Two Successful 1893 Entrepreneurs~Ephraim Honeycutt and His Wife

A WOMAN DISTILLER
She and the Still Both Belonged to Eph. Honeycutt
From the Charlotte News.

For many years Eph. Honeycutt, of Mission, Stanley county, has conducted a brandy distillery, and had a reputation throughout that county for making the best brandy to be had. The distillery was always conducted in an orderly way which is not the case with all of them.
The other day a revenue officer went down to the still to mark up the brandy, and lo, and behold! a woman was attending to things. The officer inquired of the woman as to Honeycutt's whereabouts.
''He's not here; does not stay here replied the woman.
"Well, who runs the still?"
"Why, I do, of coarse. I have been attending to it for these many days, and can make just as good brandy as Eph. Honeycutt can."
"Well, who are you and who does this distillery belong to?" asked the officer in astonishment." "The whole thing including myself belongs to Eph. Honeycutt, for I am his wife. I attend to things for him, because he has the farm and other matters to look after."
And then she went around to "chunk" up the fire, and squeezed the flannel strainer in the  "doubling keg" to see if the "singlings" were strong enough.

The question now becomes which Ephraim Honeycutt and his wife were the successful 1893 entrepreneurs. I have 7 Ephraim Huneycutt’s in my database and it could be anyone of them.

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[1] "A WOMAN DISTILLER," Local News, The Western Sentinel, (Winston-Salem, N.C.),, 19 October 1893, Image 3, column 5; Digital On-Line Archives, ChroniclingAmerica (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ : viewed 3 October 2020), Historic America Newspapers.