In 1748, when North Carolina was just a colony and had to follow England’s rules, the first “ordinary” was opened in Granville County. The proprietor had to pay $30 in “proclamation” money for a license and he had to promise to provide food and lodging for travelers and their horses.
As local historian Mark Pace explained it on Thursday’s Around Old Granville segment of TownTalk, ordinaries provided food and drinks for a fixed price as compared to inns – which provided rooms and meals and maybe drinks. And taverns were places where alcohol was first on the menu, accompanied possibly by food.
But anyone who wanted to open one of these establishments had to go to court and get a bond – pay money.
Prior to the Revolution, for the price of one shilling (about $35 in today’s economy), you and your horses would get room and board. But for drinks stronger than water, you probably had to pay extra.
Choices for alcohol were probably quite limited back then, with port, stout and rum figuring highest on the list, Pace said.
Nowadays, we have a multitude of craft beers, wine and spirits to tickle our taste buds. But whether you enjoy the occasional adult beverage or you’re a teetotaler, the stories about the history of alcohol in North Carolina are nothing short of entertaining.
After the Revolution, George Washington’s federal style of government put an excise tax on alcohol.
“This did not go over well with everybody, particularly with Pennsylvania,” Pace said, and the tax led to the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.
“It was the first time the federal government had issued a tax and the first time the people had risen up in arms against that tax,” he said. After all, they’d just fought a Revolution to get out from under British rule, and here they were, getting taxed again.
Washington sent 13,000 troops to quash the rebellion, and they made quick work of it.
When Thomas Jefferson took the Presidential oath in 1801, he abolished the tax.
And liquor was not taxed again until 1862, when it was reinstituted to raise money for the Civil War.
During that period leading up to the Civil War, it was perfectly legal to make your own alcohol, with no taxes imposed. And that’s what a lot of farmers in and around Granville County did, Pace explained.
One particular area in the vicinity where present-day southern Granville County meets Franklin County, achieved local notoriety for being rife with moonshine stills.
The dense orange-red clay in the area known as the “Harracan” wouldn’t grow tobacco, but it would grow corn.
So resourceful farmers and others took the opportunity to turn that crop into something they could make money with – and that was alcohol, Pace said. You may even be able to find the remains of stills along creeks or other water sources in the Haracan, “just down the road a little ways,” as old-timers recall.
After the Civil War, the feds started allowing people to have large-scale distilleries, and many towns had them, including Henderson, Oxford and Warrenton.
These distilleries were licensed and there were hefty federal taxes involved. Back then, a gallon of alcohol cost about $2.50 – and $1 of that was tax.
That was a bitter pill to swallow for some, Pace said. And that’s what led to bootlegging.
From 1870 to 1908 or so, bootleggers were running up, down, across and through the state with their untaxed spirits.
People figured out they could get their alcohol cheaper from their neighbor than they could from a licensed distillery, so business was booming for a good while.
In 1908, North Carolina passed a law stating that distilleries could be located in incorporated towns only.
Layer on that the 18th Amendment to the Constitution that enacted Prohibition and the black market for alcohol became even more important and intriguing.
The bootleggers needed to be able to outrun the revenuers, Pace said, and they created souped-up vehicles that paved the way for NASCAR racing, a perennial favorite for many.
One bootlegger from Wake County has a road named after him in the southern part of Granville County. Bruce Garner was arrested a bunch of times, paid his fines and kept on making liquor. He found religion, however, and turned from the liquor business. After World War II he moved to Raleigh and opened up a couple of restaurants. The burger joint he started in 1960? Yep. It’s called Char-Grill.
The 13 years or so that made up the Prohibition era was anything but dry, however. And when the 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933, North Carolina was one of the states that, in essence, got into the liquor business when the Alcohol Beverage Control board was established a couple of years later.
Vance, Warren and Franklin counties set up ABC stores in 1935. It took Granville County until 1963 to join the party.
Pace said at one time there was a bus route that ran from Oxford to the train station in Henderson – which was conveniently located across from the town’s ABC store on William Street.
Locals felt like having a liquor store right across from the station was a blemish on Henderson’s reputation, Pace said. But apparently that didn’t bother the folks who made the round trip from Oxford one little bit.
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