{"id":1192,"date":"2014-01-18T01:09:37","date_gmt":"2014-01-18T07:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/histnews\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2014-01-18T01:09:37","modified_gmt":"2014-01-18T07:09:37","slug":"miller-mollie-d-1873","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/histnews\/miller-mollie-d-1873\/","title":{"rendered":"MILLER, Mollie (d. 1873)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Famous Woman Moonshiner<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Death of Mollie MILLER, Once the Head of a Desperate Gang<\/strong><\/p>\n

Information has reached this city through a southern detective that Mollie MILLER<\/strong>, the woman moonshiner of Polk county, Tenn., died a few days ago at her home in the mountains.<\/p>\n

Her operations at one time were carried on very extensively, and she was at the head of a gang which was involved in more bloody fights with revenue officers than any other organized in the south. \u00a0Her first experience was in the mountains of Sevier county, where she assisted her father, Sam MILLER<\/strong>. \u00a0Here Deputy Marshal McPHERSON<\/strong> led a raid under a guide who had a grudge against MILLER<\/strong>. \u00a0In an almost inaccessible gorge the officers encountered the moonshiners.<\/p>\n

A bloody fight followed, and three of the revenue men were killed, the others retreating. It was noticed that young girl was one of the party, and it has always been believed that she killed one of the officers. \u00a0Another raid was made in which MILLER<\/strong> was killed and his associates captured. \u00a0About this time the revenue officers received a box containing the remains of the man who had informed upon the gang. \u00a0There was nothing to indicate from whom it came, and the box must have been carried by wagon and left at the marshal’s house.<\/p>\n

The woman was not found, and it was soon known that she had fled. \u00a0In a few months Polk county, which had always furnished considerable illicit whisky, became the headquarters of the moonshiners throughout east Tennessee, and raid followed raid until there was scarcely a cave on the Hiawassee river that had not been the scene of some bloody fight between the moonshiners and the revenue men.<\/p>\n

It became known that this woman was\u00a0a leader, but she was never arrested but\u00a0once, and then the proof was such that\u00a0she escaped with a light sentence. After\u00a0the Knoxville Southern railroad was\u00a0built the country became too easy of access,\u00a0and with the exception of an occasional\u00a0petty offender the gang was broken\u00a0up. The woman moonshiner retired\u00a0to a small farm, where she remained undisturbed,\u00a0except at two or three times,\u00a0when she was taken to Chattanooga as a\u00a0witness, when she would collect her fees\u00a0and start on a walk over the mountains,\u00a0a distance of 60 miles, to her home.<\/p>\n

It is supposed that the killing of three\u00a0revenue officers and four or five informers\u00a0can be charged to her directly, while\u00a0the gang of which she was a member,\u00a0could be held accountable for several\u00a0others, but it was never possible to prove\u00a0those charges, and she died without over\u00a0having been tried for them. — Cincinnati\u00a0Enquirer.<\/p>\n

\n

Source: Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 45, Number 6986, 25 August 1873.\u00a0Available at the California Digital Newspaper Collection. <http:\/\/cdnc.ucr.edu\/cgi-bin\/cdnc<\/a>><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Famous Woman Moonshiner The Death of Mollie MILLER, Once the Head of a Desperate Gang Information has reached this city through a southern detective that Mollie MILLER, the woman moonshiner of Polk county, Tenn., died a few days ago at her home in the mountains. Her operations at one<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[660,665],"tags":[1110,1111],"class_list":["post-1192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-polk","category-sevier","tag-miller-mollie","tag-miller-sam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/histnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/histnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/histnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/histnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/histnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/histnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/histnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/histnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/histnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}