his more palatial quarters in the coffin box had been provided.
The District was noted in years gone by as the "favorite stamping ground of Jim Morrison and kindred outlawed spirits." Most of the inhabitants of the surrounding country are employed in the mining of brown iron ore, which is taken out of large open cuts and washed by machinery and shipped to the furnaces of the Birmingham district. Nearly all of the labor, black and white, are the descendants of small farmers of Tuscaloosa County and the southern part of Jefferson County. Many of them still carry on farming in a small way, and the region has long been famous for its smooth and creamy "moonshine," which in some mysterious way still continues to be made. It was for many years a favorite pastime of old Judge Shackelford, who lived and died in sight of the D home, to mix his corn juice in an old sugar bowl while dispensing justice in the good old way. Shortly after the events narrated here, the sheriff of the county was murdered in cold blood on the village street by one of the outlaws of the section.
Two other interesting cases handled by the Birmingham Division concerned two brothers, S and R. S deserted from Camp Pike, Arkansas, October 5, 1917, and R from Camp Mills, N. Y., September 25, 1917. The peculiar part of the case was that while S was listed as a deserter, the War Department had no record of R deserting, though they were advised that he was in this section of the country and efforts were made to check the records. While their desertions took place the latter part of 1917, it was not until August, 1918, that Operative No. 202 of the Birmingham Division received confidential information that both men were in Shelby County, Alabama, making moonshine whiskey, which they were selling to the miners and also to citizens in Bessemer, Alabama, a town thirteen miles southwest of Birmingham.
A party was organized to go after them, but unfortunately missed them by four days, the brothers and their family having moved elsewhere. Operative continued giving the case active attention, and finally information was secured that the brothers were in Coosa County, Alabama.
