His daughter recalled a late-night visit from the sheriff when she was a little girl. “Sit on these quilts,” her father ordered, “and don’t move!” The child obediently sat on the quilt and never moved when the sheriff walked through her room. Hidden under the quilt were Mason jars filled with daddy’s hard work.
An editorial in the Clayton Tribune once declared, “Robberies, fights, shootings, knifings, street scuffles. They are all part of the contemporary history of Rabun County and Clayton.” It sounded like this was a pretty rough and lawless place. While some serious crimes were committed, there is a lighter side to some of the criminal activity
Located three miles south of Clayton, Tiger is home to about 400 people, give or take. Nestled at the foot of a cone-shaped, 3,000-foot mountain, the village is a tranquil place. But it wasn’t always that way. Tiger has a colorful history that belies the town’s diminutive size. Tiger’s history extends back to the time
Corn has been the main crop of Rabun County farmers since the first white settlers arrived over 200 years ago. Gristmills were built by Rabun farmers to grind the county’s corn harvests into meal for bread, grits and hominy. The output from gristmills also was used for something more potent than Johnnycakes. Virtually every Rabun
The earliest white settlers, Scots-Irish from Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, arrived in northeast Georgia in the late eighteenth century. They farmed the land to survive, but those settlers were not the first to raise crops in the fertile valleys and river bottomlands of what would become Rabun County. Already living in the north Georgia
Clayton, Ga.—October 2, 2020—The Rabun County Historical Society is asking area residents to donate or loan a moonshining still to its museum in downtown Clayton as part of a wide-ranging effort to expand the museum’s permanent collection. At one time, Rabun County was the moonshine capital of Georgia. Moonshining also was one of the county’s
Moonshining is Rabun County’s oldest industry. And at one time it probably was the county’s largest. Rabun County also held the distinction of being the moonshine capital of Georgia. Poverty has been a fact of life in mountainous Rabun County throughout much of its history. The Depression of the 1930s made the problem of rural
The museum of the Rabun County Historical Society, which is expanding its permanent collection, is asking area residents to donate or loan Cherokee artifacts and a moonshining still to the Society’s museum. The Society believes it is important for the public to understand how our Cherokee heritage and moonshining have shaped the county’s history and
Museum Exhibit Moonshining: Rabun County’s Oldest (and Once Largest) Industry Rabun County held the distinction of being the moonshine capital of Georgia. Distilling whiskey out of corn or apples was an economic necessity for poor subsistence farmers. Moonshining was concentrated in the remote Persimmon area of western Rabun County and near the Chattooga River to
The topic of the December 2016 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter is: Legendary Tales: Moonshine, Malice and Mayhem Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format 2016 Dec Vintage Rabun (PDF)
The topic of the March 2012 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter is: The Moonshine War of 1883 Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format 2012 March Vintage Rabun (PDF)
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