WOMAN MOONSHINER

 

"Whitesburg, Ky., Sept. 19--United States Deputy Marshall Thomas Hollifield of Knott County, with a posse, has returned from the southern section of Letcher County, having under arrest Oma Prater, a young woman, whom they captured after a fierce resistance on the charge of moon shining. The officers say that the woman had situated herself in a little glen in the mountains where she made whiskey, and she had armed herself with a number of breech-loading rifles to protect her almost impenetrable hiding place. The woman had a sewing machine in the mountains with her and put in her odd times making garments.

The officers state that they had her completely surrounded before she was aware of their presence, but that she put up a fierce fight before they could capture her. She is the first woman moonshiner to be arrested in this section in years She will be tried at London, Ky., in November."
 

The Progressive (Olive Hill)     [newspaper]
September 19, 1912

Submitted by Sharon Nutt