Henderson’s pioneer aviator later became a bootlegger

I get the impression Baxter H. Adams, Henderson’s first aviator, liked living on the edge. That could even be one reason he turned prematurely gray before he reached the age of 30. But perhaps not.

He was certainly a daredevil, though, taking up barnstorming before World War I broke out, which makes him one of the nation’s pioneer aviators. He watched Horace Kearney fly at the Union County Fair in 1912 and asked him where he could learn to fly. Kearney pointed him toward the Glenn Curtiss training school in Hammondsport, New York.

He got his pilot’s license April 29, 1914, from the Aero Club of America, the internationally recognized licensing authority at that time. About the same time, he spent $5,000 for a Curtiss Model D, commonly called a pusher because the propeller pushed the plane instead of pulling it. It looked more like a flying kite than an airplane; he once said piloting it was like flying a broomstick.

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He then embarked on a barnstorming career, although World War I soon intervened. He was a civilian flying instructor for the U.S. Army in Chicago and Memphis during the war.

After the war he resumed barnstorming; The Gleaner of June 27, 1919, reported he was leaving for Clark, South Dakota, followed by other engagements in the West. I know he got as far as southwestern Montana, because I have a photo of him in Twin Bridges, Montana, in the cockpit of the first plane to fly there.

The last flight of that tour was in Escanaba, Michigan, where he crashed and broke his ankle. He boxed the plane up and shipped it back to Henderson but by Jan. 8, 1921, American Railway Express was advertising to sell it for unpaid shipping costs. (That didn’t happen because it burned in the Rash Tobacco Factory fire of Feb. 2, 1929.)

His life appeared to go into a downward spiral after that 1919 tour. The sheriff advertised to sell his house off Airline Road at the courthouse door for 1920 and 1921 taxes and six lawsuits were filed against him between 1920 and 1922.

Those financial pressures may have prompted him to take an illegal gamble. The Gleaner of April 6, 1922, reported two days earlier five federal Prohibition agents, accompanied by nearly the entire Henderson Police Department, had raided Adams’ “elegant residence” off Airline Road.

Adams attempted to bluff them. “Feigning hospitality and extending his left hand to shake the hand of a government raider, Adams reached for a revolver buckled out of sight with the other, but the move, officers say, was thwarted.” A quick-witted government agent shoved a gun in his face before Adams could draw. “Too old for that sort of stuff,” the agent said calmly.

The agents then trooped into the basement of the house, where they found the biggest moonshine operation they had seen in Western Kentucky up to that point. The 125-gallon still stood five feet tall. The other still had a capacity of 85 gallons. There was 1,700 gallons of mash, 58 gallons of finished moonshine, 600 pounds of sugar and various accoutrements for producing and marketing moonshine.

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When asked what he intended to do with all that illicit material, Adams replied he was making whiskey “for old age.” One officer replied, “Are you going to live 1,000 years?”

Law enforcement agents also confiscated three rifles and two handguns, although they were later returned.

A follow-up story April 7 said he had been released on $500 bond to await action by a federal grand jury in Owensboro. That story also identified him as a 36-year-old member of an “old aristocratic Henderson family.”

The May 2 Gleaner reported Adams had entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court and was fined $200. I’m sure Adams felt at that point his ordeal was over.

But it wasn’t. The Gleaner of May 18 reported 14 people had been indicted for violating the Prohibition act – and Adams was one of them. But the Oct. 24 edition – 100 years ago this week – reported Circuit Judge N.B. Hunt dismissed three of the four charges against Adams. The affidavits that authorized the liquor search warrants were defective because they did not conform to recent rulings by the state’s highest court.

The fourth charge was identical to the federal charge for which he had already been fined. His attorney said trying him for that would constitute double jeopardy, but the judge disagreed and fined Adams $300 and jailed him for 30 days. The case was immediately appealed.

The Gleaner of Oct. 31 reported 258 men – most of them members of men’s Bible classes from local churches – had met at First Methodist Church to pass “ringing resolutions” in support of local law enforcement’s efforts to stamp out bootlegging and gambling. The group’s first meeting two weeks earlier had prompted quite a bit of push-back and they wanted to demonstrate “rededication of the better element of citizens here” support of law enforcement’s efforts against bootlegging.

N. Powell Taylor, former commonwealth attorney, was more explicit in his remarks. He said there was “an organized force who are spreading propaganda (appealing) to the meaner instincts of men.”

He said he found it amusing that bootleggers were quoting the Constitution and saying it protected them.

Those remarks may have been aimed at a specific bootlegger. Adams certainly thought they were; he responded to them the same day that story appeared and his response was in The Gleaner of Nov. 11. “It is strange that it is those who are supposed to enforce the law have made it necessary for the law-breaker to appeal to the Constitution,” Adams wrote.

For instance, he pointed out local officials were prosecuting him for the same crime the federal court had already fined him for. That’s called double jeopardy, he noted, and is prohibited by the Constitution. He said he wasn’t trying to evade the law but rather “prevent officials from making a mockery of the law and the fundamental rights of man.”

He also criticized Police Chief Ben McKinney for confiscating his 600 pounds of sugar and dividing it among members of the police force.

Adams’ appeal of the $300 fine and jail term was unsuccessful, according to The Gleaner of Feb. 26, 1923. Kentucky’s high court noted the U.S. Supreme Court had earlier ruled “violators of the Prohibition law could be convicted in federal and state courts for the same offense.”

Seven months after the raid – on Nov. 6, 1922 -- Baxter and Rodella Adams sold their showplace house and its 13.5 acres to Samuel Stites for $6,000. So perhaps his illegal way of making money was very much an act of desperation.

75 YEARS AGO

Businessmen worried that rerouting U.S. 41 would bypass Henderson were reassured at the Rotary Club by the state highway commissioner, according to The Gleaner of Oct. 24, 1947.

“Plans have been made and approved for a connecting link to be built off the present highway south of the city and connecting with the new road near Weaverton,” Stephen Watkins said.

It was still a few years in the future, however. The current U.S. 41 opened to traffic after a ceremony at Sebree, according to The Gleaner of Nov. 15, 1952. The new highway replaced the original U.S. 41, which then became U.S. 41-Alternate.

50 YEARS AGO

Four men robbed the Sureway supermarket at Green and Seventh streets of nearly $9,745 three minutes before closing time, according to The Gleaner of Oct. 22, 1972. They did not wear masks.

Eight people were herded into the store’s subzero meat locker at gunpoint, although manager Leland Williams was briefly released to open the safe. The others were his wife, five employees, and a young male customer. The manager held the safety open when the door was closed so, even though the robbers also secured it with a pair of handcuffs, they were able to push their way out within minutes.

The Gleaner of Nov. 9 reported the arrests of Donald Ray Thomas, 24; Guy Fred Perkins, 40; and Fred Hampton Jr., 37.

The Gleaner of Jan. 11, 1973, said the trial of the three men had started. The next day’s edition reported the trial had dragged into its third day but had gone to the jury. Thomas Tramill Jr., 36, testified against the other three after receiving a promise of immunity from prosecution. He said he had participated in the crime only after they threatened his life.

A Hugh Edward Sandefur story in the Jan. 14 Gleaner reported the jury got the case about midnight on the third day. They deliberated about 90 minutes before one of the jurors became ill and had to be hospitalized. They resumed deliberations the next morning for an hour before rendering a verdict of not guilty.

The stolen money was not recovered.

25 YEARS AGO

BellSouth Public Communications announced the price of a pay-phone call was going up to 35 cents, according to The Gleaner of Oct. 30, 1997.

“The 25-cent pay call has been an institution of American life for 20 years, with fathers giving their teenage daughters a quarter in case a date went bad.”

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.

This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: Henderson’s pioneer aviator later became a bootlegger