Druggists as Whiskey Men

Foreword:  During National Prohibition (1920-1934) all legal whiskey supplies were in the hands of druggists who could issue small quantities of liquor upon presentation of a doctor’s prescription.  During those 14 years, numbers of prescriptions soared and local pharmacies prospered.  Even before 1920, however, druggists were active in the liquor trade, often mixing up their own brands of whiskey and advertising it widely.  Below are vignettes of three druggists who saw the advantages in commercing in alcohol and, as a result, prospered.

In the Pre-Prohibition era it was common practice for pharmacies to carry a line of alcoholic beverages. Often whiskey, brandy and wine package sales were the chief economic engine of such establishments and made rich men of their owners. Edwin E. Bruce of Omaha, Nebraska, was among those American druggists who profited mightily by being in the whiskey trade.

With three partners in the 1880’s Bruce founded a wholesale drug company in Ottumwa, Iowa, and subsequently opened a firm in Omaha in 1887 that became  known as E.E. Bruce & Co.  Bruce quickly found success in Nebraska and beyond. His trade was reputed to extend “throughout all sections of the West to the Pacific coast.” By the early 1900s Bruce employed thirty clerks, assistants and traveling salesmen in a spacious Omaha building. Despite the facade of wholesale drugs, Bruce’s advertising emphasized his spiritous beverages. 

Bruce’s flagship was Country Club Bourbon, a brand he sold in an elegant stoneware quart cylinder that was the  product of Sherwood Brothers pottery in far off New Brighton, Pennsylvania.  His whiskey likely was obtained from distilleries in Kentucky. Bruce also may have done some “rectifying,” that is, mixing several whiskeys to improved taste and smoothness. 

Made rich by his drug and liquor business, Bruce and his family occupied a mansion, located in Omaha's Gold Coast neighborhood. A co-founder of the National Association of Wholesale Druggists, Bruce also was well-known in Omaha business circles. According to a contemporary account, he was someone respected for “his ability, enterprise and ingenuity.“

Shown here in a 1892 cartoon, George Fleming wasted no time in putting his Pittsburgh pharmacy on the map. A contemporary account called him “undoubtedly the best known druggist west of the Allegheny Mountains.” Doing business from its single location at Market and Diamond Streets, the company advertised Fleming’s Export Rye and Fleming’s Malt Whiskey across America. 

A square bottle similar to one shown here has been found in a Sacramento, California state park. It is embossed on two sides: “Fleming’s Export Pure Rye” and “Bottled Expressly for Family Use.” 

George also featured as gifts to prime customers attractive paperweights and shot glasses, as shown here. They frequently stressed the role of physician endorsements,. as might be expected for a druggist. Whiskey sales not only were brisk but apparently extremely profitable. A contemporary satirical poem about George Fleming averred: “For although he’s a druggist his earnings are high...From selling old rye.” 

Flemings was a rectifier, not a distiller. He bought whiskey in bulk, mixed it with other ingredients to their taste, slapped a label on it and called it his own. Look at the cartoon again:  George could be stirring up a cocktail of Fleming’s Export Rye in that giant mortar. 

Philip P. Van Vleet, a prominent wholesale druggist in Memphis, Tennessee, was another whose success depended heavily on marketing a wide array of whiskeys.  Liquor, along with proprietary drugs and nostrums, brought him wealth and allowed him to hobnob with the rich and famous, including the President of the United States.  

After working years for other druggists, in 1884 Phillip struck out on his own,  establishing the wholesale pharmaceutical house of Van Vleet & Co., located at 320-324 Main Street, a major Memphis commercial avenue.  He managed this business to such affluence that he was able to buy up several other Memphis drug firms.  They included the Mansfield Drug Co., a well established company, whose purchase by Van Vleet was considered a coup in Memphis business circles.  

He called the resulting enterprise Van Vleet-Mansfield Co., its building shown on a glass paperweight.  The new corporation was instantly profitable, attributed by one author to the exertions of Van Vleet himself:  “He created this colossal pattern of success through his guidance and by his service-driven attitude.  The result was one of the largest and most progressive wholesale drug companies in the country.”   

Essential to this prosperity was the emphasis Van Vleet put on making and selling whiskey.  In addition to mixing up drugs and proprietary medicines on his premises, he was blending, bottling and selling his own brands of booze.  Among his labels were “Chickasaw,” “Clarendon,”  “Gayoso Club,”  “King’s Choice,” “Mossy Dell,”  “Old Southern Home,” “Rosadora Rye,” “Silver Plume,” “Sweet Fern,” and “Wayside Inn.”  

Accounted a multi-millionaire in his own time, Van Vleet and his wife were described as  “great globe trotters.”  When the couple visited the Philippines, newly acquired by the United States from Spain, they met William Howard Taft, at the time the civilian governor of the islands.  According to the Washington Post, “a warm and enduring friendship was established.”  When Taft was elected President, the Van Vleets were his guests at the White House.

Note:  All three of these druggists as whiskey men have been written up in the past on this blog as individual biographies.  Those are available as:  Edwin E. Bruce, May 18, 2011;  George Fleming, August 13, 2011; and Philip Van Vleet, June 24, 2016.