Four stills, said to have a total capacity of nearly 1,000 gallons a day, a 50-foot cruiser, a former Navy sailing launch, a rowboat, and various supplies, indicating the making of liquor on an unusually large scale for an eastern North Carolina plant, were captured early Saturday morning in Buck Island Swamp 10 miles from Coinjock, Currituck County.
For men alleged to have been operating the stills are said to have gotten away, while four wer captured and brought to the Elizabeth City jail where they were soon afterwards bailed out by A.B. Walston of Pearl Street, this city. Mr. Walston gave bail for the men in the sum of $800 each, and the date of the haring before U.S. Commissioner T.B. Wilson is set for Saturday of this week.
The four men captured near the still are Tom A. Roberts, A Princess Anne County farmer; Eddie Barnett of Norfolk; John H. Gallop of Riddle, Camden County, and former Elizabeth City resident; and John Overton, a negro of Bluff Point, N.C. Officers claim that Overton had mash spattered over his boots. The white men claim they were on the marsh hunting cattle.
According to the officers, the white men were making their way to the still when arrested. Overton was found in the vicinity and arrested first. Soon afterward, a launch coming up the creek aroused their suspicions and the awaited developments. They observed three white men transfer a quantity of supplies to the smaller boat. Upon seeing the officers, they pulled back to the launch. Protesting their ignorance of the ownership of the launch, the three men were placed under arrest.
Officers allege the men were making their way to the stills when arrested. Four others are said to have gotten away. The plant was located in one of the most remote and inaccessible places in Currituck County. The still has a combined capacity of nearly 1,000 gallons a day. One of the stills is said to have been 500 gallons capacity, while another was 250 gallons and to of them 100 gallons each. The stills were operated by two 10-horsepower steam boilers and are thought to have been in operation for several months.
Near the still large army tents were located to cover the supplies and to furnish quarters for the operators. The supplies captured at the still part of which was brought to Elizabeth City, include three shotguns and a quantity of ammunition, 4,000 pounds of sugar, 1,000 pounds of meal and rye flour, 13,002 gallons of mash, 250 gallons of whiskey, and 50 five-gallon bottles. Half of the liquor seized, with the coal and the jugs, were found in the launch. In the tents at the still were food supplies to last for several weeks, officers said.
The officers making the raid are P.J. Maxey, W.D. Harrington, and A.L. Ashburn of Norfolk, and U.S. Deputy Collector J.W. Wilcox of this city. Information as to the location of the still is said to have been furnished by Currituck County citizens who had become disgusted with its presence in the county.
From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, October 19, 1923
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