The Legacy of Jim Tom

I was a wildlife officer in Graham County in the late 1980s. During those early days of my career, I spent many days lost. Sometimes in those pre-GPS/cellphone days I was physically lost. I was often given directions that included colloquial descriptions that I couldn’t decipher. Other times I was lost in the sense that I didn’t know what I was doing. The game law seemed straight forward while sitting in a classroom in Chapel Hill, but out in the field I discovered that was lots of gray area between those poles of black and white. More than anything, I felt lost and adrift because I didn’t know anyone.

But during those first few years, I met some fascinating folks. Most were ordinary people who had experienced extraordinary lives. I recall a woman who taught school in a logging camp. She rode a narrow-gauge train to the camp where her classroom was in a railroad car. An old logger told me of skidding logs from the deep in the Smokies with a team of steers before Fontana Lake was flooded. Or the quiet Cherokee man who fought the war behind the war in southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. One of the more colorful characters I came to know was Jim Tom Hedrick. 

In those early days, my sergeant, Travis Whitson, spent a considerable amount of time with me. He showed me around the county, introducing me to people and giving me the lowdown on the various folks we encountered. After running into Jim Tom, Travis shared that while Jim Tom had many challenges, he was a mechanical genius. He was a skilled unlicensed electrician. Travis added that the rumor was that Jim Tom was the first person in the county to use propane to fire a liquor still.

 

Over time I saw more and more of Jim Tom. I would often find him hanging out at Robinson’s store in the Snowbird community. Jim Tom was a talker. I don’t think he ever knew my name, so he just called me Game Warden. Many of his stories began, “Well lemme tell you Game Warden” and off he would go. I once saw him wearing a cap that proclaimed, “Jim Beam 1000 gallon club.” I asked, “Jim Tom have you drank a thousand gallons?” He thought briefly and said, “Well, lemme tell you Game Warden. Me and ______ was running still one time and got to drinking. When we came to two weeks later, they was 25 empty half gallon jars laid around us.” He thought again, obviously doing mental math. “Yea,” he added, “I’d say I’ve drunk a thousand gallons.”

Other times I would run into Jim Tom camping in his school bus. One day I pulled into his site while he was setting up on Big Snowbird Creek. He noticed me eyeing his four cases of beer on the picnic table. He raised his hand to protest my thoughts. “I know you’re thinking – that that’s a lot of beer for just me. But it ain’t that much. Afterall, I’m gonna be here for two weeks.” I stopped back by a week or so later. The beer was gone. Jim Tom said, “I see’d you up here a couple of days ago, sneaking around trying to watch me. I hollered out, ‘I see you over there in the laurel Game Warden. It’s just me Jim Tom. I ain’t a fishing or hurting nothing. Come on out.’ But you didn’t move, so I hollered again, “Come on out Game Warden. I ain’t doing nothing wrong.” But you stayed still – hunkered down in the laurel - real sneaky-like. So, finally I walked over to where you was a sitting. Turns out you was a stump.” We both laughed.

I was saddened to hear that Jim Tom died back in September. His death surfaced the thought of how easy it is to label someone or dismiss them. I visited my daughter recently and saw a miniature liquor still on her shelf. I flashed back to when Jim Tom built that still for me. He apologized for charging me for it, but he explained how much the copper cost and how long it took to build. He said that the wormy chestnut blocks were getting harder to find. It sat on my mantel for years before I passed it along to Elizabeth.

I turned the model over and written in pencil was a simple inscription “Jim Tom 1989.”

As I grow older, I spend quite a bit of time thinking about legacy. Jim Tom gained notoriety from his five-year stint on the Discovery Channel’s show, Moonshiners. I suspect there are scores of those little stills sitting around people’s homes. But are those Jim Tom’s legacy?

These thoughts have been prominent over the past months. October 8th was the third anniversary of Amy’s sudden death. November 14th was the second anniversary of my brother, Dennis’ death. And over the past weeks I have spent time cleaning out my dad’s workshops. As I have worked, I’ve considered their legacy. A more difficult question I've pondered is what am I leaving for others?

As I considered that question, I circled back to Jim Tom. There’s a notion attributed to several different people that folks do not recall what we do, they remember how we made them feel. Jim Tom left me with a host of great stories. He built two of those tiny stills for me. They are nice mementos, but that’s not his legacy piece. The thing that Jim Tom left me was a sense of connection and belonging in a place and time where I felt disconnected. That seems to be enough.

https://www.townson-smithfuneralhome.com/obituary/MarvinJimTom-Hedrick