Public Not Supporting Prohibition in Elizabeth City, 1920

“Says Jitney Drivers Favor Whiskey Traffic” and two other stories on illegal alcohol made the front page of the Elizabeth City Independent  on July 23, 1920.

Revenue Officers Say They Have Hard Time Hiring Jitneys to Raid Stills in This Vicinity

That Elizabeth City jitney drivers, most of them, are in league with illicit distillers and blockaders was the charge made here yesterday by U.S. Deputy Collector C.H. Jenkins who with five other revenue officers were here to raid stills in Camden county. The charge made by the revenue officer was inspired by the fact that only one jitney driver in town would let them have the use of a car for raiding purposes. The officers needed two cars. They finally got a second car and got away from here early yesterday morning, going into Camden county.

Mr. Jenkins intimated that this may be the last time the Federal authorities will send men into this city and section to help put down the whiskey traffic. He says the local authorities will have to look after it. He says the Federal authorities are losing interest in the situation here because they have little local support, the sympathy of the public seeming to be with the blockaders.

Speaking in the presence of a number of men yesterday morning Mr. Jenkins made the statement that Elizabeth City is the worst town in North Carolina with respect to the liquor traffic. He said his information led him that there are not less than 25 bar rooms in Elizabeth City and that prominent men in the community are financing and profiteering by the traffic in corn liquor, monkey rum and other distillations.

The revenue officer explained that the territory around Elizabeth City offers special possibilities for the concealment of the operations of the distillers. Stills are erected in the midst of almost impenetrable swamps, and in out of the way places on the meandering watercourses that penetrate uninhabited morasses and forests. It is hard to get into some of these places and the moonshiners have so many lookouts and spies in every locality that the approach of revenue officers is usually anticipated. It would take an dozen men five or six weeks to make any appreciable inroads on the liquor traffic in this vicinity, says Jenkins.

There is no evidence of whiskey being made in Elizabeth City, but whiskey is brought into the city from these nearby places in automobiles, sailing vessels and gas boats.

Some of the men engaged in the traffic are particularly bold. Prominent business men in the city have been approached and asked to handle whiskey in kegs, big profits being assured them. This newspaper has information of one such attempt to establish a prominent business connection. L.B. Perry, the Paige dealer in this city, has been repeatedly solicited by these wholesalers because his garage is considered an ideal place for handling the stuff.

The police force of Elizabeth City is entirely too inadequate for the situation and is hopelessly outclassed by the traffickers.

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Also on the front page of this issue of The Independent:

Doc Selig’s Injuries Cause Many Conjectures

While hastening down the Norfolk Southern track to Shawboro from a dance which he was attending, Dr. Julian W. Selig, well known young optometrist of this city, was painfully scratched and cut when he fell through a barbed wire culvert, which he failed to see in the darkness. He was on his way t the night train to see his parents, who were returning to Elizabeth City from Norfolk. Another version of Doc Selig’s painful accident is that a cow chased him over the barbed wire fence, which brings up the question, Why was the cow chasing him? Still another version may be found by revenue officers who are operating in the vicinity this week.

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Butts Whiskey Gets One Man Killed. . .John E. Woolford Shot to Death by Man He Accused of Making Whiskey

Charles Powell Jr., 19 years old, shot and killed John E. Woolford in front of the latter’s home near Butts station Tuesday night. Witnesses say that Charles Powell Sr. and his son drove up to Woolford’s house and demanded to see “the whole Woolford family.” Mr. Woolford came out to see them. They told Woolford that they had heard that he had accused them of making whiskey. Hot words followed and the younger Powell pulled a gun and fired a bullet into the abdomen of the man with whom he had come to quarrel.

It is said that the Powells will put up a plea of self defense.

Much whiskey is being made in the vicinity of Butts station. It is said that much of this whiskey is marketed in Elizabeth city. Revenue officers have raided several stills in the vicinity of Butts, but illicit distillers don’t mind a little thing like that; they get another wash boiler and a coil of pipe and keep the fires going just the same.