Bruce Carroll Garland -- Moonshiner

 

Bruce Garland with a "Moonshine Still"

“Moonshining” or the making of illegal whiskey has always been thought of as occurring mainly in the 1920’s during the Prohibition era,  but the “art” of making illegal moonshine whisky continued even in the 1950’s, 1960’s, and 1970’s in the Land Between the Lakes area of western Kentucky. 

The late Bruce Garland of Murray, Kentucky was featured in a newspaper article by the Associated Press in 1988 about his “career” as a modern day moonshiner.  Bruce began his trade as the age of 16, when he got tired of working in a sawmill near Model, Tennessee. “Back in our days you couldn’t do any farming,” said the 65 year old Garland, at the time, who “retired” in 1976 after serving 25 months on a federal moonshining conviction. “The land wasn’t worth a darn and a fellow had to fall into something,” he said.

During the 1950’s Garland has as many as nine stills at a time in the rugged ridgeland between the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers in Trigg County, Kentucky. He was a moonshine king in the Land ‘Twixt’ the Rivers.  His income was that of a top executive.  “I ain’t no drunk,” he told his helpers. “It’s the money that puts me in the brush.”  In order to avoid detection, Garland worked by the light of the moon producing as much as 1,500 gallons of illegal whiskey per week which he was able to sell for around $4 per gallon.  Many of his customers were from as far away as Chicago and Detroit.  Individuals in some of the “dry” states in the south were among his customers.

Staying one step ahead of the law was always difficult for Garland.  “I’ve had them run me for miles.  They hardly ever caught me red handed, they would generally get me on a conspiracy charge, “ he said. Sometimes it was a lot of fun, when you would get away from them.”  There was a kind of gentlemen’s agreement between the moonshiners and the “revenooers” or federal agents. A person who was caught was generally released immediately after promising to appear in court.  “All we done in our ‘shine’ business, we just tried to get away,” said Garland, who was sent to prison six times.

Those on opposite sides of the law usually maintained a grudging respect for their opponents, and some became friends.   "I know Bruce Garland very well," said a former revenue agent, who lived in nearby Paducah. "I worked between the rivers for about 22 years. I reckon I've sent him to the pen a few times, but we got to be friends after it was all over."

Bruce Carroll Garland was born on July 19, 1923 in Trigg County Kentucky, the third of nine children of John Doyle Garland and Drucilla Hargrove Garland.  He married Melvie Melvina Colson and they were the parents of ten children, of which eight grew unto adulthood.  Bruce died on June 1, 1998 in Murray, Kentucky at the age of 74. His obituary said that he was a retired steel worker and farmer. There was no mention of his life as a “moonshiner”.  He was buried in the Elm Grove Cemetery in Murray.  His wife, Melvie, died on February 9, 2006 at the age of 75 and was buried next to her husband.

LINEAGE: (Bruce Carroll Garland was the son of John Doyle and Drucilla Hargrove Garland, the grandson of James Ouford and Virginia Marquess Hargrove,  the great-grandson of Francis Marion and Mary J. Thomas Marquess, and the great-great grandson of Peyton and Sarah L. Ethridge Thomas. .  Peyton was the third child of Cullen and Elizabeth Futrell Thomas.  Cullen was the first child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)