Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1901 — A Mountain Maid [ARTICLE]

A Mountain Maid

AND THE MOONSHINE WHISKY WHICH SHE SOLD.

When Ellen Hignlte, a mountain girl from Clay county, Ky., was put on trial In Louisville before the United States District court recently on the charge of selling Illicit whisky, she was not left alone In her trouble, says the Chicago Tribune. By the side of the shrinking little mountain maid sat Miss Alice Castleman, one of the proudest beauties of Kentucky, the belle of the New York horse show two years ago, and one of the handsomest women In the south. Miss Castleman and her mother had heard of the mountain girl’s sad story and they went to her help because they believed that she was the victim of spite and persecution, and that while she had disobeyed the revenue laws and sold illicit whisky as charged, still, she had done it only to save her mother and baby sister from starving. So when the case of the “People vs. Hignlte” was called the court room held a notable crowd. Around the mountain girl sat Miss Castleman and her mother, Mrs. Samuel A. Miller, Mrs. Basil Duke, and other society leaders otf Louisville. Gen. John B. Castleman and Gen. Basil Duke, two of the most renowned soldiers of Kentucky, who during the long years of the rebellion wore with distinguished honor the uniforms of gray and who a quarter of a century later wore with no less honor the old army blue of the Union in the war of a reunited country against a foreign foe, had come into the court to testify in the little prisoner’s behalf. The story began with the breaking out of a feud between the Hignlte family and the moonshiners of Letcher county. The Hlgnltes refused to make illicit whisky themselves or deal in It Their neighbors declared that some of the Hignlte boys were spies of the government. One night Gob Hignlte was killed while going home to his cabin. Old man Hlgnite and his other two boys went out to avenge the murder and all were killed. The night after they were burled the little log <ta.bln of the Hlgnltes was burned to the ground and Mrs. Hignlte and her baby and her 17-year-old daughter, Ellen, fled to the woods for refuge. The next morning when they returned to the ruins of their smoking cabin they found a notice tacked on a tree. The notice read: “Es you ’uns go an’ don’ mek no mo’ fuss we ’uns won’t do no mo’ to yo’ all." The terrified mother took her children and fled through the mountains towards Clay county, where her people lived. For three weeks they wandered through the mountains. Then they sank down in the ruins of an old

hut They could go no further. All through the night the baby moaned for food. It was easy to see that Its little life could not last much longer. In the morning Ellen staggered out jf the hut door. “Ellen,” called her mother, “come back! We’re a-starvln’, but we’re Hignites to th* end, and we ain’t a-goin* to ask favors of anyone.” "1$ hain’t a-goln’ ter ask favors,” said Ellen, “but I’m goin* to get you all suthln’ to eat” The girl went blindly down a trail that she recognized. It led ber straight to Jim Clark’s moonshine still. Then for weeks Ellen Hlgnite peddled moonshine whisky for Jim Clark. The story spread all around in the mountains and the people came for miles to buy whisky from old Bob Hlgnlte’s girl, the "prettiest gal In Kalntucky.” Jim Clark’s still couldn’t keep up with the demand and Jim Clark fairly coined money and grew fat laughing at ths bargain he’d made. A few days later a federal marshal started from Louisville for Clay county, and in his pocket was a warrant for the arrest of Ellen Hlgnite on the charge of selling liquor without a government license. The girl heard the marshal was coming, but she did not run away. "Isold licker,” she said. "I sold it to save ma and the baby from a-starvin’. But I’m a Hignlte, and I run from nobody.” The next day she was arrested. Jim Clark got away.