H. Scott Sons: The Means of Making It in Memphis

For years Henry Scott ran a successful wholesale liquor business in Greenville, Mississippi.  As they reached maturity, his sons — Jacob, Lewis and Isadore — joined him learning the whiskey trade.  In 1908, however, Mississippi became one of the first Deep South states to go dry.  Out of business, Henry’s sons decided to move their enterprise upriver to Memphis and begin anew. Despite innovative approaches, embodied by the illustration above, H. Scott Sons found the going difficult.

Father Henry Scott was born Henry Skotzky in 1832 in Gnesen, Prussia, now Gniezno, Poland.  He arrived in the United States at the age of 25, possibly already married to his wife Hannah, a woman six years younger than he. The couple appear to have settled initially in New York City where son Jacob was born in 1857.  He would be the first of ten children, five daughters and five sons, born over the next 21 years.  

When Scott first entered the liquor business is uncertain.  About 1862 Henry and Hannah moved to Louisiana where their second child was born.  After a sojourn there of no more than three years, the family moved to Mississippi and thence to Greenville. Before the Civil War Greenville had been a prosperous cotton depot but the town had been burned to the ground by Union troops.  Scott apparently could see the potential for the rebuilding as Greenville grew steadily from a population of 890 in 1870 to almost 10,000 over the next 30 years.

Henry opened a business there he called “H. Scott Wholesale Liquor Merchants” locating it on the main street, Washington Avenue, shown above  His customer base was in Greenville’s hotels, restaurants and saloons.  Henry also appears to have sold at retail.  His proprietary “house” brand was “Scott’s Private Stock Whiskey.”  He apparently met with considerable success in the sale of alcoholic beverages.  A measure of it was his being chosen by the Pabst Brewing Company of Milwaukee as its exclusive beer distributor in that region of Mississippi.

As his first three sons matured, Henry took them into the business one by one.  Jacob was the first to join his father in the liquor house.  He was followed by Louis, born in 1874, and  Isador, born in 1876.  As the years progressed the Scotts could see the Prohibition movement grow stronger and stronger in Mississippi, as in the rest of the Nation.  Gradually through “local option” laws surrounding communities were being shut off to them.   Finally in 1908, Mississippi by state law went completely “dry.”  H. Scott Company was out of business.

Henry, now 72 and possibly in failing health, retired.  His sons did not. About 1912 Jacob, Louis and Isador decided to open a liquor business in Memphis  Their father likely provided much of the upfront money to make the enterprise possible.  The brothers intended to cash in on the surging market for liquor through mail order sales to the proliferating “dry” states and localities.  The Supreme Court had ruled that laws prohibiting such sales violated the interstate commerce provision of the Constitution.  Even if Tennessee was mostly dry, Memphis was centrally located in the country and a transportation hub for railroad, river, and highway — ideal for such an operation.

Thus was born H. Scott Sons Company of Memphis.  Although all three were listed as the managers, Jacob, considerably older than his brothers and well established in Greenville. stayed at home.  Louis and Isador, the latter shown here, still in their 30s and unmarried, moved to Memphis. 

The Scotts set up shop in the Falls Building, seen here.  It was among the city’s most prestigious — and expensive — addresses. Moreover, the success of a mail order liquor house depended on flossy, eye-catching advertising done through widespread media and colorful catalogues, all contributing to a financial drain.  In a field already crowded with mail order dealers, Scott’s Sons, as in the ads below, attempted to carve a niche for themselves by claims like “We sink all competition on price and quality,” and offering cigar coupons.

Scott’s Sons promotional materials also touted dubious heath claims: “Your family doctor will tell you that it is a necessity to have whiskey on hand, because in case of sickness its usefulness cannot be estimated. You cannot wait until someone gets sick before you place an order.”  Again:  “Doctors recommend whiskey for a tonic and say it will add years to your life because it has properties that will stop decay and waste.”

The brothers featured a variety of proprietary brands, likely ordered by the barrel and poured into whatever labeled bottles might be available.  Among them was “Grandpa Corn Whiskey” at 100-proof, sold with the claim:   “Offers quality in every drop… is excellent for your health…will make you feel better after using it.” The company’s flagship was “Old Scott,” likely named after Henry and carrying his likeness on the label.  The bottle is shown below along with another featured brand, “Old Harvester.”

H. Scott’s Sons experienced a rocky financial road.  Really successful whiskey men typically resided in upscale houses or lodged in luxury hotels.  City directories indicate Lewis and Isador were living in a boarding house in 655 Poplar Avenue, a less fashionable part of Memphis, shown here.  As one observer has put it:  “When company owners live in rented lodgings, that’s not exactly a sign of long-term prosperity.” Moreover, by 1915, the Scott brothers had moved their operation out of their posh address at the Falls Building and into a ground floor headquarters in the 70 block of Union Avenue, a street of small family-run businesses.  By 1918 they disappeared from city directories, apparently defunct.

The 1920 census found Isador back in Greenville, working as the manager of a candy factory.  Louis, having met his wife, Margaret Landman, in Memphis, stayed there becoming a manager at well known Goldsmith’s Department Store.  Louis died and was buried in Memphis in 1938.  In Greenville, Father Henry Scott died in 1915, followed by Jacob in 1923, and Isador in 1964.  The three are buried in adjacent graves marked by a large granite monument. 

Despite the success of their father, two factors spelled the doom of H. Scott’s Sons’ Memphis enterprise.  First, they had miscalculated how crowded the field had become for mail order liquor sales.   Dozens of dealers already were selling directly to customers all over the United States.  Breaking in was an expensive, potentially long term proposition.  Second, and more important, the trade was highly dependent on compliant federal and state laws.  The Scotts had misjudged the growing strength of the “dry” forces and their unflagging efforts to ban mail order liquor sales — a crusade that culminated in fourteen years of National Prohibition.  In sum, Jacob, Louis and Isador had come late and the party was over.

Note:  I was drawn to the story of the Scotts by seeing the image from a catalogue cover that opens this vignette.  In the course of my research I found an article by Vance Lauderdale online that originally had appeared in the September 2011 issue of Memphis magazine. Mr. Lauderdale, who wrote a humorous column about his home town, found the image above particularly amusing:   The “order now” salesman [Isador?] is sitting in his office: “Meanwhile the Falls Building itself — where he would actually have been working — is visible down the street outside his window. I guess the artist couldn’t figure out how to show the H. Scott’s Sons salesman and the company’s building at the same time…. Even so, the Falls Building did not carry the name “H. Scott’s Sons” in giant letters across its rooftop.”