John F. Callahan: A Whiskey Man Who Knew Need

 

Born in 1852 into poverty and thrust by necessity into child labor, John Francis Callahan through the sale of liquor rose in wealth and attained community recognition for his civic contributions to Boston, his home town.   Callahan’s career culminated in his appointment as a Director of Public Institutions for the city, responsible for managing the feeding and shelter of Boston’s poor, a population he knew all too well.

John was the son of John and Elizabeth (Callinan) Callahan, both immigrants from Ireland who had arrived in America several years before his birth.  The boy received six years of education in Boston schools before being forced at 12 to go to work to help support his family.  Callahan’s initial employment was in a local grocery store that featured wines and liquor.  He rapidly understood the profitability of the latter and showed an aptitude for the whiskey trade.

The next 12 years are shrouded in the mists of history as Callahan rose to management positions in Boston liquor houses.  In 1874 at the age of 26 he had achieved sufficient resources to marry.  His bride was Mary C. Donovan of similar age, an immigrant from Ireland.  In rapid succession they would have two sons, Frank and George.  His growing familial obligations may have moved Callahan to go into business for himself, opening a wholesale and retail liquor store in Boston on March 15, 1879.  He called it John F. Callahan & Co.

The 27-year old seems to have been successful from the outset.  Like many wholesalers Callahan featured proprietary brands of his own.  They included “Callahan’s Famous Home,” "Callahan's Whiskey,” "Old Kentucky Club House Whiskey,” "Walnut Rye,” and “Walkhill Rye.”  He was receiving barrels of whisky, most likely by rail, from area distilleries and rectifying (blending) them to achieve desired flavor, smoothness and color.  In this he was following the tradition of Irish whiskey, all of which is blended.  

Callahan sold these whiskeys in embossed glass bottles with his name and Boston in calligraphy.  Those containers came in both quart and flask size in clear and possibly cobalt, although such bottles later may have been artificially colored.The proprietor’s flagship brand, heavily advertised, appears to have been “Old Kentucky Club House.”  Callahan issued a shot glass for this label, an item that would have been given to prime customers.

While other wholesalers were presenting copies of nude painting to saloons, restaurants and bars carrying their products, Callahan give away calendars. They were unusual in that each had two holes from which the calendar could be unfurled.  As a result, shown below, one month could be horizontal and when the following month came along, flipped to vertical.  Every month called forth an arty illustration and a message. 

 Callahan’s merchandising efforts met with success.  His headquarters at 158-162 Federal Street drew a “puff piece” in the Boston Post that headlined:  “Look into the House of John F. Callahan & Co., New England’s Greatest Wholesale and Mail Order Liquor House,” and included four photos of the interior operations. 

Meanwhile Callahan was making his mark in Boston, working in the Democratic Party.  He was a member of the City Committee, serving on the finance and executive committees, and for two years was on the State Central Committee. While not running for political office himself, those posts allowed him to play a significant role in state, congressional, and senatorial conventions.  For four years Callahan also served as treasurer of the Irish Charitable Society, a major force in assisting indigent Irish residents of Boston.

His combination of Democratic Party ties and charitable work resulted in Callahan being appointed a Director of Public Institutions for Boston.  From 1885 to 1889, he was among nine men charged with overseeing the operations of Boston’s public institutions involving the poor, street youths, and legal offenders.  

Those institutions included the almshouses, like the structure shown above on Deer Island, actually a promontory jutting into Boston Harbor. In the middle of the 19th century, the island was the landing point for thousands of refugees from the Great Famine of Ireland, many sick and poverty-stricken. Opened in 1853, the almshouse was administered for decades by the City of Boston to provide shelter for indigent adults and children.

About the time of Callahan’s term, new facilities known as the “House of Industry” were erected on the site and carried a penal character.  An article in the national Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine described the prisoners on Deer Island in the 1880s: "They in the main are from the lowest stratum of the cosmopolitan society of New England's metropolis, embracing representatives of almost every nationality under the sun, and from the shortness of the sentences, many being confined for 10 days only, for nonpayment of one dollar and costs for drunkenness, and none for more than a year.”

Callahan would also have had responsibilities for the Marcella-Street Home, shown here, opened in 1877 and closed in 1898.  That Boston institution housed orphaned or “street” boys after a court hearing determined they were without adult support or supervision.  In the 1880s girls housed in the almshouse on Deer island also were sent to the Marcella-Street facility.

Callahan’s term as a director occurred during a period of major changes in Boston’s administration of its social and penal services.  From 1857 to 1885 the city’s public institutions had been under the charge of a twelve-member Board of Directors.  Deciding that a somewhat smaller board was desirable, city officials in 1885 reduced the number to nine.  Callahan’s term was during that interim period, one that lasted only four years. In 1889 the Board was abolished in favor of three full-time professionals designated as Commissioners of Public Institutions.  Following his term Callahan continued to be active in civic and philanthropic causes.

A 1914 directory listing when he would have been 62 years old indicates that he was still in charge of operating John F. Callahan & Co.  He died that same year and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden, Massachusetts.  In the meantime this “whiskey man” who rose from poverty and a childhood at labor to a major position supervising Boston’s care for the indigent and “street” children deserves a final tribute.  One occurs in the volume, “One Thousand Representative Men Resident in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts” (1899). The author has this to say:  “…Mr. Callahan stands foremost among the Irish-American sons of the old Bay State.”

Note:  This vignette on John F. Callahan has been drawn from multiple sources, chief among them “Representative Men…”  the volume cited above, and from “Men of Progress: One Thousand Biographical Sketches…” edited by Edgar Monroe Bacon (1896).  The photo of John Callahan is from that document.