Keeping Up with the Joneses in Liberty, Mo.

With a population of under 1,000, Liberty, Missouri, would seem an unlikely place to build a distillery.  Undaunted, James Jones, shown right, and his wife, Amelia, had the vision to settle there before the Civil War and begin making whiskey.  Although their output was relatively small, the Jones Distillery is reported to have enjoyed a trade throughout the West and a life span of at least a half century.

James was born in Kentucky in 1824;  Amelia (nee Barkley), born in 1828, was a native of Pennsylvania.  Each gravitated to Missouri, marrying on March 28, 1844 in St. Louis.  There is no record of children from their union.  The 1860 census found them living in Liberty where James’ occupation was given as “merchant tailor.”  Living with them apparently were two relatives of Amelia and two tailors working for James.

Although the exact date of their opening the A. M. Jones Distillery, named for Amelia, is uncertain, but a letterhead appears to date it to the 1860s.  That dating would coincide with the coming of railroads to Liberty.  In 1867 the Hannibal & St. Joseph (later the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy) made Liberty a stop on the line from Kansas City to Cameron, Missouri, the station shown here.  In 1868, the Wabash, St. Louis, and Pacific Railroad passed through the southern part of Liberty. 

The need to cultivate a wider territory for their whiskey was essential for the Jones.  Although Missouri was assuredly “wet,”  Liberty had been settled by Methodists, Presbyterians and Evangelicals, all of whom were against the consumption of alcohol. Carry Nation, the famous ax-swinging prohibitionist had attended a lady’s seminary there.  Murray Road, on which the distillery stood, was named for a local judge who was a leading Missouri “dry” and is said to have “hated his road having a distillery on it.”  Seemingly cautious about his occupation, Jones told the 1870 census taker that he was a farmer.

The distillery itself is reported originally to have been three log cabins that were joined to form the building.  A 10,000 gallon spring supplied water.  Outbuildings included two ice houses and a barrel plant. Two photographs, circa 1880, from the Liberty Historical Society show the distillery complex.  The buildings were frame with what appear to be metal roofs.

A Sanborn insurance map of the property indicates how simple the operation was. The process was fueled by coal.  There was no electricity and no watchman.  The plant boasted just a single warehouse.  As the map of the property indicates, the couple were raising pigs, feeding them the spent mash from the whiskey-making process.  The Joneses also kept cows on the property, also to be given residuals from the distilling. 

Despite the size of their town, the modest size of their distillery, and the disapproval of neighbors, the Joneses persevered in making what was almost certainly quality whiskey.  One observer has commented that they “shipped whiskey throughout the West.”   Since they had a cooperage on premises, some of their product clearly was shipped in large quantities.  For retail sales the Joneses relied on glass.   Shown here in several shades of amber are embossed “lady’s leg” bottles.  These might also have had a paper label proclaiming “Liberty Springs Whiskey,”  the flagship brand of James and Amelia.

Having succeeded in guiding the fortunes of the A. M. Jones Distillery through most of three decades, James sicken and, at age 70, died in 1891.  He was buried in Liberty’s Fairview Cemetery,  Block 39, Lot 11.  A large monument marks the gravesite.  James’ plaque bears the inscription, “Gone but not forgotten.”

Amelia, who had been a business partner of her husband throughout the operation of the distillery, appears to have taken over the reins of management. One of her initiatives was in 1893 to open a sales office in the Boston Building of Kansas City, shown here.  Down the road 14 miles from Liberty, Kansas City was a hub for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad, providing the Jones distillery with markets for its whiskey as far away as Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Five years later in 1896, however, Amelia too passed away at age 68.  She was buried next to James in the family plot.  Because there apparently were no children to inherit the distillery, ownership fell to other hands, principally those of Abraham Rosenberger, a successful Kansas City liquor dealer.  While assuming the titles of distillery president and treasurer, Rosenberger was careful to keep the name and tradition of the Joneses in his advertising materials, as indicated by a letterhead.

When the “Bottled in Bond” legislation was enacted by Congress in 1897, Rosenberger was quick to register the A. M. Jones Distillery.  It became unit No. 97 within Missouri’s Sixth District.  Federal records show transactions under the Act beginning in 1898 and extending through 1914.  

The Kansas City whiskey man also was responsible for issuing shot glasses bearing the registration number.  These would have been given to favored customers — saloons, restaurants, and hotels — selling Jones whiskey, including a second flagship brand, “Jones Old Storage Bourbon.”

The distillery appears to have ceased operation after 1914 and a number of the buildings are recorded having been torn down after 1920.  The home that James and Amelia shared on the distillery site has been maintained although renovated and expanded.  Efforts have been made to include the site on the National Register of Historic Places.  Despite its “dry” proclivities, Liberty had been good to James and Amelia.