[Granville-Hough] 8 Feb 2009 - Gentrytown Storm Cellars

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:52:47 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Gentrytown Storm Cellars - 8 Feb 2009

    We had more gentle showers and the total of this storm is about 1 
and 1/2 inches.  The bases of the hills and cuts are not bleeding water, 
so the ground was able to absorb it all. The flowering pears are in full 
bloom and all other fruits and flowers are getting into action.  One can 
say that God is in his heaven and looking after his plants and animals.  
Our pastor Leland Lantz was careful to mention in his prayers the trials 
and tribulations of our Governor and of our nation, and he did remember 
to give thanks for the rain.

Gentrytown Storm Cellars.

    First of all, the Gentrys were early intermingled with Sullivans so 
that they had common characteristics.  They seemed to me to be clannish 
and backwoodsy folks  who lived on the Smith-Covington County line 
crossing the Mize-Mount Olive Road.(Highway 35).  Originally, before 
1900, they had been timbermen who specialized in moving longleaf pine 
logs out of the woods with ox teams.  They settled down eventually into 
farming, but the land was not all that fertile.  They thus sought other 
ways to support their farming.  Uncle Sid Richardson lived among them, 
and the area was known as Gentrytown.  Uncle Sid eventually became the 
Justice of the Peace on the Covington County side of the line. 

    Of course, everyone had these storm pits and wondered how they could 
be used when there was no storm.  We found they were very good for 
storing things that we wanted to keep cool.  In the winter we could 
store quite a supply of canned goods or sweet potatoes, which we did not 
want to freeze.  On extremely cold nights, we just lit a lantern and 
closed the door.  They were never so air tight that the lantern would go 
out.  It kept everything warm until the cold spell was over.  Now that 
is how we used the cellar at Grandpa Jim Richardson's house..  But the 
Gentry's had more innovative uses. 

    In due course of time, they had become expert moonshiners, and they 
used the county line to their advantage.  When they learned the 
Covington County Sheriff was on his way to make a raid, they slipped 
across the line to a relative's house in Smith County.  If it was the 
Smith County sheriff, they went the other way.  If the still was in the 
woods in one county, they stored the finished product in the other.  It 
worked quite well, but one Gentry decided to build a sturdy storm cellar 
just across the county line from his house.  There he kept his store of 
moonshine and standard varieties of bootleg whisky (which came up from 
the Gulf Coast and New Orleans.)  He was so successful that word 
eventually got to the sheriff that he could find the store of whiskey in 
the storm cellar.

    The raid took Mr. Gentry by surprise, which he acted out in good 
form.  No, No, it was not his land outside his yard fence, and in fact 
that cellar was actually in the other county.  If the sheriff wanted to 
raid it, he would have to have search warrants from that county.  Now, 
the sheriff's team had taken the considerable store of drinkables out of 
the cellar and had made an inventory.   Then they had gone into Mr. 
Gentry's house to prefer charges and settle the affair.  Mr. Gentry 
convinced them he could not be charged for what was not his and actually 
in the other county.

    Then into the house burst a little Gentry grandchild who had just 
arrived from a nearby farm for  a visit.  He was all excited and 
shouted: "Grandpa, Grandpa,  somebody has been in your whiskey pit and 
took everything out; but it's alright now.  I put it all back." 

(GWH: I cannot vouch for this story which made the rounds in community 
gossip, but stranger things did happen.  I remember that one of the 
Sullivan families had a prize calf which escaped from its pasture and 
the whole neighborhood looked for it for two days.  It was finally found 
and it looked as if he had been in a clay pit full of cow manure.  
Further investigation within the extended family suggested that "Kaiser 
Bill" Burns, who had married one of Jeff Sullivan's daughters, had found 
the calf and had hidden it in the family storm cellar until he could 
safely sell or butcher it..  There the calf had gotten so messed up and 
slippery that it got away from Kaiser Bill's clutches and found its way 
home.  I cannot vouch for this storm cellar story, either.)