AB’s fourth child was my grandfather, Zachariah. As a boy he went outside one day, to use the outhouse. Upon finding it occupied he went to the nearest bush and used the proverbial leaf. Unfortunately that leaf was poison ivy. He ended up in such a painful state that his mother gave him a skirt to wear until he recovered. From then on he was called Betty by his brothers.

Zach would’ve been a baseball player had there been any baseball in the county. He could throw a rock hard enough to knock down a cow. This was partly due to the strength of his throwing arm, and partly because he knew where to hit the cow, in a spot he called the ‘melt.’

Zach drove a Model A, but he never understood that he was supposed to slow the car down before making a turn. Once he made a right turn, drifted into the left lane, crossed it, ran down the bank, and almost landed he and his family in the river before the car finally slowed to stop. Another time, on his way into Black Mountain, he made a 90-degree turn at top speed and drifted again, right into a bench sitting against the wall of the corner gas station. Luckily the men on the bench saw him coming and leaped out of the way in time. Zach didn’t stop to wait for the law to show up, he hit the gas and kept on going. He had a suitcase full of white lightning in the backseat.

Zach’s first wife, Sophronia, died from Menorrhagia. He owned land on the other side of S Estatoe Baptist Road across from South Estatoe Baptist Church in South Toe. Presumably it was given to Zach and Phroney by her parents. After Phroney died he refused to pay the property tax because the tax was more than what the land was worth.

After Phroney died, he met Annie Gibbs, who was also living in South Toe. It was understandable that Zach would want a new start. After he and Annie married, they moved to Burnsville where Edith and Fleet were born. He traded land for property on Saw Mill Hollow Road.

According to Fleet, Zach didn’t make moonshine. He was more of a middleman. He brought it from Wilkes County and sold it in Yancey. According to his eldest daughter, Edith, he hid it in a hole in the ground under the boards he parked his truck on.

A new sheriff arrived in Burnsville called Honeycutt. Zach complained Honeycutt had it in for him. One day a man stopped by the house in Saw Mill Hollow and asked to buy moonshine. Zach felt uncomfortable and was reluctant. He knew the sheriff was watching him. Then he relented and sold the man a jar. The sheriff appeared. He’d been watching on the hill above the house. The man ran away and left the jar behind. When my father, Fleet, came home from school he discovered Zach being arrested. Fleet was an expert with his slingshot and always regretted not hitting the jar with a rock and breaking it. A broken jar would’ve meant no evidence. Fleet never understood why the man left the jar. Zach spent at least one night in jail until Annie was able to get the bail money. Zach had a year to pay the $1,000 fine. At that time it might as well have been a million dollars.

A house was already on the property when Zach moved there. Zach had the lumber cut and ready to build a second house near the first one. One day he got everyone out of the first house and set fire to it. He collected the insurance money and paid the fine. Zach then hired a carpenter to build the second house.

Zach was right. Lloyd Bailey, a local Yancey County historian, interviewed Honeycutt’s daughter for one of his books. She mentioned her father did target Zach. Zach’s arrest was a sting operation which explains why the man left the jar behind.

By all accounts, Zach was frugal. He did not borrow or loan money. His oldest daughter, Gladys, noted that when he died he nearly had enough in his wallet to pay for his funeral.