Warren Township Historical Society

FIRE WRECKS GIANT RUM PLANT IN HILLS

AFTER POLICE RAID
[From Warren History, Vol. Four, No. 7, Spring 2007]

Troopers from local State Police barracks on Friday night uncovered the mountain hideaway of the largest liquor distilling plant ever found in Somerset. Less than twenty-four hours later the two big barns housing the booze manufactory had been reduced to ashes, taking fire while federal operatives were engaged in dismantling the equipment.

Four men were arrested in the raid and a fifth got away from Troopers George Stevenson and Ray Bastado, who tackled the place unaided.

Trapped in a building when a fire broke out Saturday, Arthur Youngblood, of Newark, a young Negro engaged in the work of wrecking the apparatus, suffered a severely burned left arm. Trooper Stevenson rendered first aid.

Back off a country road and with all exterior evidences of illegal manufacturing carefully camouflaged, there was nothing to indicate the type of business in full swing on the mountain farm until the troopers had swung back the doors of two large and nicely painted barns disclosing a huge still, two big boilers and a maze of other apparatus in one, and ten wooden vats containing more than 20,000 gallons of mash in the other.

The place is in the Warrenville section back of Bound Brook and was formerly the Pfister farm. More recently it was conducted as an Italian summer boarding house.

The four men at the place arrested by the troopers were Frank Salerno, of Bloomfield, Paul Larry, of Newark, Raymond Ruccio, of Siler Lake, and Michael Mortei, of Brooklyn. Two were found operating the plant, one was making repairs and the fourth was asleep in bed with a loaded service revolver tucked under his pillow. All made a break for liberty at the time of the raid, which was 9:45pm, but were quickly tripped up by the officers.

The largest of two adjoining barns housed the vats of mash. Two of them were “working” and the hissing of the contents could almost be heard outside of the building. In the next barn were two steam pumps to force the liquid from the vats, a 3,000 gallon capacity still, twelve feet long and six feet in diameter, two large boilers, a tank containing 200 gallons of alcohol, and another tank for the finished product of 500 gallon capacity. Hundreds of feet of metal pipe and housing ran through the buildings, and there was a complete electric lighting plant.

In the building with the vats were five tons of brown sugar and about 500 pounds of grain. Coke was used to fire the boilers, there being about ten tons in the boiler pit. Outside was another truckload.

Waste from the plant was pumped through buried pipes to a cesspool, ten by twenty feet, in a field. Water for the operation of the business was pumped from a brook a half-mile away by a sixty horsepower electric pump.

Preparations were underway to begin operations in a third building located some distance away from the other two, which at one time had been a dance hall. Here a part of a smaller still had been erected and the floor cut to allow for the installation of other machinery. Hidden in the brush behind the barns the troopers found an Essex sedan.

The fire broke out shortly after noon on Saturday while the federal crew was engaged in wrecking the plant. All but one of the vats had been knocked apart, alcohol cans punctured and parts of the still dismantled. Youngblood and another workman were busy cutting down the two copper columns, twenty and thirty feet high, when the blaze broke out. They were using an axe. Copper will not strike a spark, but it is believed that Youngblood hit a metal ring at a joint in the larger column and fired the pure alcohol which it held. The flames spread so rapidly that in a few minutes both barns were roaring with fire.

As the blaze broke out Youngblood, after some difficulty, reached an exit and ran out of the barn, his clothing in flames. Other men and Trooper Stevenson rolled him to extinguish the fire and his injuries were treated.

Firemen from Mount Bethel and Martinsville responded to telephone calls with a pumper and chemical apparatus and did considerable work, saving a row of wagon sheds and guarding the house on the premises.

Our thanks to Jessie Havens of Belle Mead for having uncovered this article from the June 11, 1930, issue of The Somerset Messenger. A brief entry about the Pfister (or Fister) farm will be found in Warren A to Z, your editor’s newest book on Warren Township. George Bebbington has done additional research and contributes the following from the Bound Brook Chronicle of June 13, 1930]

“The sight of a truck load of coke being carried every second night or so into Fister Park, on the King George Road…led to comment that spread until it is said to have reached the ears of the prohibition enforcement authorities, and last Friday night, with three state troopers, a raid was made on the old Fister property. A still, estimated to be worth $20,000, and a large quantity of alcohol were uncovered. Four men were arrested and taken to Somerville…

“The dismantling of the distilling machinery, which was housed in two large buildings separate from the hotel building, was begun and carried through Saturday until three o’clock in the afternoon, when a spark from the axe of one of the workers set fire to a quantity of alcohol and almost before the prohibition gang could get out of the buildings they were enveloped in flames….

“The state troopers called upon the Martinsville fire brigade which responded with its chemical truck and a good force of men. These were instrumental in keeping the blaze away from the main buildings, and when the Mt. Bethel pumper arrived it was attached to the water reservoir which had been installed in connection with the still. Although the fire burned for hours the Mt. Bethel and Martinsville fire fighting forces were able to keep the flames from spreading.

“The prohibition authorities say that this plant was one of the best disguised and most complete they have met for some time. It had a capacity of between 800 and 1,000 gallons of liquor a day. This was being made from corn mash and sugar and sent twice through the stills. Water for running the plant was obtained from a brook at the foot of the mountain about one half a mile from the buildings, and a 1,000 horsepower electric pump…was discovered cleverly hidden. The reservoir was hidden in the old amusement hall…