MoonShiner #4 James A. Barton Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

horseshoechamp: Picked up to clean up for this years race.

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Hidden : 2/13/2013
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

You are searching for a well hidden ammo can along with my Shine.

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When the late Baker County Sheriff, Asa Coleman, approached James Arthur Barton one day in 1948 about a job as his one and only deputy, it caught the tall, soft- spoken gentleman by surprise. He had very little education, no training at all in law enforcement, and he had been a bootlegger.

When the children reached school age, they attended at Sanderson, but, he says, school wasn't then like it is today. At that time they only had school a few months out of the year," he explained. "Lots of the time we were needed to work on the farm, so we didn't attend. I think Ress, Earn and Rhoda went to school up there at Sanderson for awhile, then something happened. I think one got a whipping, and my daddy just quit sending us. I didn't get, much education, but it wasn't nobody's fault. My daddy just werent able to take care of all of us.

I went to Baldwin to work for the state for eighty dollars a month. After a year of that, I started working for the railroad for fifty cents an hour. I worked first as a laborer, then on the Camp car which meant I had to travel around. Sadie went back home to live and I came home on weekends. Then the war started and I went to work for the shipyard where I made three hundred and fifty dollars a week.

That's when I started bootlegging. I knowed some people in it. They made money and I knew it. Me and Bart, Sadie's father, put us up six or eight barrels apiece and we started but we just couldn't make no money. They just kept tearing us up.

My wife begged me so hard to quit. She never wanted me to get in it. I went against what she wanted me to do, I can tell you that. When my baby, Phyllis, was born, I just told E.W. one day that I was going to quit fooling with it, and it just struck me like that. It was on a Sunday and I asked him if he wanted it. We had 16 barrels. He said, 'Well, I ain't got the money to buy it,' and I said, 'Well you can have it, I'm through messing with it.' He didn't think I meant it, but I did and when I come home that night Sadie had supper done. She'd done taken care of the younguns. I told her, 'Sadie, I'm done messing with whiskey,' and I never will forget what she said. She told me, 'I'll help you work, and we'll do all we can together, and she meant it.

When I went uptown I saw him parked in his car and I went up to him and asked him what he wanted to see me about. He said, 'Get in and sit down, so I did. He said, 'James, I want to give you a job,' and I said, 'Mr. Asa, what kind of job is it?' and he said, 'Deputy sheriff. I was shocked. I said, 'Now, Mr. Asa, we're going to have to talk about this.' I said, 'You know in your mind that I bootlegged awhile.

'Now Sheriff, you know that I know just about everybody in this county and those that are messing with moonshine. I want you to tell me just exactly how you want it run, and if I accept the job, then I'll do what you want me to do.' He said, 'James, I realize you know all these people, but you aren't going to have time to get out in these woods and find no stills. If you get a report on a still, you check it out, and we'll go tear it up. If you stop a car and there is moonshine whiskey in it, you make a charge against who ever is driving and let them go through the court.' "I accepted the job and moved my family in the jail.

As far as I know, what I done was aboveboard. I didn't care who knowed what I done. In those days no one had big operations. I didn't go to any of 'em and tell 'em to quit. How a man makes a living ain't none of my business. They were not criminals. They were doing it to feed their family, and I don't hold it against any of 'em.

The only two real tragedies in his life were the loss of his beloved Sadie in August 1961 at the age of 40. Three years later his only son, 20-year-old Larry, was killed in an automobile accident while car racing with several of his friends. The emotional pain still haunts the quiet-spoken man who played such a big part in Baker County's history.

James Barton died suddenly on Tuesday, May 9, 1995.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ynetr Cvar

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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