Ed Ward
This time a year ago, Ed Ward, 83, of Batesville, was just beginning to look seriously at his idea for marketing legal moonshine. He had come across the story of a Virginia man who bought a license to manufacture and market his own liquor. Ward was more than merely interested. He called the man and received some helpful tips. He learned that you could actually bring in quite a bit of money making moonshine. The Virginia man had put his two daughters through college with the small business. A business man himself, Ward knew where to take it from there.
He applied for the first liquor production license in Arkansas. Then he purchased two buildings to produce and store the product. He then began looking for resources. He recruited Larry Bishop, a man who grew up around stills, to be his still master. Arkansas glass was to make him a massive order of bottles.
Ward had grown up in Shelbyville, outside of Cave City, Ark. There his parents worked picking cotton. Sometimes cotton didn’t cut it so his father had to set up a still to feed the eight children of the family, though the still was eventually found and destroyed by the law. But according to Angella Roberts, Ward said that his father wouldn’t be too proud of him for starting the business.
However, Ed Ward died Monday, November 22, 2010. It seems that all efforts to get the still up and running were halted. He was a dreamer, grown out of a hard life in Arkansas. May his dream live on.
References
- Roberts, Angella. “Legal, Local Moonshine.” The Batesville Daily Guard. 22 Mar. 2010, Vol. 134, No. 57, p. 1
- Obituary. “Ed Ward.” Flint Journal. 24 Nov. 2010. <http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/flint/obituary.aspx?n=ed-ward&pid=146801363>
