One man whose name has certainly not been forgotten was the notorious preacher, Elijah Craig, who arrived in Kentucky in 1786 and was making whiskey three years later. We should take time here to understand exactly what these new taxes meant to the farmer-distillers of the time--these guys didnt have any cash. Whiskeygate--the Tale of the Infamous Whiskey Ring. Those distillers whose whiskey had gained a good reputation started to give their product a name, and deserving of mention here is Oscar Pepper who, in 1838, built the Old Pepper Distillery, hired James Crow as master distiller, and marketed their whiskey as Old 1776--Born with the Republic. The name referred to Oscars father, Elijah, who settled in Kentucky in 1776 and made whiskey shortly thereafter; its one of the earliest references to whiskey men marketing their product. And beer was made in relatively copious quantities in the 1600s. 23 gallons of industrial alcohol were required in the manufacture of a Jeep. By the early 1940s, however, the distillers had managed to age sufficient quantities of straight whiskey to have an appreciable amount of good, aged bourbon and rye back on the shelves. And even east--to exotic ports such as New York City where, according to Luc Sante, author of Low Life, Lures and Snares of Old New York, for under a nickel, you could drink all the whiskey you could manage by sucking it through a rubber tube until you had to stop to take a breath. But these were also the days when many people were stricken with a variety of weird and wonderful maladies that needed regular treatment with frequent tots of decent, aged, medicinal whiskey--the product of a loophole in the law that allowed certain distillers to sell whiskey for medicinal use. No one knows the answer. The country could have used a few more men who werent afraid to voice their anti-prohibitionistic voices at the time. Instead, in the context of the speech, he was merely describing a common practice of the times, implying that if people were made aware of the evils of alcohol, such foolishness would stop. alcohol. Stitzel, Glenmore, Schenley, Brown-Forman, National Distillers, and Frankfort Distilleries--and these companies were allowed to store whiskey and sell it to licensed druggists, who in turn, could mete it out to customers who had a doctors prescription. Later, in 1861, he did, however, add his signature to a temperance declaration that already bore the names of John Quincy Adams, James Buchanan, Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Jackson, James Madison, Franklin Pierce, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, and John Tyler. 60During the 1800's, many ventured west in search of a new frontier. Carry Amelia Moore was born in Kentucky and raised there, in Missouri, and in Texas. Laws that would properly define foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals, and help protect consumers, were, therefore, presented to Congress, and luckily for us, whiskey was one of the items under discussion. Rates were based on the alcoholic strength of the product, spirits made from home-grown products were taxed less than those made from imported goods (rum, made from imported molasses, therefore, was more-heavily taxed than whiskey), and an annual tax was levied on each still, dependent on its capacity. In Kentucky Bourbon--The Early Years of Whiskeymaking, Henry G. Crowgey describes an 1821 newspaper advertisement for bourbon whiskey, so its fairly safe to assume that the distiller of that time knew that the readers would understand what it was he had for sale. Heres a list of the whiskey distillers still left in the game after Prohibition ended: On May 29, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt declared a national emergency that had been brought about by a series of events that culminated in the stock market crash of 1929 and the massive unemployment that followed. *motlow died in 1947. 21 By the 1870s, the temperance movement exerted great influence in American life and culture, as this example illustrates. In 1908, she even ventured to Britain and Ireland, where she spread the word of Jesus and His dislike of neighborhood taverns. Rye Whiskey that dates back to the 1800s, around the time when saloons, veiled as coffee houses, began lining the streets of New Orleans. In fact, according to Mike Veach, archivist at United Distillers, it is more probable that Elijah Craigs name was used to fight the prohibition movement in the late nineteenth century simply because he was a Baptist minister. (A wonderful twentieth-century example of this process can be seen in the case of A. Smith Bowman, a farmer in Virginia who, in 1935, produced Virginia Gentleman Straight Bourbon Whiskey using grains grown on his farm, made barrels from the trees on his land, and used the residues of his distillate to feed his farm animals.). ): During the period leading up to the Civil War, some brand-name whiskeys were becoming popular. They were out to prevent accidents and to help those with a drinking problem take care of themselves. And although the town was originally known as Salem, the settlers soon adopted the name of their benefactor, and Bards Town (Bardstown) was born. This was, after all, the first time that Washington had ever enforced federal law in the United States, and in order to persuade men to fight their fellow countrymen, Washington needed to prove he was a strong leader. Well, he certainly didnt want to use his own name on them--they were, after all, fairly incriminating--and it seems that Babcock and McDonald used Sylphs name as a kind of inside joke when exchanging correspondence. The fact was that since Jefferson Davis had made whiskey hard to come by, its value had increased by leaps and bounds. We do know that he was a whiskey distiller in the late eighteenth century, and that his whiskey was probably known as Kentucky whiskey or maybe even bourbon, but theres no real evidence to prove that he was the first person to make bourbon. One immediate solution to the American distillers problem was to sell blended, rather than straight whiskey, thereby stretching the good stuff with neutral spirits and flavorings. According to William L. Downard, author of the Dictionary of the History of the American Brewing and Distilling Industries, Peorias whiskey business was an offshoot of the citys active grain mills--surpluses were used to make whiskey. The Pennsylvania whiskey makers decided to revolt. A bottle of Old Crow in 1916 would have cost $2 to $3, depending on its age (the $3 bottling was distilled in 1884, the less expensive one in 1904), and rye whiskey at the time was being sold at similar prices. However, some documents had been discovered that pointed to reasons other than friendship for Grants change of heart. Everyone seemed to have it out for the distillers. So, if a saloon owner in the west needed whiskey in a hurry, he could now order by telegram and get a few barrels on its way to him the very next day. Men such as William Calk, Jacob Meyers, Joseph and Samuel Davis (brothers), James Garrard, and Jacob Spear are mentioned in various documents, but either their families didnt follow in their footsteps, or if they did, their products werent good enough to become long-lasting brand names of whiskey. During this time, the liquor was kept under governmental supervision in bonded warehouses. During the years of Reconstruction more and more people, most of them experienced whiskey drinkers, went West. One great example of this was Schenleys Golden Wedding rye whiskey, a very popular brand before Prohibition. In 1910, George Garvin Brown published a booklet, The Holy Bible Repudiates Prohibition, in which he quoted passages from the Bible that showed divine approval of the consumption of beverage alcohol. George Ade, author of The Old Time Saloon, noted that, in Chicago, once a saloon keeper got his license, he would throw the key to his bar into Lake Michigan so that his doors could never again be locked. It wasnt politically correct, it wasnt good for the body, and it was no longer a laughing matter. To further help the distillers, the government agreed that stores of whiskey could be used as collateral for taxes when they came due. Two quotes from Lincoln often are used out of context and make him sound like a drinking man; both are taken from a speech he made to the Springfield Washington Temperance Society in 1842. . In the U.S., almost one million people had signed the pledge by 1840, and the angst about over-consumption continued to grow. The following month over 300 people (distillers and government employees) were arrested for their involvement in the Whiskey Ring, and everyone was certain that justice was being served. Boats from Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Tennessee, would wait for the rivers to rise before embarking on their journey downriver. Their whiskey would eventually be known as I. W. Harper. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. The book serves as an indication that a number of cheap whiskeys were being produced just before and (in larger quantities) after the Civil War. Further amendments to the law made it possible to actually distill whiskey (during distilling holidays) that would be used for medicinal purposes. Along with the rest of the country, the whiskey industry braced itself for more setbacks. David Beam (Jim Beam Bourbon) was working at the Old Tub Distillery in 1850, and his son, David M. Beam became distiller there in 1853. There are three recipes for making imitation Old Bourbon in Stephens book, one calls for 20 gallons of proof spirit (neutral spirits diluted to 100? In 1900, Ms. Nation gathered a group of supporters, rolled into a drugstore in Kansas (which was dry at the time), rolled out a cask of brandy, and promptly smashed it to smithereens with a sledgehammer. The scene and the amounts are merely hypothetical, but it gives you a rough idea of why the farmers had empty pockets. (The army had stopped daily rations of liquor some 30 years previous, but it wasnt unusual for some commanders to issue whiskey to their troops.) Since most people were used to the bold body and heady flavors of good whiskey, gin was far preferable to vodka, a spirit that was virtually unknown in America at the time. The process is partially described by Gerald Carson in The Social History of Bourbon, and although we have added the description of the lid, the still must have looked something like this: A distiller would take a log, split it lengthwise, hollow out each half, and bind it back together. Indeed, not only was she a very attractive woman, she was also known as an effective speaker whose ways were softspoken and womanly.. A lid of sorts must then have been fitted onto the top of the log. The advantage of this new type of packaging was that the potable became more portable. The timing was brilliant. Other such organizations within the industry existed in various parts of the country around this same time, but the distilling industry in Peoria, having started with one distillery in 1844, had actually outgrown its counterpart in Kentucky by 1880. B. Dant, son of J. W. Dant, built the Cold Spring Distillery in 1865 and would soon produce Yellowstone Bourbon. In 1798 almost 200 Kentucky whiskey men were found guilty of making whiskey without a license (Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister, no less, among them). Any search for the first bourbon whiskey should begin with a look at what made Kentucky so darned perfect for such a whiskey to have been created there: Kentucky was an area with plentiful trees (17 varieties of oak are native to the state), pristine, limestone-filtered water, and arable land. 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