In 1903, at the urging of a newly organized Anti-Saloon League, the Democratic-controlled legislature passed the Watts Act, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of spirituous liquors except in incorporated towns. According to historians Hugh T. Lefler and Albert Ray Newsome, the law was designed "to get rid of the county distilleries," which Democratic Party leader Furnifold M. Simmons called "Republican recruiting stations."
In 1905 the Ward Law extended Prohibition to incorporated towns of fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, meaning that 68 of the 98 counties in the state had Prohibition.
Source: Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.
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Milton Whiskey Manufacture: 1905
When the Ward bill was being considered by the North Carolina legislature, one newspaper printed the following:
"The Ward bill will affect a large majority of the little so-called 'towns,' incorporated by the last General Assembly after the enactment of the Watts law. Milton, in Caswell County, and Shore and Williams, in Yadkin County, are notorious examples of small towns manufacturing whiskey which will be affected by the bill."
Statesville Record And Landmark (Statesville, North Carolina), Friday, February 03, 1905.
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Query whether the above newspaper item is correct with respect to the incorporation of Milton.
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