Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Willis Cheek

In 1840, when Fairfield was little more than a field, there was some pretty hard drinking with some of the inhabitants who were in a hurry to become acclimated. The log building in the rear of the lot now occupied by Richard Gaines' stove store and the Ledger office, was the grocery in which the bibulously inclined were wont to meet and discuss the news and bad whisky.

There was one old fellow of the name of Willis Cheek, upon whom whisky appeared to have no effect. The "boys" one day put something into Cheek's whisky that made him sick, and he swore not to take another drop of whisky or go near the grocery for three months. One evening soon afterward, he was persuaded to drop in to hear the news, but still refused to drink. The "boys" (the men were all boys then) threw him down and, having procured a funnel, they succeeded in making a pretty good whisky barrel of him. He became so drunk that he could scarcely move, but occasionally mumbled out: "I (hic) musn't forget (hic) my oath (hic), but funnel (hic) me again, boys!"