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DISTILLERY MATTER TO BE SETTLED IN MAY
(21January 1912)
The question of whether or not the distilleries of
E. E. Gouge & Company, located in this city, will be permitted to continue indefinitely under the bond given by the Company
some months ago, following the seizure of the distillery by Deputy Revenue Collectors Bowers & Pritchard, will be determined
during the May term of the Federal Court at Abingdon. The defendant Company has been summoned to appear in court at the May
term and show cause , if any, why the property should not be taken by the government in accordance with the seizure, when
it was alleged that the Company had violated the Internal revenue Laws in several particulars.
Those who are summoned as witnesses in the case are:
E.E. Gouge, W.T. Sams, W.H. Smith, J.P. Young, W.H. Crowell, M.R Miller, and Gordon Aronhime.
The Cpmpany has had its plant in operation ever
since it was permitted to rebond by Judge Henry C. McDowell.
The property is all being held subject to an attachment
pending a final hearing in the case.
Court Grants Beer License
(12Dec 1912)
The Martin Lynch Co. Inc.
applied to the Corporation Court on Bristol, Va. Monday for a malt liquor license. The license was granted. The annual
tax is $1000.00 per year. The only other license of that kind is held by Heller Bros. , which recently bought the malt liquor agency
of Jere Bunting.
And Still They Come
(April 1914)
Five years ago the Bristol Herald
Courier closed its advertising columns to the whiskey trade. It was one of the first newspapers in the country to take
this step, but since that time scores of newspapers, large and small, have done likewise. And still they come. The latest
newspaper to bar whiskey advertising from its columns is the Chicago Record-Herald.
During Prohibition, Bristol was a rich market
for bootleg liquor, distilled corn and some foreign liquors smuggled in. One ingenious bootlegger brought his goods in gallon
glass bottles painted white, to give the impression they contained buttermilk. ( He did market a little buttermilk.)
During Prohibition one could only obtain
whiskey two ways: illegally or via a written Doctor's prescription. Thousands were issued at so much per. Reportedly the "rag-tag"
of the medical profession went into the indiscriminate sale of prescriptions and the drug stores did a landslide business.
One Abingdon business got into the business so deep, it kept a nondescript but licensed doctor on duty with a desk in the
store to write whiskey prescriptions.There was generally a waiting line of persons whose medical need for alcohol could be
determined by a mere glance.
After the Repeal of Prohibition in 1933, a liquor
store was opened in Bristol,VA.
Mack Frazier, newly appointed
head of the Virginia ABC Board, established a new liquor store in front of J.D. Faucette's store on State St. The newly
opened store in no time built up the largest volume of sales of any store in the Sate of Va.
Faucette, a prominent Bristol leader of the Prohibition cause
and a strong opponent of the sale of liquor even by the State, took the location of the liquor store "in his front door" as
a personal affront. He brought in the fire-eating evangelist, Dan Graham and established him in a large tent to start a campaign
to vote out the liquor store.(** The Law stated that a store could be voted out within 6 months of opening).
The election was called by a petition signed by over 50% of qualified
voters. And it was a walk away for those who opposed the store. It was swept out of business by an overwhelming majority.
Some said that if the liquor store had been located in a less conspicuous location,
( other than across from Faucette's), it may have remained in operation.
Meanwhile, the Abingdon,VA. store continued to operate and has
been one of the highest in sales in the liquor store system for many years.
** Years before ( 1907-1909) when both
Bristols went "Dry", Abingdon adopted a Dispensary System and garnered hundreds of thousands of dollars in retail liquor profits for
the town coffers.
(*) "Whiskey Helped Build Bristol "
**I was quoted as having said
this in a 1995 newspaper article.
View the
Census figures below:
1880...Bristol,VA. 1562 Bristol,Tenn. 1647
1890...Bristol,VA. 2902 Bristol,Tenn.
3342
1900...Bristol,VA. 4579 Bristol,Tenn.
5271
1904...Combined populations of both Bristols ...15,000
1910...Bristol,VA. 6247 Bristol,Tenn.
7148
1920...Bristol,VA. 6729 No figures for Bristol,Tenn.
(yet)
Both Bristols "Dry" 1907-09
Bristol,VA. "Wet" 1909 - 1916
National Prohibition 1916
From 1880 to 1910, both Bristols populations increased
by thousands.
From 1910 -20....Bristol,Va.'s only increased by a few
hundred.
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