Mason Conley

written by Bayless Conley

• Mason Conley my old uncle, ever since I was a little boy Mason always told me that I was his nephew. He would come by our old home place call me out and give me a drink of moonshine in a can lead when I was very small. Rub my head I always respected him. When I was younger he had two step son’s, Roscoe and Orville that I played with a lot. They lived across the hill from where we lived. They were a lot of fun. He also had a step daughter by the name of Dora Bell. He had about 9 children of his own, Gerldine, Nancy, Rosa, Susan, Mary Lou, Philis, and three boys Ora, Era, and Denver. A dozen all counted. He worked in the coal mines some, then in the early 1950's he came to Cleveland, Ohio and got a job with General Motors (Parma Plant) and worked until his retirement. Mason bought a house in Cleveland and lived for awhile until his wife Eva died. After that one of his girls moved into the house and he took a notion to go back to West Va to live. He rented a house on Crawley Creek, He and his brother Norman lived together for awhile, then Norman died. After that he tried to keep up with those young boys back there didn't take his medicine right. He would miss then take too much when he got to hurting This cause him to have heart failure. He died at a ripe old age of 81 years old. He is buried over on the River road around Caney Branch. Mason was a big tall man always was skinny until his old age he got a belly on him. And that hair was as white as snow. Most of the time you would see him he would have a tie on. And boy did he like to plunk on an old Guitar. Anywhere the action was at, that is where you would find Mason , This is the way that I remember him.

In a secluded spot in the woods along the head of Mud Fork and Smokehouse branch of Harts, two or three miles from a human habitation, state police captured five men in actual operation of a still on Tuesday night. It was raining at the time, and the officers were able to move over the soft ground noiselessly until they were almost within reach of the industrious quintet of moonshiners. Then they darted in and were offered no resistence. The captured were Charles Conley, his two sons, Ora and Mason, and two nephews, Mason Conley and Howard Evans. The older Conley had a pistol [?] aother firarms were found, Sergeant Rowe reported. A 50-gallon still, four barrels of mash and a gallon of fresh-made whiskey were seized. The still bore signs of being a veteran in the illicit service but had not been operated at that point very long. The Conleys live on the Smokehouse side of the ridge, probably more than two miles from the still site. Squire Brubeck held all five to the grand jury. Some of them gave bond for their appearance and the others expected to without delay. On a pistol charge the elder Conley was sentenced to jail for 60 days and fined $100. Sergeant Rowe was accompanied on the raid by State Policemen Fred Russell and C. L. Wilson and State Prohibition Agent Ed Hensley.