Carter County Herald

January 27, 1921

WHOLESALE SHOOTING

   Last Saturday proved to be a day of "Wholesale catching" of moonshiners and bootleggers.  Saturday morning, Charlie and Orville Mobley were arrested at the home of Charlie Mobley and he was charged with moonshining.

   Sheriff Flannery and three deputies, A. M. Johnson and others went to the home of Charley Mobley Saturday morning and after searching the place for some time located the still snugly placed on the inside of a stack of fodder in the center of his large barn with a rock wall next to the fodder, which made as nice a place as could be made to do the work in, and placed within this wall was a 55 gallon gasoline tank which was used for the still and twelve sour mash tubs and it was still warm, they having just completed making the run.  The still was destroyed and the posse went to the house and found Charles and Orville Mobley in bed and placed them under arrest and brought them to town and they gave bond before U. S. Commissioner H. L. Woods, and returned to their homes.

   Saturday morning just after train 26 had run into Hitchins officers received word that there was a lady in town for the purpose of disposing of some whiskey and they placed Mrs. Julia Brown, of Rowan county, under arrest and found that her bag which she was carrying with her contained five quarts of moonshine, and that it wasn't "baby food" as she declared it was.  She was taken to Grayson and placed in jail, after much difficulty, and it was there that she revealed to the other officers the full text of the shooting in Rowan county of Ora Eden by Kate Tolliver on Wednesday night before.

   The same day two suspicious characters came into Grayson, one passing through the town in a wagon with something in it covered with a tarpaulin and just after he had passed through the town and gotten down about the tobacco warehouse on the east side of town he was then joined by a man who had surrounded the city, walking through the fields, and this made it more suspicious, and the officials placed the two under arrest, but one made good his escape, the other was held and proved to be Jason Fannin, of Elliott county, who had in his possession (only) 34 quarts which were turned over to the Police Judge at Grayson, S. W. Wylie, who will keep it until there is an order made disposing of it.

   The offiicals had quite a tussel in making the arrest as he resisted and it was found that he had a pistol on him and he was going after it with the intention of making use of it, when he was struck over the head and knocked senseless.

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CARTER COUNTY HERALD
 
January 27, 1921
 
HORRIBLE SHOOTING AFFAIR
 
The most horrible shooting affair hwich has occured in this part of the 
state for many years ws that of Ora Eden on Holley, in Rowan county, 
just across the line from Carter county, on last Wednesday night, while 
Eden, who was 32 years of age, was out with his dog coon hunting. 
 
Eden left his home, which is on the head of Tygart, in Carter county, 
Wednesday night, carring his lantern, gun and axe, accompanied by his 
dog for a coon hunt in the hills of Rowan county, just across the divide, 
and as he journeyed down Holley Creek he came in contact with a 
moonshine still, and by his tracks, as they tracked him by his rubber boots, 
he turned right around and went back almost the way he came, unti lhe 
came to a stump, where he ad set down for a rest, and while he was there 
they him from the back, two bullets going clear through his body and 
one taking effect in his elbow, came out of his forearm. He was then 
picked up and put on a harse and carried a little way and thrown in the 
woods, where he laid until two o'clock the next day.
 
His wife and two children became alarmed the next day and spread the 
news that he had not returned home, where upon the entire community went 
out in search for the man and found him laying where they had left him 
and still alive, and with this dog standing by his side, the latter 
being the direct cause of them finding him, owing to barking when some one 
of the party blew the old fox horn. He talked and told the crowd where 
he was shot and pointed in the direction that the party run when he 
shot him, and about them carrying him on the horse, and told them to give 
him a drink and turn him over, but when they did he died almost 
instantly.
 
The still, which was found on the land of Kate Tolliver, and a woman 
arrested at Hitchins Saturday by the name of Carry Brown, who was 
captured here Christmas eve night and given $100 and costs for selling, has 
just confessed that she knows who did the shooting as that of Kate 
Tolliver, and that a man by the name of Raybourn is in partners with him in 
the still and they feared he was a spy and shot him.
 
Captain V. G. Mulligan, of Lexington, was brought to the spot with 
blood hounds and could do nothing toward tracing anyone down.