Lou’s View

One of the names you hear, over and over, in the history of Clinton County is Prince Farrington. He was a bootlegger, born in North Carolina about 1890. During Prohibition, Farrington had stills spread out throughout the county, and was brewing a wonderful whiskey—Not the rotgut crap that would immediately blind you, but a high-quality, drinkable whiskey.

There are a ton of anecdotal stories about Prince Farrington, and if you piece a lot of them together, it makes an interesting portrait of his life. For one thing, “Prince” was not some title or nickname, it was his actual name. He was sick at birth, and almost died. His parents called kindly old Doctor Prince, nearby, who advised them to stick the kid behind the furnace and let him warm up. This is the kind of advice no sane doctor today would ever give, because you can’t charge outrageous amounts for it, but it worked. The baby lived, and his parents named him after the doctor: Prince David Farrington.

As an adult, Farrington came to Clinton County, and became a big-time bootlegger here during Prohibition. He’s been referred to as “America’s Most Notorious Bootlegger,” a title I see no reason to dispute. He was definitely an outlaw, but not really a bad guy—A lot of his money was spent on replacing a church roof, or buying shoes for poor kids, or things like that.

Also, the local cops were drinking as much of Prince’s whiskey as anyone else. It was said that the only reason Farrington ever got arrested was so the police could stock up for their weekend parties. The federal agents were after him vehemently, once even pulling over Helen Keller on the suspicion she might be running whiskey (Really), and sometimes Prince got arrested….But it never stopped him for long.

In order to distill large amounts of whiskey, you need large amounts of water. Farrington would go out into the wilderness and build his stills near springs and streams all over the county. In one incident, he just happened to be visiting his still when the feds showed up, having discovered it there. The federal agents didn’t know what he looked like, photos not being as readily available at the time, so Farrington pretended to just be a man out for a walk, outraged to find an illegal still nearby. He helped the feds destroy his own still, and walked away.

Eventually, the agents figured out that they could locate a still because it left a faint whiskey taste in the water. This meant that they could just walk up along the river, and every time they encountered a stream, they’d dip a cup in and take a taste. If they detected whiskey, they knew there was a still up the hill along that stream.

Farrington countered this by building his stills in limestone areas. If the stream traveled through limestone, it would filter out the taste. Prince Farrington actually used geology to distill illegal bootleg whiskey, which is kind of genius.

Eventually, Prohibition was repealed, it having been a bad idea in the first place. There were plenty of former bootleggers who went legitimate and started their own companies, but Farrington wasn’t one of them. Because of his arrest record, he couldn’t get the licensing to do it, which is too bad, as his high-quality whiskey would have made him a fortune. Farrington was heard to say that he wished the government would outlaw alcohol again, so a guy could make an honest living.

Prince Farrington was definitely a major player in our history here in Clinton County, and had a big impact on the area. He was an interesting guy, and left his mark on our county, for sure. Now I need a drink. I’m thinking whiskey might be good.