Sunday, April 15, 2012

With a Name Like Guckenheimer the Whiskey Had to Be Good














Where Asher Guckenheimer learned about making good whiskey is not clear, but he and his extended family made the Guckenheimer brand tops in America, winning 99 out of a possible 100 points for quality at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and a gold medal. 


















































 The Guckenheimer name was on every bottle.

He was born Asher Guggenheimer in 1825, in the town of Adingen, Wuttemberg, Germany. The date of his emigration to the United States and arrival in Pittsburgh is unclear but once here he and future generations changed their name to Guckenheimer. After his father’s death his mother married again, a man named Wertheimer.

After receiving some early experience in the U.S. whiskey trade, in 1857 Asher with his half-brother, Samuel Wertheimer, established his own company, calling it, A. Guckenheimer & Bro. They obtained their liquor from Thomas Bell, who in 1845 had founded a distillery at Freeport, Pennsylvania, and whose product was highly regarded. Guckenheimer absorbed the entire output and after Bell’s death in 1865, with Wertheimer, he bought the distillery, enlarged it, and improved even on Bell’s quality. The distillery produced 2,000 barrels a year.

Asher also enjoyed family life. About 1857 he married Caroline "Ida" Weiss, apparently in Pittsburgh. Their first child, a girl Emma, was born in 1858. She was the first of nine children, the last two of whom were born 20 years later in 1878. At least two Guckenheimer children died before maturity.

In 1866, as the demand for Guckenheimer Rye was outpacing the supply, Asher constructed a new and much larger facility at Freeport, shown here in an illustration. According to a contemporary history, the facilities included a three-story brick distillery building, a grain house able to hold 30,000 bushels, a 150-ton capacity ice house, a three story brick malt house capable of malting 100 bushels per day, a 50-barrel per day cooper shop and a three-story bonded warehouse with the capacity to hold 8,000 barrels. Some 25 workers were employed at the facility which usually operated at less than full capacity, customarily producing twenty-two 42-gallon barrels a day.

As the Freeport facility was gearing up, Guckenheimer purchased a second distillery in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, to make a brand of whiskey called “Wyandotte,.” The distance from Pittsburgh prevented the brothers from giving it the attention it needed, so they soon sold it. They then turned to opportunities closer by and in 1876 bought a distillery that had been established earlier in Buffalo Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania. Shown above in an engineer drawing, it operated under the name of the Pennsylvania Distilling Company and made the firm’s “Montrose” brand. The Guckenheimer offices were located on First Avenue in Pittsburgh.

Asher sold his whiskey in bottles ranging from quart to flask size. Shown above are three of the latter, demonstrating the variety of well-designed labels the company employed. Guckenheimer even reached out to the Fulper Company of Flemington New Jersey for one of their “fancy jugs” with his name in gothic gold letters across the front. The company also made and merchandised other brands including “Fairy Breath,” “Freeport,” “Golden Cupid Rye,” and “Pennbrook.”

Guckenheimer’s Rye became one of America’s most famous whiskeys and in 1893 won top honors at the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago, scoring 99 points out of 100 in the whiskey judging. As shown here, the firm took full advantage of the honor in its subsequent advertising and in reverse glass signs provided to customer saloons.

That same year, 1893, Asher Guckenheimer died, age 67, much mourned in the community. Always a family affair, company management fell to his son, Isaac, and his two half-nephews, Emanuel and Isaac Wertheimer. In July 1899 the Buffalo Township distillery burned to the ground but was rebuilt and by1900 was back in operation producing 50 barrels of whiskey daily.  In 1905 the company consisted of Isaac Guckenheimer, the Wertheimers, Samuel’s son, Morris, and Isaac’s son, Leon -- a third generation. The Freeport Distillery was producing 20,000 barrels of rye a year and the Buffalo Twp. facility about 12,000 barrels of Montrose whiskey annually. The company continued to be successful until shut down by Prohibition in 1919. In deference to Asher Guckenheimer, the business continued to be run under his name until the very end.

In the post-Prohibition era, the Guckenheimer brand name was sold several times, eventually becoming a commercial-grade bourbon. Asher, whose product emphasis had been high quality, probably would not have been happy. But he continues to be a presence with a huge stain-glass window dedicated to his memory in a major Pittsburgh synagogue. Shown here in a detail, the Guckenheimer window depicts Moses in prayer.

Note: Much of the material for this article is derived from the pre-pro.com website where the originator, Robin Preston, has provided a digest version of a 1908 article published by the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times.

11 comments:

  1. I have a photo of Gukenheimer Dist. from Freeport, PA...If you are interested.

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  2. Mr. Dempster: Your photo of the distillery would be most welcome. I could put it into the post, with your permission. Please send it to me at jack.sullivan9@verizon.net.

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  3. You said:

    "Asher also enjoyed family life. About 1857 he married Idea Weise in Pittsburgh"

    Do you know where you got that information? It is not in the Gazette Times article.

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  4. Maury K: I do not know where the original material came from but just now, checking with Ancestry.com, a family history shows Asher marrying Caroline (called "Ida") Weiss -- note difference spelling. They had ten children, some of whom died in infancy. Ida Guckenheimer is buried with Asher in Pittsburgh's West View Cemetery.

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  5. I havfe all the ancestry information. Trying to determine if this Idea Weise is the same as the Ida Weis that is in my tree. I have not been able to find any marriage information in the German records, but your entry implies they were married in Pittsburgh. That is why your source is so important.

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  6. Maury: I am convinced that that Caroline "Ida" Weiss is the same persons as the misspelled name that originally appeared in my article and which I am changing. As for the place of their marriage my computer crashed 2013 and took my notes with it.

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  7. Laura: It is such a treat to hear from you! I was saddened by your having to cancel your event. Thanks for the excellent additional information on Guckenheimer, etc. Once we are out of this crisis my invitation to host a lunch for you -- and your brother if he is available -- stands. Keep safe and well.

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  8. Hi, Jack! It's been too long and I'm sorry to not be able to see you at the event this year- though I'm sorry to not have had it either...but it was certainly out of my hands.

    I was printing out your post on Guckenheimer for my records and wanted to add a few things. The distillery that made "Montrose" was actually "just around the corner" from the main A.Guckenheimer and Bros. distillery. A.G.& Bros was on the Allegheny and their neighbor distillery was on the western bank of Buffalo Creek. That large creek which emptied into the Allegheny divided Freeport (east of the creek) from Buffalo Township (west of the creek). Their new distillery may have been in a different county and town, but in reality, it was only a few miles/blocks away! I'll email you a picture. When A.G. and Bros bought that distillery in 1875-1876 it was called McGonegal and Helmbold (though the map I have from 1876 shows it written as "McGonegly & Helmbold Distillery", I think Pre-Pro is probably right about the spelling) Registered Distillery #8 was also known as the Montrose Distillery or the Pennsylvania Distillery. In addition, the old Schenley Distillery was also just up the river northeast from A.G.& Bros. Schenley Station, a stop on the Penna R.R., was actually right upriver beyond the Kiskiminetas, which is the next tributary that empties into the Allgheny a few miles up.

    I love that this area was so bustling. People always think of the southern Monongahela River distilleries as being the mass producers, but Armstrong County was no slouch! Hope to catch up soon,
    Cheers-
    Laura F.

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  9. Laura: See my comment for some reason preceding yours. Jack

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  10. My great grandfather was the master distiller for Guckenheimer. His name was Robert Patrick O’Brien. He came to Freeport in the mid to late 1800’s

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  11. Anon: Thanks for adding this information. My assumption is that he was an immigrant from Ireland, as many master distillers were.

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