Foreword: Before 1908 John Casper of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was one of the top two mail order distributors of alcoholic beverages in the United States. In an earlier post (June 30, 2011) I tracked Casper’s distilling activities in the Tarheel state until it went “dry” and his subsequent foray into Virginia. After that the trail became faint as Casper ventured into Florida and Arkansas. Then the trail disappeared. Some sources indicated the whiskey man ended up in Mexico. In recent years more information has come to light and so I am providing for this post, “The Second Act” of John L. Casper, shown below.
While the earlier post was correct in most aspects, it erred in assuming that since Casper seemed to live in hotels much of his life that he never married. New information indicates otherwise. According to a publication from the Forsyth County (Winston-Salem) Library, in December 1886 Casper married Annie Nadling, the daughter of a local tobacco warehouseman, and moved into a home not far from her parents. Sometime in the 1890s they had two children, John Jr., known as “Jonny” and “Sissy.” Both would play future roles in their father’s liquor business.
When North Carolina went “dry” in 1908, Casper moved to Roanoke, Virginia, and sold stock to erect a distillery. Fortune seemed to smile on Casper. The money rolled in and he was able to move to self-described “magnificent buildings” in Roanoke, illustrated in a Casper-generated newspaper advertisement, shown below. The authenticity of the image is questionable. The facility, which boasted being on 14 acres, appears rather odd, with a mountain rising out of the center of a campus-like setting.
After only several years in Virginia fortunes turned sour for John Casper. Whether overextended financially or for other reasons, years before the state went dry the whiskey man left Roanoke for other climes. There may be a clue in a crackdown by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue on distilleries that had sprung up in a number of Virginia cities to provide mail order liquor to North Carolina and other “dry” Southern states. Some distillers were discovered defrauding the government of their revenue taxes by means of “double runs” and other methods to avoid the $1.10 tax on every gallon produced. Never himself accused, Casper was a defense witness for a Danville distiller who later was convicted and served time.
Next Casper popped up in Jacksonville, Florida. While the Sunshine State had “local option” prohibitionary laws, Jacksonville and other major population centers were wide open for alcohol. The letterhead above announced the formation of the Atlantic Coast Distilling Company and dates its incorporation at February 12, 1910 with John Casper listed as vice president. As might be expected, Casper was in charge of sales. The firm boasted that it did annual business in excess of half a million dollars and had broken all prior sales records under his leadership. The secretary treasurer of Atlantic Distilling, Ray Tesch later related that Casper always told young employees to remember that: “Whiskey is made to SELL and not to DRINK.”
Located on Jacksonville’ Bay Street, Atlantic Distilling featured a number of brands, including “Blue Ridge", "Old Eagle Corn", "Red Rooster Corn,” “Southern Whiskey” and “Sweet Mash Corn.” The company was selling at both retail and wholesale, the latter whiskey packaged in ceramic jugs of half-gallon, gallon and two gallon size. 
Evidence is that Casper was more than the vice president indicated on Atlantic Distilling’s letterhead. The putative president was John F. Smithdeal, his friend from North Carolina, who from early on was bound up in Casper’s often complicated business deals. Proof of Casper’s primacy was a May 13, 1913, letter to a Georgia attorney, signed by John as “president” of Atlantic Distilling. The letter also notes that the Southern Distilling Company was an “auxiliary firm.” So evidently were two other outfits named Blue Ridge Distilling and Rush Distilling. The latter’s liquor labels included "Cream of Kentucky ‘Thee' Whiskey,” and “Crme de la Crme.”
In Jacksonville Casper ran athwart government authorities. In 1913 Atlantic Distilling was charged under the 1906 Food and Drug Act with adulterating and misbranding its Southern Whiskey, a corn liquor. Although the label in very small print acknowledged that the product was only 50 proof — 25 percent alcohol — and contained water, federal authorities contended that the addition of capiscum, an agent derived from peppers, was used to disguise the weak flavor. Although the label claimed that capiscum was included as a doctor recommended “best stomach stimulant known,” Casper and his partners pleaded “nolo contendere” to the charges and paid the paltry $25 fine.
Apparently not wanting to put all his liquor “eggs” in a single state, Casper also began operating more than a thousand miles away in Fort Smith, Arkansas, forming a whiskey-making enterprise he called the Uncle Sam Distilling Company, incorporated in May 2011 under the laws of Arkansas. Casper was listed as president and Smithdeal as vice president. This company claimed as its marketing territory the “entire Southwest portion of the United States” and emphasized mail order sales.
Casper is said to have turned Atlantic Distilling over to Smithdeal to run while he concentrated on the Fort Smith enterprise. Several artifacts from Uncle Sam Distilling have survived, including a pocket mirror that promised 12 quarts of straight whiskey for $6.00, or 50 cents a bottle, making it among the cheapest booze available anywhere — and likely watered. As bonus gifts for large mail order purchases, Casper also provided mini jugs advertising “Zulieka Old Corn Whiskey.”
Government agents soon were on John Casper’s trail in Arkansas. He and his partners were charged by U.S. Internal Revenue with multiple counts of evading federal taxes on alcoholic beverages. On October 15, 1915, Casper pleaded guilty to all 33 counts against him and was sentenced to nine years and three days confinement at the Leavenworth, Kansas, federal penitentiary. He was also fined $33,000, the equivalent of $725,000 today. The Federal District Court also seized his Fort Smith properties, worth the equivalent of $2.3 million.
Casper was forced to eat very few meals at the Leavenworth mess hall, shown above, reported to have received a pardon after only three months in prison. His early release testifies to his having friends in high places. Nevertheless, he had become a “whipping boy” of the prohibitionist crowd who claimed, without evidence, that Casper from his earliest days in North Carolina had been guilty of cheating the federal government out of millions in tax dollars. Under fire, the Tarheel native returned to Winston-Salem where he occupied himself managing a printing company and a mercantile house. But whiskey still ran in Casper’s blood.
After the imposition of National Prohibition in 1920, Casper with son John Jr. and daughter Sissy’s husband, John Lamb, went to Mexico where they began to build a new distillery. Although it was illegal to export whiskey from south of the border into the U.S., American tourists were allowed to bring it back and other conduits existed for Mexican-made whiskey to find its way into the States. Casper intended to take advantage of the opportunities.
As he aged, however, Casper had begun to experience heart problems. The exertion required in getting his new liquor enterprise off the ground may have worsened his condition. On July 29, 1921, Casper suffered a massive heart attack at the town of Villa de Acura in Coahula, Mexico, and died. John Lamb shipped his body back by train to Winston-Salem In early August, with family at his graveside, John Casper was interred in Salem Cemetery, shown left. The gravesite itself has not been identified.
In writing about more than 750 American pre-Prohibition whiskey men, I have found none more persistent, none more inventive, perhaps none more devious, than John Casper. For that he deserves a special place in the panoply of those who for decades provided liquor to a thirsty Republic. May he rest in peace.
Note: The “new information” cited above that triggered this second look at John Casper was an Internet newsletter article on Casper by Fam Brownlee Jr., a historian at the North Carolina Room of the Forsyth County Library. Mr. Brownlee’s piece clarified the whiskey man’s marital status, identified his children, provided additional information on the Fort Smith gambit, and detailed Casper’s death in Mexico. The photo of Casper that opened this vignette and the postcard of the Leavenworth dining hall are both from Mr. Brownlee’s article. I am grateful to him for his permission to use this material. He also has offered the following comment: As an aside, one of our top developers has become interested in Casper's story and will soon be opening a speakeasy themed bar named for Casper. Knowing him, it will probably be the best bar in the Triad. Finally, thanks to David Jackson for the photo of Casper's gravestone in Winston-Salem.
Wow!
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