Beason’s Mill News
February 9, 1911
TWO BIG STILLS ARE DESTROYED
United States Revenue Collector G.B. McClurkin with a posse on last Saturday, captured two big moonshine plants in operation in Cleburne county, some seven or eight miles north of Edwardsville, in the Shoal Creek neighborhood, destroying both. The two plants were about a mile apart. Two operators were surprised by the officer and undertook to flee from the place but found themselves surrounded. Theirs was a very large, well equipped plant, the still being of copper. There were 30 stands of beer, amounting to some 1,500 or 2,000 gallons, besides a considerable quantity of newly made whiskey, all of which was destroyed. The posse then moved on to the next plant which was itself at considerable proportions, the still being of copper and with its fourteen stands of beer. The owners of this plant had made their escape, having, it is presumed, gotten an inkling of the coming of the officer with his posse, but the plant was left hot by its owners. A bonfire, started by the officer, told the tale of the passing of that plant also.