s.

I recall the moonshine bust in the 1960s, and it was quite an elaborate affair. It was at a farmhouse halfway between Fayetteville and Peachtree City, not far off Ga. Highway 54. The 'shine was distilled in the basement of the farmhouse and then piped underground to the barn, where it was bottled and loaded up. The industry had come a long way from setting up beside a creek and being out in the elements day and night.

Some statistics here: the favorite vehicle for transportation was the 1939 Ford truck, as it could carry about 880 lbs. of the finished product. Each gallon weighed about 8 lbs.

It would take 100 pounds of sugar to make about 12 gallons of moonshine.²

"Run" time would take four days to make one batch, from starting the concoction to ferment to collecting and cooling the steam which turned into the 'shine.

In the 1930s, the state and federal governments realized that there was a considerable amount of tax money not coming into its coffers because a large number of consumers were buying the alcohol made in the woods. It was estimated that if just one distillery made 1,050 gallons a week, at the end of three months there would be a tax loss of $132,000.³

Consequently, each entity employed men as revenue agents to apprehend the folks not paying their share of the alcohol tax. As these search and seize men became effective, their lives also were put in jeopardy. There are several instances in Fayette County of residents who were agents having their lives and those of their families nearly blown away,

One man lived at the corner of Beauregard and Grady Avenues, and he had the front part of his house blown away. His wife had just died in childbirth and his young teenage daughter and the newborn were in a front bedroom and, thankfully, escaped unharmed.

Another lived in a small frame house on Stonewall Avenue in Fayetteville and it was set on fire. Fortunately the fire was put out before too much damage was done.

One agent lived at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Ga. Hwy. 85 and he had his house shot up pretty badly. When it was torn down about 35 years ago, there were still bullets to be found in it.

Local officials could not always be depended upon to take care of matters as they, too, were engaged in the manufacture thereof. One local young man worked as a clerk at the local grocery store and one evening was met at his front door by men holding a gun on him. They marched him to the store where he was forced to open it up and they walked out with all the sugar they could carry. I doubt very much if they offered to pay for it.

Several years ago one of our members in the Fayette County Historical Society who was an avid Civil War collector came upon a metal cap with his metal detector. He dug it up and it turned out to be an old bottle of moonshine.

I decided to have a program at the Society on that subject, and invited about seven former state revenuers, as well as Charles H. Weems, a retired special agent with the U.S. Treasury Dept. They had all "worked" in Fayette County and I knew would be full of good stories.

I made a neat display with that bottle of moonshine, putting it on a card table surrounded with corn stalks, etc.

After the meeting was over, I found out that it is still illegal to posses a bottle of moonshine and that seven revenue agents had politely turned their backs for my protection!

It only takes one minute to dump a gallon of liquid.

¹ "A Breed Apart," Charles H. Weems 1992, Page 8

² IBID Page 14

³ IBID Page 28

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