Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021 - 62

COURTESY OF THE BLUE RIDGE INSTITUTE OF FERRUM COLLEGE AND GRADY INGRAM

ONE MAN'S FAMILY HISTORY

Another Side of 'Shine
How difficult must it be to
become the first male in your
family for many generations back
to make a living at something
other than illegal liquor.
By BRUCE INGRAM

62

BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

F

ranklin County, Virginia's tourism slogan- " Moonshine Capital
of the World " -has served the
county well over the years, but
has always struck a personal note
with me.
But it was a concern I largely
ignored over the years, until recently seeing once again a circa 1930s Internet-circulating picture (above) of Ingram family
members involved in making moonshine.
I cannot postively identify any of the people in the photo, but they are identified
as my ancestors and they have faces that
carry features of faces I know well.
The picture portrays a shotgun-packing
woman and sundry, serious-looking, sullen men and women guarding a still and
various barrels.
As the first male Ingram born in the
Blue Ridge Region (our branch of the

family) not to be involved in the moonshine business, I know that moonshine
wrecked my mother and father's families
for generations back, and created a heritage uninterrupted until I grew up and
became a teacher, author and conservationist rather than a moonshiner.
And while I in no way begrudge Franklin County and other destinations' use of
the " romance " of 'shine-the fast cars, the
encounters with the law, the wooded hideouts and more-the surviving male of one
of the primary families of that undertaking
can find nothing to celebrate about the alltoo-common dark side of this pastime-
one that has led to death, alcoholism, hidden secrets, wife- and child-beating and
ongoing trouble with the law.
The first death I know of involved my
maternal Grandpa Everett in the early
1940s. Everett had tasked two of his sons,


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Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021

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