The Burch Family distillery

In 1858, at age 26, My Maternal Great Grandfather, Thomas Martin Burch, who went by the name “Martin” and his wife Mary Jane Lay Burch and Martin’s younger brother Samuel Huston Burch and his wife Phoebe Simmons Burch went by covered wagon from Bradley County, Tenn.to Pope County, Arkansas. The two families settled on the North Fork of the Illinois Bayou, in what is now part of the Ozark National Forest.

Martin and his wife Mary Jane farmed their tract of land and raised pigs, chickens and a couple of cows. They had seven children, their youngest son, my Grandfather John Hale Burch was born in 1874 and in 1895 he Married Josie Newport. John and Josie lived on the farm with Martin and Mary Jane.

Both Martin and his son John were “Drinking Men” and in 1898, even though they knew it was illegal they decided to build themselves a still so they could make their own whiskey. They constructed a two-log bridge across the North Fork of the Illinois Bayou and went back into the woods and set up their still.

Mary Jane and her daughter-in-law Josie were not happy about their men laying around drunk all day and not doing their chores, but back then woman folk did not cross their men.

One day after a big rain Martin and John went to town for supplies and Mary Jane and Josie decided to take care of business. They took their axes and went down to the Bayou but when they got there, they found that the normally placid Bayou was a roaring rapids and Josie was afraid to cross the bridge.

Mary Jane was really, really, mad and she crawled across the bridge and went back in the woods to the still. Using her axe, she busted all the crocks used to ferment the mash, chopped holes in the still and crushed all the copper tubing. She also broke all the mason jars full of the men’s finished product. She then went back and crawled back across the bridge and with Josie’s help the two women managed to dislodge the logs that made the bridge from the bank of the bayou and let them float downstream.

When word got out about what Mary Jane had done the story was printed in the Russellville Courier-Democrat and the merchants of Russellville got together and bought Mary Jane the nicest dress in town.

Mary Jane’s efforts put an end to the Burch’s Distillery Business!

A Special note to our readers:

If you have an interesting or humors tale about your family, or a little-known tidbit about our local history that you would like to see recorded for posterity, please contact us at:

C. C. G. S.

P. O. Box 880

Atlanta, Texas 75551

E-mail us at evanjevans@yahoo.com, or call us (903) 796-3081