149th birthday of Prohibition sheriff 'Mack' Day of McDowell County approaches

Jul. 27—WELCH — This July will mark the 149th birthday of a McDowell County sheriff who proclaimed during the 1920s that God had called him to enforce Prohibition, the national ban on alcoholic beverages.

Malcolm Malachi "Mack" Day was born on July 29, 1873. As a sheriff of McDowell County, he said that God had called upon him to enforce the national ban on alcoholic beverages that went into effect with the 18th Amendment of the Constitution. Day was so dedicated to enforcing Prohibition that he actually arrested an uncle and his own son, according to the West Virginia Encyclopedia.

Born in Virginia, Day's father, Joshua, abandoned the family. His mother, Narcissa, remarried later and developed religious beliefs that strongly influenced her son's life, according to a West Virginia Encyclopedia article written by McDowell County historian and author Jean Battlo.

Day later became a coal miner in McDowell County, and obtained an education at Bottom Creek Grade School. He started contracting to provide timber and married Charlotte June Milam on Christmas Day 1898, according to Battlo. She was from one of the area's prominent families, and they went on to have 12 children. Day became an important member of the McDowell County community and later became an ordained minister and the county's sheriff.

Day also had a reputation as a "shootist," but was known to have killed on only three occasions, Battlo said. There was a legend that Day officiated over a man's wedding, later shot him and then preached at his funeral.

In February 1925, Day was shot and killed while participating in a bootlegger raid in Pageton.

According to the Feb. 15, 1925 front page Bluefield Daily Telegraph article about the incident, Day's death came at the climax of a raid which led to the arrest and conviction of seven people for violating Prohibition laws.

According to the article, "Southern West Virginia Stirred by Cold-Blooded Murder of Mack Day," he stepped on a suspected bootlegger's front porch and "called for him to come out, when suddenly a revolver was shoved into the officer's face and discharged at the same time."

Day fell on the porch and other officers opened fire, killing the suspect.

U.S. Judge George W. McClintic paid "a glowing tribute" to Day on the same day the story about his death was published. The judge said that Day was honest, faithful, true and devoted to duty.

"It can be truthfully said of him that his loss to the law enforcement of West Virginia and to the moral and legal side of things in McDowell County is truly irreparable, McClintic said. "It can also be truthfully said that there is no one to take his place. Others might do what they can, and be good and faithful servants of the United States, but they cannot reach the high ideals that 'Mack' Day had on that subject."

Others may do what they can in the enforcement of the law, but "a good man has gone and we shall never see his like again," McClintic said.

After a funeral procession through the streets of Kimball, Day was laid to rest at a cemetery on Belcher Mountain.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com