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Trip into the Smokies with Horace Kephart

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-11011.jpg
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  • Page 7 miles from the railroad, or from any place - was one of the witnesses for the Westfeldts in that lawsuit over the copper mine. I saw him often and had many talks with him at one of the trials in Waynesville. He was a splendid looking man, very tall and strong and very likable. Quill was a very famous old moonshiner. He lived in such an isolated spot - no road up there at all to the head of Eagle Creek. Provisions had to be carried up. He thought he had a.perfect right to make some whiskey from the patch of corn he grew up there. My uncle, Patrick M. Westfeldt, of New Orleans and Fletcher, N. C, would quite often go out to stop at Quill's place to fish in Eagle Creek. He knew Quill well - and his wife and two daughters. They were most hospitable and kind. On one of his trips out there, my uncle arrived at Quill's cabin early in the aftern&on. He noticed that Quill went right off somewhere and was gone for hours. Supper time came but no Quill and no supper. It was getting late when Quill came in and later when supper was put on the table. Quill never said a word nor did my uncle. Quill had walked many miles, maybe down to Waycross or over the gap to Hazel Creek, to get food. He would never allow my uncle to pay him anything for stopping at his place and vrould not like it if money were offered him - Smoky Mountain hospitality and pride. The Revenue Officers, as Quill said, never got him until he was an old man over seventy. Then they did come up and get him, and he had to go to Asheville to court. One of my uncles and Jack Coburn and Dr. Westry Battle of Asheville, and others, interceded for him, and he was free to go back up on the head of Eagle Creek to end his days. Jack Coburn told me that one day some time later on Quill walked into his office in Bryson City and handed him his old big pistol, saying he guessed he would not be using it any longer. Jack said that Quill
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