The Economy of Dry Fork (cont.)

Farming continued, but it was just part of the larger economy. It is hard to say exactly when moonshining entered the picture, but it definitely was an important part of Dry Fork life for quite a while. Floyd and Franklin Counties are known for their moonshine activities even unto the present day. Estellia Saunders mentioned that the first settlers brought the knowledge of moonshine-making with them when they settled Dry Fork. The legacy may go as far back as the Booth family, who owned Rueben Ferguson. According to Booth’s will he is listed as having four stills and over 800 gallons of brandy.

During the 1930’s moonshine became an important part of the economy when an Italian man from West Virginia came and set up two large stills up the hollow behind Ferge Tynes house. Lee Tynes remembers his father working for him and keeping the stills going 24 hours a day. He would come home for breakfast and Lee would go up and keep the fires going until Ferge would return. One still was called the community still and the profits from the other one went to the outsider. Hogs were fed from the mash and the entire community benefited. Many residents had small stills of their own. Various law officials were said to be aware of what was going on, but looked the other way. A judge in Bluefield and a judge in Bland were said to be good customers of this valued product of upper Dry Fork.

Nate Charleton remembers working for a Mr. Hunt from Princeton. The still was as large as the bed of a pickup truck. Mr. Hunt wanted to be called “Sack Daddy,” and he handed out dollar bills and bought new shoes for the residents. Nate and Arch Saunders ran the still way back up the holler. They lived in a still shack and kept the still fired all day and all night.

“Well, he had a 60 gallon barrel for a dumper, for a cap. I got down inside of it and cleaned it out. I could run a hundred-gallon in the day, and my buddy would take over at night. He run it a hundred at night. Seal it up so it won’t lose no steam. He had a cream separator at, for a worm, the worm go around and around. It was pretty good whiskey. Shucks, it had to be. That man wadn’t nothing but a, he was a perfectionist.”

Occasionally the law would do its duty and stills would be busted and a few arrests would be made. Ferge Tynes would get off because he was the Judge’s man. Nate Charleton wasn’t so lucky. He got busted by the Feds in the 50’s and would not tell who he was working for. He had to serve time. It was only nine months, but it was a price that had to be paid. Today moonshining lives on in the stories and the memories of the people on Dry Fork. Aubrey Gore recalls it as an important source of income on Dry Fork during the 50’s and 60’s. Another source of income for many families was domestic service. “Dry Fork’s Finest” were in high demand with the Bluefield professional families. It is recounted with some pride that Dry Fork ladies only worked for doctors, lawyers, and well heeled businessmen in Bluefield.

The communty of Dry Fork was able to survive, when so many marginal agricultural communities did not, because of a combinatin of factors. The bounty of the land was lean, but sustaining. The resourcefulness of the people enabled many to take advantages of opportunities when they appeared., i.e. moonshining, etc. The relatively benign racial relations of the area allowed mutually beneficial economic relationships to develop. The availability of jobs on the railroad and in the coal fields was extremely important. However in the final analysis, Dry Fork would not still exist without the strong relationship of a once landless people to their first land; to the land that was both symbol and substance to their new freedom. The ties that bind continue through many generations to the present day.

Would you like to return to the top of the page?

Download an Acrobat pdf version of this document.


copyright©bland county history archives all rights reserved 2000