Amos Owens
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Amos Owens (ca. 1822 – 1906),[1] aka The Cherry Bounce King, was a nineteenth and early twentieth century moonshine producer who lived in Rutherford County, North Carolina. Of Irish descent, his grandfather fought in the Battle of King's Mountain in the Revolutionary War. He was renowned for the mixture of whiskey, honey and cherries and "[p]eople from all over the South visited him to taste his celebrated beverage."[1] At its peak, the "cherry bounce" that Owens produced on his Cherry Mountain, North Carolina estate was served as far west as the Mississippi River.
Owens was born around 1822 in North Carolina, where he grew up without receiving any formal education, other than a few days of organized schooling. At age nine, he was hired out as a "drawer of water and hewer of trees", an occupation that he held for thirteen years and that provided him enough money to buy 100 acres on Cherry Mountain at the age of 23. Shortly after buying this first tract on Cherry Mountain, he married a local woman named Mary Ann Sweezey, paying the justice of the peace who oversaw their vows in brandy. At age 29, he'd earned enough from distilling to purchase all of Cherry Mountain, where he would live for the remainder of his life.[2]
During this time, he also developed his renowned "cherry bounce", a liqueur consisting of corn whiskey, cherries, and either sourwood honey or sugar water.[3]