Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) to distil illicit liquor, usu. bourbon; thus moonshining n.

1882		A. Trumble Mysteries of N.Y. 51: The majority of our citizens [...] are under the impression the business of ‘moonshining’ or distilling spirituous liquors is confined to [...] Georgia.
1888		C.D. Warner Their Pilgrimage 268: ‘Moonshining’ on the Southern mountains.
1892		Pittsburg Dispatch (PA) 17 Apr. 17/1: This raid was followed by what might be termed the golden age of moonshining.
1894		Mirror of Life 13 Jan. 16/1: ‘Bush, surrender!’ [...] ‘I give up. What ails yo' all, anyway?’ ‘It’s for moonshining, Bush’.
1902		W.N. Harben Abner Daniel 209: Fred’s always been a stanch friend to me. We moonshined it together two yeer, though he never knowed my chief hidin’-place.
1913		H. Kephart Our Southern Highlanders (1922) 143: When a man has promised not to moonshine, and then goes and does it, why that, by Jeremy, is a breach of contract!
1925		I. Cobb Many Laughs for Many Days 24: Tell me whether there’s any moonshining going on in this neck of the woods.
1946		G. Wilson Fidelity Folks 54: He stoutly maintained that a regulated open saloon was to be preferred to the evils of moonshining and boot-legging [DA].
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 19: The organized underworld is unmolested in the things that count, like dope, union rackets, protection, hijacking, counterfeiting, smuggling, blackmail, bootlegging and moonshining.