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Wilkes

May 15, 2022

Changing Sides

On a hot August day in 1932, constable Perry C. Duncan was determined that the law would be respected by everyone in his district. And that meant everyone ... including his son Wilson Duncan. When he arrested his own son and Glenn Cox in a state of drunkenness near a moonshine still, the event made headlines in at least two newspapers.

Wilkes Journal (8/15/1932, p1)

A similar article appeared a few days later in the Statesville Record and Landmark, 8/19/1932, p2. The article praises Mr. Duncan for destroying a record number of illicit distilleries in this part of Wilkes County near Stone Mountain. He had destroyed seven operations in two days, attributing his success to a feud among the bootleggers who were eager to report on the activities of the competition.

Perry Duncan, upholder of the law, was my great grandfather. His son Wilson was 19 years old at the time, and he was my grandpa’s oldest brother. I imagine Wilson didn’t appreciate being brought before a judge by his own father, and he wasn’t going to let that happen again. By the next year, he was living in Los Angeles, CA, about as far away as he could get from dear ol’ dad.

Wilson Duncan (1912-1941) taken in the 1930s. The lady is unknown.

The newspaper article ends by stating that Mr. Duncan had been an officer for 22 years. The last four years were in Wilkes County, and prior to that he served in Dublin, VA. That’s a noble portrait of an honest citizen dedicating his life to doing the right thing to keep his community safe. Unfortunately, that’s not the whole story.

Let’s Go Back a Few Years

In the early 1900s, it seems like everyone in rural America was involved in moonshine. At least, that’s the case among my ancestors. They were either making it, transporting it, or consuming it. Many individuals didn’t specialize in just one of those areas. They had a vertically integrated enterprise where they participated in all three aspects of the business!

With that in mind, it’s worth asking why Perry Duncan moved to Wilkes County in 1928. Did he enjoy family picnics at nearby scenic Stone Mountain? No, that wasn’t it. Perry had been “doing business” in Wilkes County for years before he moved there. In the 1910s and early 1920s, he would drive a horse-drawn wagon between his home in Dublin, VA, and Traphill, NC. That was about a 100-mile journey. His wagon was seemingly filled to capacity with fresh-picked sweet peaches, but just underneath that innocent facade were hidden jugs of brandy or moonshine. He was running liquor between state lines. In fact, he met his second wife as a result of this journey. After Perry’s first wife Mary died in June 1925 in Virginia, he married Maude Casey just three months later in Wilkes County.

Perry Duncan (1887-1937) and his second wife Maude Casey (1907-1993) on their wedding day in 1925.

One day in 1927, Perry and his family were at home when they received visitors who identified themselves as government officers, “The Revenuers”. They politely asked Perry if they could take a look at his place up on the hill to verify that he didn’t have any illicit spirits on his property. Without hesitating, he agreed to the search and called for his son Wilson to take them up to look at the house. Wilson did as he was asked.

Perry knew he had been caught. When they returned, he would be arrested and likely have to spend at least a year in prison. He couldn’t let that happen. He hurried to his car and drove off, heading south to leave the state of Virginia. Apparently it was harder to be tracked and apprehended if you crossed state lines. He headed into North Carolina and stayed in Wilkes County where his wife’s family lived. Within a few months, his wife and children joined him in Wilkes.

Home of Perry Duncan along the railroad tracks in Dublin, VA.

Before the days of wireless communication, it was easier to reinvent yourself. When you moved to a new town, you could become anyone you wanted to be. As a new resident of Wilkes County, Perry was unknown to most people in the neighborhood. If he told them that he had served as a constable for 18 years in Virginia, they had no reason to believe otherwise.

Perry Duncan, 1930s.

What’s surprising to me is that he chose to become a Wilkes County constable. It’s one thing for him to have learned his lesson and gotten out of the moonshine business, but he went that extra step by becoming part of law enforcement. I wonder if he might have switched teams because it was more lucrative with less risk. Maybe he was being paid by certain manufacturers for agreeing to overlook their activities and to instead arrest their competition. I don’t know if that’s the way it happened, but it would explain his complete change in allegiance. If that’s the case, he was still in the moonshine business, only playing a different role.

If you’re looking for parallels between father and son, it’s interesting that both Perry and Wilson left their homes because of the moonshine business. Perry left Virginia to avoid prison time after being caught by the Revenuers. Five years later, his son Wilson wanted nothing more to do with his dad after being arrested by him for drunkenness, and so he moved to California.

Perry lived the rest of his life in Wilkes County until his death in 1937. He died of tuberculosis – the same illness that killed his first wife and their two oldest children, including Wilson who died in California in 1941. Perry had a total of eleven children including my grandpa Roy Duncan who was born in 1919.

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