Stories from a rural TN sheriff during prohibition

>It's the same box his family keeps all their money and valuables in
>"What's in that box Mister?"
>No response, the man continues to struggle with his horse
>"What's in that there box Mister?" Josiah says forcefully
>"None of your business."
>The man sounds panicy
>Josiah raises the rifle and aims at the man
>"Give me the box Mister."
>The man sees the rifle and puts the box on the cold Tennessee dirt
>He raises his hands
>Now, Josiah was hot-headed. and he never let a confrontation end peacefully if he could help it. He'd get his action one way or another
>he was also poor, all the money his family had was in that box
>If the thief had gotten away, Josiahs family would have surely died
>The thief had committed an act equivalent to murder in Josiah's eyes

>"Now say your prayers and ask god for forgiveness."
>The man gets on his knees, arms still raised
>"And then, I'm gonna shoot you."
>Josiah pulls back the hammer on the rifle

>The man is kneeling before Josiah
>His hands clasped in prayer
>His head looks to the sky
>"Oh Lord, please forgive me for stealing this here box, an-an-and ac-costing that Lady."
>He pauses
>Josiah adjusts his aim
>The man screams
>"Ah, L-lord. I-I'm sorry fer killin' that man a-and killin' his wife too! Forgive me oh Lord! For I have sinned!"
>another pause
>Josiah prepares to take mans life

>"OH LORD! I am sorry for lustin' after me brother's wife! Forgive me, Oh god, from stealing from the church! I beg for your forgiveness Lord!"
>The man is now using this as a way to extend what little time he has left on Earth
>"I'm sorry for killing men in the war and killing that dog."
>His prayer's become more and more specific as well as detailed
>They eventually encompass petty and ridiculous things
>"Forgive me fer killin' that squirrel and killing that coyote, and the fish and the birds and the flies!"
>Josiah lowers his rifle and begins to laugh

>The man stops his praying and looks at Josiah in confusion
>Josiah slowly stops his laughter and looks at the man
>"Sir, I will let you live."
>The man sighs in relief
>"But if I ever see you again. I will kill you. Now git."
>The man nods
>"Thank you sir, sorry sir, thank you sir, I'll be goin' now sir."
>The man mounts his horse and rides off down the road
>Josiah picks up the money box and returns home
>He never sees the man again

And thus begins the adventure that is the life of my great-great grandfather, Josiah. A story passed down to my grandmother, my father, and me.

And now, I will share it with you

>>31890520
im lurking boy

> implying your great grandmother wasn't a whore and wasn't going to run off with the man later that night if all had gone according to plan

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I'm going to skip several years into the future

>The year is 1905
>Josiah has been made a deputy
>This rural Tennessee town has small town center with a general store, bar, and farmer's market
>It's small and there is very little crime if any
>Occasionally you have a robbery, or murder
>But it is usually quiet
>Tonight however, would be a little different

>Now Josiah at this point, had become a bit of a gun fanatic
>So much so that his service revolver was also his personal gun
>He loved it so much that he bought 3 of them, and carried all three on his belt to work
>He was disappointed that he rarely ever got to use them however
>Tonight, he would have the chance to use all three

One moment, I need to grab a snack

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You have my attention, boy

>Josiah is out patrolling for the night
>He comes across towns bar to find that a barfight has erupted
>He steps inside the bar
>The place is in chaos
>chairs and tables have been flipped
>Beer has been spilled
>A few men with bloody faces lie on the floor
>Josiah pulls out his first revolver
>With the gun pointed straight up in the air he fires a shot
>The bar goes silent, and all eyes are on him
>Josiah re aims the revolver at a slightly lower angle
>he fires one more shot
>A ceiling light is destroyed
>He continues to do this with each shot
>Aiming a little lower everytime

>He runs out of bullets
>and draws his second revolver

>Again he continues shooting
>Aiming a little lower each time
>After six more shots a picture falls off its place on the wall
>He holsters his gun and pulls out his third
>This time, he aims right above the heads of the bar patrons
>Fires six more times, sweeping the entire room

>All patrons now lay facedown with their fingers in their ears
>Josiah, exits the bar and continues his patrol

>>31890695
Kek

>>31890695
Lel waste of ammo

>>31890674
>>31890695
What a cunt

I will now skip directly into prohibition era, Josiah is about 40 at this point in life and has been a full sheriff for about 12 or so years

>Winter of 1922
>what was once a peaceful Appalachia town
>is still a peaceful Appalachia town
>But now with moonshiners

>One day the county sheriffs office receives word of a possible distillery being run in the Smokey Mountains
>Josiah gets on a horse and rides out to the suspected area
>Winters in Tennessee are cold
>Winters in the Tennessee mountains are a meat freezer
>Josiah spends three days battling the wilderness to find an illegal whiskey distillery
>Nearly frozen to death, he sees a shack in the distance

Anon your great grandpa sounds like a massive cunt

>>31890695
>>31890674
WHAT

>It's snowing heavily and cold as hell
>Josiah approaches the shack, gun drawn
>A man exits the shack holding an axe
>"Who the hell are you? go away!"
>"Are you Jameson?"
>"yea, I'm Jameson. What do you want?"
>"I'm the Sheriff, I hear you've been making illegal whiskey up here and I need to take you back for questioning."
>Jameson sees Josiahs gun and drops the axe
>"Alright Sheriff, I'll come with ye. Lemme get my coat first."
>Josiah follows him inside
>Jameson grabs something out of a wardrobe
>"DON'T MOVE!"
>Josiah has his gun trained on Jamesons head
>Jameson pulls out a jacket
>"Sorry Sheriff, just grabbin' my coat."

>"Show me where the distillery is."
>"I-it's out back, in the shed."
>Jameson leads Josiah into another room connecting to the backyard
>Inside the room Josiah sees seven children and a woman all gathered around a table eating some kind of soup.
>"You comin' Sheriff?"
>Jameson was holding the back door open
>Josiah lowers his gun and simply leaves the shack
>He spends another day finding his way back to town

>Once back in town he falsifies a report saying that there was no illegal distillery in the mountains, and no one bothered to ever check

>>31890822
Wait, so he falsified a police report?

>>31890862
Yeah, it's sounding like this guy who threatens to kill people and discharges firearms inside and destroys property isn't on the up and up.

>Spring 1924
>4 years into prohibition
>another report of a suspected moonshiner
>This time from a farm owned by a family who had settled the land before the Civil War
>Josiah rides out once again
>He arrives at the farm, and walks up to the front porch
>he knocks on the door
>A young man answers
>"Howdy Sheriff! Fine day we're havin'!"
>"Yes, fine day, fine day."
>"To what do I owe the pleasure Sheriff?"
>"I had received word that were runnin' an illegal moonshinin' business here, I'm afraid I need to bring you in."
>"Alright Sheriff, I'll come with you. But my brother's don't take too kindly to that idea."
>The man gestures towards the barn
>Josiah turns around and sees about 10 men with rifles all trained on him
>He turns around to face the man
>He tips his hat
>Thanks the man for his time and leaves
>once back at his office he writes

"The suspect is reachable and compliant, but is unobtainable."

>>31890862
>>31890877
yeah, from what I've heard about him , he was a generally angry man. But it's still nice to see some kindness show through.

I really just think he led a rather interesting life.

>>31890593
hey op, any idea if we could get any more specifics. Like exact area in TN.

I want to try to find any newspapers and such.

>>31890961
Iirc, it was Blount county, or somewhere close by. He also worked around Memphis at one point.

I personally think a good bit of his stories were tall tales, but it would be interesting if one thing was true.

I need to go to an appointment. But I'll be back to tell more if the thread is still up.

http://www.tngenweb.org/blount/newspr/abstracts/newsindex.htm

Can't find much

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>>31890909
>"The suspect is reachable and compliant, but is unobtainable."
lel

Great stories, I love the 1850s - 1950s period, it was such a completely different time

>>31891008
hope this isn't too personal. Any idea when he passed?

>>31891132
>>31891204
Shame, was hoping something could be found

and nah, he died before my time. He passed in 1958 from heart failure

>>31891225
He die in TN? If so where. Need specifics plox

>>31891307
Yes in TN, I'll need to ask which city though

>>31891331
Last name would help a bunch, but it's okay if you don't want to post that.

>>31891358
Ramsay should be the name

>>31890877

what the hell do you know about the up n up? nothing.

>>31890909
kek, what a pussy

>>31891331
If you get the name of the city, the puzzle would be complete.

Name: Josiah Ramsay
Born: ~1881 - 1958
Occupation: Sheriff (12 years)
Lived in: Blount County, TN
Died: TN ???

Nonetheless OP told us a good story.

>>31890520
Cap this, for posterity and history

>>31890520
>Josiah
new season of jojo confirmed

>>31890909
>not teleporting behind them with a tip of his cap and ending the standoff with one fell swoop of his ten thousand fold black steel katana

cool stories, thanks op

My great granddad was a sheriff in VA (Pulaski County) but never told any of his stories. My grandpa knew he kept a journal and he detailed everything but he never saw it until maybe 10 years ago. We were cleaning out some of his stuff from the attic after we finally got around to selling the old house (it was in horrible condition but we vowed to restore it as best we could before selling it. Took years)

Anway we finally find this journal and we're geeking the fuck out because we get to get some good stories.

Anyway, turns out great grandpa was functionally illiterate and only "kept a journal" because he knew other people that did. It was literally unreadable gibberish. Grandpa and I had a good laugh over that and then he told me a story about how he blew a nazi's head off with his Garand to make up for it.

>>31891967
this is one of the funniest things i have read in a long time. thank you, anon

>>31891967

Might be for the best anon. We found my great granddad's long lost journal and he COULD write.

Too bad all he wrote about was lynching black people when he was in the Klan...

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Great stories, OP. Thanks for sharing

>Josiah went home from a hard days work
>he found no action and was disappointing he didnt get to use his gun
>he came home to find his wife getting bang out by jamal
>he pulled out his revolver and threaten to shoot them both
>he notice his cock getting harder
>he told jamal to keep on going
>josiah became a cuck and this is how my family lineage because a cuckold family.

To think one day drug prohibition will be remembered like we remember alcohol prohibition.

Maybe one day felons will be allowed to own full auto firearms because we will have lasers and stuff, so slug throwers will be thought of as primitive.

During the Cold War we had a Communist political party in America... Maybe soon we will have an ISIS backed Islamic political party.

God damn I hate this reality sometimes.

Gotta dealwithit.jpg

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>>31890520
>Josiah
stopped there. What a stupid fucking name.

Got my great grsndads war story 7th tank division Matilda mk2

> skip to interesting part
>his tank just got imoblized and a panzer drives up to them and its gun pointed at them
>the crew shit them self then knocking
>German tank commander says the cleshay words for you the war is over
>they surrender and give up
>sent to Italian farm camp
>skip forwards the farmer helps them get out helps forge documents and dyes the only gingers hair black because no ginger Italians
>they get out and make a run to Switzerland
>and from what I hear they spent their time there skiing
He was the driver and was at Crete and involved in the north Africa campaign