This from the American Distilling Institute Newsletter

The Virgilina Distilling Company

by Sharon Whitt Burkholder

During the great migration to America in the 17th and 18th centuries,
settlers brought their meager belongings and diverse cultures with them. 

These migrants settled the American Frontier and they began to grow crops.  Money was scarce and these new settlers depended on trading for their survival.  They began to make value-added products from their crops. 

Distilled spirits were easily made from corn, fruits, and other grains and then exchanged for supplies and goods.  Thus, the great American spirits industry was born.

The Whitt family settled in the Virgilina area in the early 1700’s  when
Southern Virginia was a frontier.  Supporting this new nation, they fought in the Revolutionary War.  Some of the Whitts moved west, and many remained here.  They farmed, raised families, and were productive.

Copper and gold were discovered in the Virgilina area in the 1800s, and companies from Boston to England began to invest in this area’s mining industry.  Virgilina was a frontier town, a wild-west town that thrived from this industry. Located both in Virginia and North Carolina , irgilina’s rapid growth was due primarily to mining followed by the alcohol there. 

Being a wet town in a dry area,Virgilina’s distilling industry grew right
along with the town.  Our great-grandfather, General Lee Whitt, used to ride his horse to Virgilina to visit the saloons.

The railroad came to Virgilina in the 1880’s, providing a means to transport copper, gold, and alcohol. The town grew, and according to local lore, Virgilina was once the home to over 8,000 miners.  When minerals were found in the American West, the companies began to invest there, and they left along with their miners. The town began to decline, even though mining in Virgilina continued on a small scale until the 1950’s.  Prohibition effectively shut down the distilleries in Virgilina, further contributing to the town’ss decline.  With prohibition came the increase in moonshining and bootlegging in the area.

Our grandfather, LeeRoy Whitt, was a farmer and there were not many opportunities for a boy with a 9th grade education.  With a sense of sheer determination and a will to succeed, he made his living off the natural resources of the area.  In addition to farming, he was a bootlegger, and is quite a legend with the old-timers around these parts.

His largest moonshining operation was in the Virgilina area, on what we know as the Christie farm.  The natural springs, locally known by the old moonshiners as High Plains Northwest Blue, and were known to produce the best spirits in the area.  He was an expert driver, and his bootlegging cars were fast.  He used to tell us that his mechanic was Lee Petty,  the father of Richard Petty of NASCAR fame, and that he would race on the dirt tracks behind the Petty house back in the day.

Granddaddy quit bootlegging around 1960. The Feds arrested him during a sting in Person County , NC . During the chase, he was clocked going faster backwards than forward.  He used to tell us that he would have “outrun ’em” had he not ran over a railroad track which knocked his car out of gear.  He invested his money in over 800 acres of Southern Virginia land, and left it to us.

What the heck are we girls going to do with it?
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Legacy Artisan Distillers, Inc. DBA Virgilina Distilling Company is owned by four Whitt Sisters.  We are planning to distill corn liquor, and infuse with fruit, as well and brandies, etc.

We are making progress. We are working with Kothe, and are moving ahead!

Visit the American Distilling Institute at www.distilling.com