Another in the Family Business

[High_Wine_Guy]

I was born around the Navy bases in VA and after my Dad got out in the 70’s we moved to Parkersburg, WV where most of his and my mother’s family were located. I lived there until I graduated from high school – at this point I left and said that there was nothing on God’s green Earth that could ever move me back to West by God Virginia. Well that was my first mistake – low and behold its 15 years later and I’m back, just a little further north near Wheeling, WV this time.

Ok, now that we’ve established where we’ll delve into the why.

I’ve always loved making wine and other stuff like Limoncello and my goal had always been to step it up to distilling. Well I have – and I just didn’t stick my foot in the pool, I dived in head freaking first.

More on this later, now the history:

My Dad’s side of the family are good, salt of the earth country people, different then my Mothers side – not that their not good people they’re just more white color then blue, they all know what a hard day’s work is and have all worked for what they have their just not country people. So needless to say they my Mother thinks my hobby is silly and a waste of time. Now my Dad thinks this is the coolest thing ever and last December we happened to be discussing my hobby around my Grandmother (my Dad's Mother) and she chimed in with a story about some family members that no one had ever heard.

The story goes that my Grandmothers two uncles (my great, great uncles) were the two biggest moonshiner’s in the mid-Ohio valley. They ran shine from Pittsburgh to Parkersburg, supplying ever riverboat captain on the Ohio River with liquid refreshment to sell to their passengers. My Grandmother tells it that they had so much business that they had several of their own stills and “leased” time on just about every other still in three counties to keep up with demand.

Well I guess they had a good run for a couple of years and then the revenuers started to close in on them and it got tough hauling shine from Weirton WV, down river without getting caught. She said that they did everything from dressing up like women to hiding out in people’s basements for days to avoid the law but in the end they both had to leave town.

Now at this point the rest of the company started showing up and she hasn’t finished the story or supplied any of the details but we have the big family Christmas party coming up on Christmas Eve and I’m bringing the Christmas spirits – and I’m going to get the rest of the story.

Best,

High_Wine_Guy

[pintoshine]

That is a great story. I can't wait to hear the follow up.

[mtnwalker2]

I would have locked the door till the story was finished.

I too wait to hear the later saga.

[Butch50]

Cool story, go investigator and get the rest!