Volume XIV
Number 35
HE STATE
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
January 25
1947
Entered as second
matter, June 1, 1933. at the Poeloflice at Raleigh, North Carolina, under the Act of March 3. 1879.
Preacher Davis and
the Moonshiners
Dillingham Presbyterian Church of today. This church was founded by
Preacher Davis and was originally located in a small frame building.
How
оно
moil loci an en¬
tire comiiiiiiiit v lo change
its ways anil hclpcil build
up one of the finest rural
sections in western \orlh
Carolina.
Hi/ i ik.aic arerinetiiy
THIS STORY is incomplete. I
cannot give a single date. I can¬
not tell when and where
"Preacher Davis," as he is still
called on Big Ivy. was born, or
when and where he died. Some of
the details of his militant ministry
on Big Ivy ore shrouded in the
mists of time, and he has become
a somewhat legendary figure in the
recollections even of the few still
living who knew him in those days.
Nevertheless, by diligent inquiry of
those older citizens, and aided by
the late Dr. R. P. Smith’s writings,
especially his book, "Experiences
in Mountain Mission Work," I have
pieced together the following ac¬
count, which I believe to be sub¬
stantially accurate.
Call for a Preacher
About fifty years ago. sometime
around the turn of the century, a
citizen of the Ivy section of Bun¬
combe County called on Dr. Smith,
then Superintendent of Home Mis¬
sion Work in Asheville Presbytery.
"I wish you Presbyterians would
come to my community and start
a school." he said. “We could use
a young preacher who isn’t afraid
to help us run out the moonshin¬
ers, too."
At that time the upper portion
of the Big Ivy valley, twenty-five
miles north of Asheville, was one
of the most isolated spots in all the
Southern Appalachians. Accessible
only by a single road which in some
places followed the channel of the
creek, and in others was hub-deep
in mud throughout the winter
months, it boasted neither a school
nor a church. In the veins of the
inhabitants flowed the purest An¬
glo-Saxon blood, most of them be¬
ing Dillinghams, lineal descendants
of a common ancestor, but, handi¬
capped by isolation and want of
opportunity, many of these poten¬
tially fine and useful citizens were
living in poverty and ignorance,
and a substantial number had tak¬
en up the only industry at hand,
distilling blockade whiskey.
The valley was a fertile field for
mission work, and Dr. Smith select¬
ed a young minister named E. Mack
Davis to inaugurate it. Davis was a
tall, earnest individual, handi¬
capped by a congenital physical in¬
firmity, but burning with a zeal
comparable to that of the prophets
of the Old Testament. Before long
he and his faithful horse, Jumbo,
were familiar sights throughout the
length and breadth of the Ivy val¬
ley, and with Dr. Smith’s aid, he
soon had a school in operation, and
religious services were being held
regularly. His first sermon was
preached in a grove beside the clear
waters of Big Ivy. but a church
building was soon underway. Ev¬
erything went along swimmingly
except for one thing; the blockade-
liquor business. Neither bis preach¬
ing nor his personal conversation
had the slightest effect on it.
No Compromising
Preacher Davis was not the type
to compromise. There simply
wasn’t room enough on Big Ivey
for his work and the liquor busi¬
ness, too. When he called a mass
THE STATE. January 25. 1947
3
