THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Taylor
Cobb,
Part of our
past in the mountain regions of North Georgia has been the contraband
manufacture of whiskey, better known in these parts as "moonshine"
because the "runoff" from the stills was often completed at night time
to avoid the smoke from the still being detected by the revenue agents,
commissioned by the federal government to find and ferret out the
makers of this liquid corn product.
One of the
noted U. S. Revenue agents of another century was Taylor Cobb. He not
only had a penchant for interacting with the people, but he told many
stories of his adventures as an agent, even writing many of them for subsequent generations to enjoy.
This story from
Agent Taylor Cobb's repertoire was given to me by Wilson Cobb of
On a Saturday
morning, April 1, in the early 1880's Taylor Cobb set out on his horse
named Old Steel. His intended purpose was to find a still and make
arrests out in the mountains.
He soon came to
what he called a very dilapidated log church away back in the
mountains. Since services were often held on Saturday afternoon in
those days, a group of people had gathered for services. They asked
what he was doing in those parts. He said he was a "naturalist," a
mineralogist, and produced some sample stones from his saddlebag to
substantiate his story.
The gathered
congregation waited awhile longer for the preacher to arrive, and the
minister didn't come. Then Taylor Cobb asked them if they would accept
the comments of one of the "Hardshell
Confession of Faith" to speak to them. The people agreed. Cobb took a
New Testament from his saddle bag, and in the old log church he began
to speak.
He took his
text and began to preach passionately on temperance, stating that he
considered drunkenness to be a terrible crime, bringing loss and
degradation to the perpetrator, but also desolation to the families
touched by the drunkard's evil ways. He did add, however, that a
"little wine was good for the stomach's sake," according to the Apostle
Paul.
In typical
fashion, he laid forth his sermon for an hour and a half, all the while
keeping the attention of his hearers. They kept him going by
well-placed "Amens". He wrote: "My
'God-blessed tone' melted their hearts, and soon tears, sobs, shouting,
handshaking, and rejoicing filled the shack. After the service, a
deacon took me to his home to spend the night."
At the evening
meal, his host deacon told Cobb, still not recognizing him as a U. S.
Revenue Agent, that his son was making moonshine whiskey. This fact
saddened the deacon. Cobb said that he had always wondered how the
liquor was made. The deacon offered to take him to his son's still,
since he was doubling off a run that very night.
When the pair
got to the still deep within the mountains, the old deacon took off his
old cap-and-ball pistol, laid it on a shelf, and went to work at the
still himself. After the deacon got well into the process, Agent Cobb
grabbed the man's pistol and arrested his son, the supposed owner of
the still.
He put the
captured moonshiner on Old Steel behind
himself, and started for the nearest jail. Since it was late at night,
the two agreed to stop at a cabin along the way to get some rest. At
the next house, they awoke the owner and the old man gave the two-
agent and captive- the best bed in the house. Exhausted from his hard
day's journey, the energy exerted to preach the gospel, and the arrest
of the moonshiner whose father had been
his host, Cobb soon fell asleep.
When Taylor
Cobb awoke the next morning, he found his prisoner gone. He had taken
Cobb's pants with $25.00 in his pocket. Cobb told the man of the house
that he was a "traveling preacher, and had picked up the man the
previous evening along his route, and that he had robbed him. The man
gave him a garment of his own, which Cobb described as "fitting him
like a bolt of loose cloth." After an excellent breakfast at the cabin,
Cobb was soon on his way. He put money in the mail and sent it to the
man who had loaned him the suit.
The very next
year, President Hayes issued a general pardon for moonshiners.
Cobb saw this as a way to get the deacon's son off from arrest and a
year in prison. He went to the man and offered to get him "off" if he
would repay him his stolen $25 and the cost of the suit he had stolen.
The two went to
On their way
back to the mountains from
"They thought
it was my influence that got them released," wrote Cobb. "I soon became
the most popular man in that area. Even the old deacon forgave me and
sang my praises from the housetops on every occasion."
Taylor Cobb,
this man of the mountains and U. S. Revenue Agent, was born
[Ethelene
Dyer Jones is a retired educator, freelance writer, poet, and historian.
She may be reached at e-mail [email protected];
phone 478-453-8751; or mail
Back To Union County, Georgia GenWeb Site