In researching a post on a Cincinnati whiskey broker named William C. Biles, I came across his 1909 will. In it he seemed to provide generously for his brothers and sisters but for one sibling, John, left only a single dollar. The “why” was intriguing and led to my discovery that William and John Biles for years operated virtually identical liquor-related businesses in head-to-head competition. Their rivalry clearly had shredded familial bonds. The brothers are pictured below, William at right.
From census records it would appear that both men were born in or near Gadsden, Florida, two of eight children of Alexander and Hannah Kingsbury Biles. John, the elder of the two was born in 1851; William, the youngest of the brood, in 1857. Not long after his birth, Alexander Biles, a farmer, died leaving his widow, Hannah, to raise seven minor children and run the family farm.
The next few years for the Biles household largely has gone unrecorded. At some point both John and William moved to Cincinnati. This suggests to me that John Biles may have had some early exposure to the whiskey trade and found that he had an aptitude for it. J.W. Biles & Co., according to its letterhead was founded in 1878, when John was 21. The firm first surfaced in Queen City directories in 1886, however, when the proprietor would have been 29. For several years after that John was listed as a wholesale dealer in a town that then was at the center of the American liquor industry.
Accompany this pivot, John brought into his organization younger brother William, who had been selling jewelry, along with a third partner, Godfrey Holterhoff. This triumvirate was not destined to endure. By 1892, with Holterhoff, William Biles broke away entirely from his brother and opened his own competing liquor-based commission merchant firm. A Cincinnati directory for that year told the story:
Thus began a long and sometimes bitter rivalry between the brothers for primacy as Cincinnati whiskey men. Each Biles published and sold periodic newsletters that contained pricing for major brands, along with information on other aspects of the liquor trade. John called his publication “Biles Whiskey Price List: The Recognized Standard of Whiskey Pricing.” His periodical also contained information on state, county and local tax and storage allowance tables. It cost a hefty $199 a year to subscribe. John Biles was assiduous about copywriting every issue.
Nearby, William Biles issued his own publication, the red-covered “Cincinnati Whiskey Price Current.” It contained price quotes for “Every Standard Distiller’s Brand of Bourbon and Rye known to the Trade.” That added up to 176 brands of bourbon and 76 of rye. His booklet, William advertised, also included current insurance rates, which brands were “bottled in bond,” how properly to invoice whiskey, and tax tables. As shown below, the newsletter was issued twice a month in an attractive illustrated format. Most important, rather than costing $199 annually, it sold for only a token $1 a year. William was undercutting his brother drastically.
Although several other whiskey price lists existed, the Biles brothers’ publications enjoyed national recognition. Both were cited before the U.S. Supreme Court during the trademark case that involved the distillers of “Old Crow” whiskey against alleged violations by A.M. Hellman & Co. The attorney for Old Crow specifically entered as evidence the W.C. Biles publication, stating: “The Old Crow whiskey cited in that price list is the Old Crow of W. A. Gaines & Co…It is the only Old Crow whiskey ever quoted by whiskey brokers, and so would be so understood by any whiskey dealer in the country.”
Meanwhile, each brother was having a personal life. John’s eventually would impact on the the intense brotherly competition. In 1891, at the age of 41, the older brother married Clara Mantle, a woman 20 years younger than he from Louisville, Kentucky. He likely had met Clara during one of his business-related trips to the center of the Kentucky whiskey industry. The couple would have three girls. William earlier had found a bride in Cincinnati. She was Hannah Mary Webb, four years younger than William and the daughter of a prominent local merchant. They would have one child, a son who died in infancy. There would be no others.
Although John and Clara Biles initially lived in Cincinnati, within several years the couple moved to Louisville, perhaps to be closer to Clara’s family. At the beginning John continued to publish the newsletter but increasing turned his attention to managing the Turner Drier Co. a manufacturer of grain drying equipment used by distillers. By 1900 John had relinquished day-to-day operation of the J.C. Biles Co. and while keeping his name on the door a new management team was installed.
Neither brother would find their business interests free from pitfalls. About 1903 William, through an intermediary company, bought receipts calling for 214 barrels of whiskey from the Old Times Distillery Company, a Louisville distillery owned by Dan Russell, a distiller of dubious reputation. [See my post on Russell, August 9, 2019]. Upon delivery William found a shortage of 39 barrels, worth thousands of dollars. When he demanded the remaining barrels or his money back, the intermediary also claimed a loss. The two claimants appear to have settled on suing Russell in Louisville’s Circuit Court.
In 1909 the J. W. Biles Company ran athwart the U.S. Board of Food and Drug Inspection, forerunner of the current FDA. In a complaint signed by the head of that federal agency, Dr. H.W. Wylie, the Biles firm had sold a Buffalo distillery a shipment of distiller’s grain that claimed to be 10% fat and 26% protein — and bone dry. Laboratory analysis had revealed more than 10% of the weight was moisture and that the grain was not as labeled. The company was assessed a fine.
For the most part, however, both Biles firms appear to have prospered even as National Prohibition hovered on the scene. Each company found it possible to move its headquarters into one of Cincinnati’s premier buildings. When flooded out of his original location William in 1914 moved to the Burnett House block on Vine Street, shown left. Opened in 1850 the Burnett was considered “one the finest hotels in the world.” Later allowed to deteriorate, the building was demolished in 1926. J.W. Biles Co. by 1916 had moved to the Gwynne Building, right. Completed in 1914, the 125,000-square-foot, twelve-story Gwynne has evaded the wrecking ball and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Of the two brothers, William appears to have received the most attention from biographers. Active in the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and other business circles, William was credited for his generosity to Cincinnati’s charitable causes. An expert fisherman according to one account, he served on the board of the Ohio Humane Society and was a founder of the Hamilton County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
As he entered his 50’s, William’s health declined and “mindful of the uncertainty of life,” in 1909 he made his will. In it he left his considerable fortune to his wifeand in case of her death to be divided in equal shares to other close relatives “other than J.W. Biles.” To John, he willed $1.00. — perhaps indicating not a complete breach but little affection. William died shortly after at the age of 52. Following funeral services held in his home in Mount Auburn, he was buried in Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery. His grave and that of his wife are shown below. Said one biographer: “The death of William C. Biles in the prime of his life proved a great loss….Mr. Biles was a keen businessman of much foresight, also a man of sterling integrity and of a kind and courteous disposition which won for him the esteem and affection of a host of friends.”
John Biles died three years later at 63 and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville where many luminaries in the whiskey trade are interred. His grave has not been photographed and I find no obituaries that might shed light on his latter days. The distillery servicing companies and publications the Biles brothers founded survived their deaths — John’s until 1916 and William’s until 1918.
Note: The photo and quotations on William Biles are from the book “Centennial History of Cincinnati and Representative Citizens, Vol II” by Charles T. Greve, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904. The photo of John Biles is from “Notable Men of Kentucky at the Beginning of the 20th Century (1901-1902),” edited by Ben. LaBree, Geo.G. Fetter Printing Co.
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