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Kiln was famous for sowmi
By S.G. THIGPEN SR.
Special to the Item
Back 60 years ago Kiln was famous for two things: One of the biggest and best sawmills in the country and for “moonshine” whiskey.
A man who moved to Kiln in 1912 - 64 years ago - said: “When I went to Kiln in 1912 it was just a wide place in the road, wild and wooly but it soon became widely known as a lively sawmill town and as the home of Kiln whiskey. One brand of Kiln whiskey was the “block and tackle brand - take a drink, walk a block and tackle anything.”
When Edward Hines Lumber Co. decided in 1912 to build their big sawmill at Kiln, men were brought in from everywhere. First came the mill builders, the millwrights, the carpenters. They wanted to build this big mill in a hurry. Men were brought in from long distances to do the work.
Back in those days with the means of transportation available, the men who worked in a sawmill or other plant had to live in the community where they worked and within a very short distance away - walking distance or within the reach of transportation on horse back or in a buggy or wagon. Practically all the men employed in the Kiln mill (v lived within a radius of a mile or so of the mill.
The first thing to be done was to build houses for the men to live in. Within a short time between 100 or 200 hows'* were built in the immediate Kiln area.
While the houses were being built the engineers were laying out the mill site and preparing the foundations for the new mill. Soon the men who had been building the houses were busy building the big mill and its auxiliary buildings.
The sawmill and planner mill, power house and other buildings directly connected with the operation of the mill, even with many men working, took almost a year.
While the mill was being built other men, mostly the carpenters, were building the modem school buildings and other buildings. At the time it
about 1913 Kiln grew into one of the best small towns in the state and was for a time the busiest town between Hattiesburg and New Orleans and that includes Poplarville, Picayune, Bay St. Louis”. (This was before the big mills were built in Picayune).
Continuing to quote Mr. Roddy, “The company store carried a big stock of merchandise. The inventory ran around $75,000 equivalent now to more than $200,000. You could get anything you wanted at this big store. There was an up-to-date meat market. The cold storage would hold a carload of foods -there was plenty of everything, meat, vegetables and other things. When watermelons were plentiful they would place hundreds of them in the storage place and have them for sale long after they were gone everywhere else. There was a big stock of shoes, both men and women’s clothing, etc.”
I myself bought merchandise at this store and people from miles around went there to trade.
The biggest hotel in this whole section of the country was for a number of years at Kiln and it stayed full because it was well kept and they fed exceptionally well. Many of the better paid men at the
45-room hotel stayed full...
mill stayed in the hotel. The company saw to it that the men were fed well in order to keep them satisfied and to keep them working at the mill.
It was customary with all the sawmill companies to feed their men well in order to keep them satisfied as labor was usually hard to get. I ate at this Kiln Hotel several times. I remember really good meals I ate there for which I was charged 35 cents. A dinner like that today would cost three or four dollars or even more.
A real nice small hospital was built by the company to serve their people at Kiln. A doctor and a nurse were on
F There was a real nice / picture show at Kiln for many Lyeatg^and a pool rgom.^ Ovef’tKe yearTthe ^Kinn-ies” business developed into big business in what was known as the Kiln area after the Mississippi prohibition act was passed in 1908. This illegal business had another great growing spurt after the national prohibition act was passed by congress in 1918. Kiln whiskey was known far
Liquor packed a big 'kick'...
and wide and was sold to trucks and cars after they came into general use. They came into the area from as far away as Chicago.
One small merchant once told me that for a time he sold an average of $4000 worth of sugar a week for a long time. Sugar was shipped into the area in big quantities until government agents put a stop to it and after that it was shipped in stealthily in great quantity. Kiln “shinnie” was even shipped to as far away as Chicago in car lot.
The liquor would be loaded in a car and then a layer of fat pine wood used for kindling would be put on top of the liquor and it would be billed out as wood. A man living out east of Picayune told me that many cars passed his house every night with license tags from many points in Mississippi, Tennessee and other states.
Kiln liquor reputedly had a tremendous “kick”. Mr. Roddy told me that on a real cold night a man from up state went to a place near Kiln to buy some liquor. As they sat by the fire the buyer said he would like to sample the liquor. The moonshiner sent his boy out to get some. He returned, the buyer poured some for himself and spilt some on the hearth in front of the fire. Directly a big old rat, evidently very cold and coming to the heat, slipped in by the fire.
He lapped up some of the shinnie. When someone moved he ran back into his hole. Pretty soon he came out again and lapped up more of
julee” into a cup and began to sip it. He spilled a little of it into the saucer. A mosquito lit on the edge of the saucer and dipped his bill into the rot-gut t whiskey. He immediately fell j over dead. Pretty soon a fly ( lit in the same spot, tasted the stuff and fell over dead. That ! gave the man an idea.	!
He bottled the stuff and labelled it Mosquito Dope - j The Best on the Market. He guaranteed that you could spray it on a bull dog and knock him off his feet with one shot. He made a big profit on his load of liquor he thought he was going to lose on and went back and bought more.
Among many who went to Kiln and bought the “Jordan River Dew” was a man from Hattiesburg. Before buying he told the moonshiner he wanted to try it out. A drink in a cup was handed to him. Not being in a hurry he sat around talking. Pretty soon he poured himself another drink.
After the third “shot” he passed out. They laid him on j the floor until he came to. In the meantime two devilish' boys slipped in and rubbed some very smelly rotten cheese in the man’s mustache. When he roused up he yelled for his driver, saying “let’s get out of here, this is the most awful smelling place I ever saw”.
Much to offer residents now
The driver helped him out to his car and they drove off, but of course the smell persisted. The man kept yelling to his driver to go faster, saying “Hurry up and get out of this place, this most awful stinking place I ever saw. As he got further away and the J smell persisted the man said, P “The shole county sells, j drive faster so we can get 11 out of here.”	j
Moonshine liquor was not I the only kind sold along and , i back from the coast in the , j prohibition era.	j j
To show how big the liquor i business was, a man living , 3 not far from Kiln built up a 1 j tremendous business. I went i’\j with a salesman to this man’s -1