First of all, they didn't call themselves "moonshiners."

"Blockaders" preferred a term that harked back to the dangerous and adventurous activities practiced by their Colonial and Civil War ancestors who ran all manner of contraband through an enemy's blockade.

In its earliest days, the primary motive for the illegal distilling of liquor was for family or social use. Residents often quoted Paul's Biblical advice to Timothy to "take a little wine for thy stomach's sake." Later, unlicensed distilling became a matter of economics.

As Marshall Wingfield noted in his 1964 book "Franklin County -- A History": "Life was never especially easy in Franklin, and with the decreased prices on all farm commodities, life has become increasingly difficult. Franklin citizens, no longer landlocked, knew what the world outside was enjoying, and they wanted their share.

"Those who went away 'to the public works' (as industrial centers were called) did share in the automobiles, bath tubs and other modern comforts and conveniences. Those who could not get away, turned to making and distributing liquor. It meant, besides the spice of adventure, money for doctor's bills, taxes, pianos, automobiles and other things that ordinary tobacco and corn crops could never procure.

"Blockading did not come about because it offered more ease and comfort than tilling the soil. On the contrary, it was hard, nerve-wracking, sleep-robbing work."

Add to that rationale the fact that independent-thinking mountaineers believed that if they had unmarketable surplus apples wasting on the ground, it was all right to make them into brandy for which there was always a ready sale at a good price. Money products were scarce and tobacco revenue barely paid the fertilizer bills.

Taxes required hard cash and with a little effort, some secrecy and a touch of self-promoting logic, distillers believed that if it was OK to drink, it should be OK to sell.

Corn presented the same issues. There were times when it was not worth hauling to market, but when made into whiskey, there was always a good margin of profit. The blockader believed it was as much of his right to make a part of his corn into whiskey without license as it was to make another part into bread. He considered a tax of a dollar on a quarter's worth of whiskey as morally wrong as robbery.

These strong views go back a long way in American history. As Virginia Colonists moved farther inland, access to imported alcohol became more difficult, which led to a dependence on homemade products. Although there were some moral concerns about drinking, there was always a somewhat official sanctioning of consumption at public meetings.

For example, in 1786 the first Franklin County court met at James Callaway's tavern and routinely requisitioned a cask of brandy to be made available for the thirsty justices while they conducted court business.

As soon as it started being consumed in large quantities, liquor quickly became a taxable item. The British began taxing molasses in 1733 and sugar in 1764. Next to be taxed were liquor licenses through the 1765 Stamp Act, all adding to the "taxation without representation" grievance, which led to the Revolutionary War.

Under American rule, Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the Treasury, proposed an excise tax on stills and distilled alcohol to help defray the national debt, realizing it was "very productive revenue due because of their very extensive consumption." This was unpopular with the states where farmers found it easier to transport small but valuable whiskey via horseback compared to the large amounts of grain from which it was produced.

This opposition eventually led to Shay's Rebellion in July 1794 when western Pennsylvania farmers burned tax collectors' homes and tarred and feathered revenue officers. In August, President George Washington called out a 13,000-man force from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and several months later put down the rebellion.

Throughout the 19^th century, taxes on whiskey were imposed, repealed and imposed again to pay for debts, particularly those resulting from expensive conflicts such as the War of 1812 and the Civil War. After the Civil War, the Virginia General Assembly allowed individual counties to decide if they wanted to grant liquor licenses.

By 1900, 27 of Virginia's 100 counties were "dry," with one or more districts in an additional 28 counties opting not to grant licenses.

By 1908, House Speaker Richard Evelyn Byrd pushed through an act that effectively created prohibition in all areas of Virginia except towns with a population of more than 500 and summer resorts. Much of this kind of legislation was encouraged and supported by temperance leagues in the state.

In 1916, the Mapp Act became law in Virginia and imposed prohibition statewide. Notwithstanding Virginia's state-imposed prohibition, the Federal excise tax on liquor accounted for 20 to 25 percent of all tax revenues nationwide at the beginning of the 20^th century.

After 1900, when other states began to impose prohibition laws, and in spite of the government's increase of revenue agents, blockading became harder to stop. Distillers were changing their tactics and now were willing to pack up their equipment and move to a new location when necessary instead of defending their stills with their lives.

Reputation

How did Franklin County get its reputation as the "Moonshine Capital of the World"?

In January 1904, an article by "J.L.G.," who apparently was a revenue agent, was published in the Roanoke Evening News:

"Shootin' Creek and Runnet Bag in Floyd and Franklin counties are the ideal localities for moonshining and blockading. The residents appreciate this and for many years have availed themselves of it. Situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, the country, covered with a dense growth of laurel and ivy, permeated by numerous streams of the clearest, coldest water, apples and corn in abundance, nature seems to invite you to 'jist make a doublin' or two for your own use. If I lived there I would moonshine too, one couldn't help it."

Statistics support Franklin County's notoriety. During the period of national Prohibition (November 1920 to December 1933), Virginia's Department of Prohibition and local officials tallied 186,207 arrests for bootlegging and related activities, seized 730,142 gallons of "ardent spirits," destroyed 33,009 stills and confiscated 11,965 vehicles.

During the same period, there were 1,669 arrests in Franklin County, 130,717 gallons of liquor seized, 3,909 stills destroyed and 716 automobiles confiscated. Franklin County accounted for less than 1 percent of arrests statewide, but was responsible for 18 percent of the alcohol seized, 12 percent of the stills destroyed and 6 percent of the vehicles taken.

Blockading was not just an adventurous, albeit illegal, way to earn hard cash. It was linked to violence, murder and corruption at the highest levels of county law enforcement.

In 1935, the "Franklin County Whiskey Conspiracy Case" revealed how national Prohibition had increased the prices blockaders were receiving for their products from as far away as Chicago and New York.

Between October 1934 and February 1935, a federal grand jury in Harrisonburg heard testimony that resulted in indictments for conspiracy to defraud the federal government of $5.5 million in whiskey excise taxes during the period from September 1928 to February 1935. Indicted were 34 people, including nine local, state and federal officials, as well as 19 area "moonshiners" and a corporation.

Several of the more prominent among those charged were Sheriff D. Wilson Hodges; former state prohibition officer Edgar Beckett; Deputy Sheriffs Henry Abshire, Howard Maxey and C. Will Wray; former Virginia House of Delegates member David Nicholson; Commonwealth's Attorney Charles Carter Lee; and former federal Prohibition agent Samuel White.

Testimony during the trial revealed that beginning in the fall of 1928, Franklin County Sheriff Peter Hodges had gathered a group of deputies and assigned them to districts. Deputies in each district then enlisted people to operate stills from whom they collected fees: $25 per still, $10 per load of whiskey and $5 for a filling station. "Granny fees" got their name from the fees mid-wives received for delivering babies, so when a still was "born," county officers got their granny fee.

The trial itself lasted 10 weeks, the longest trial on record to that date in Virginia except for the month-long treason trial of Aaron Burr in 1807. On July 1, 1935, 20 of the 23 defendants were found guilty. Acquitted were Commonwealth's Attorney Lee and Deputy Sheriffs Wray and Maxey.

Before the trial started, a prospective witness (Deputy Sheriff Thomas J. Richards) had been murdered, and after the trial there were charges of attempted jury tampering. Both crimes were subsequently prosecuted in favor of the Commonwealth.

During the trial it was noted that while there had been widespread knowledge of the illegal operations in the county, the government was not seeking to prove the extent of those activities, but rather to prove that a conspiracy to defraud the federal government "had existed with ramifications reaching into the political and social life of the county." It was unfortunate that the law-abiding citizens of Franklin County were affected by the stigma of a very public trial.

The Roanoke Times noted that "many of the very best citizens of Roanoke have come from Franklin County, contributing in marked degree to the upbuilding and development of the community. It goes without saying that a neighborly goodwill is felt and with it an understanding of the peculiar problems of law enforcement under the conditions that have existed in Franklin."

Most at the time agreed that the "noble experiment" of Prohibition did not work, and in fact "encouraged a thoroughly organized and widespread [illegal] traffic in liquor that enriched individuals and businesses alike."