From 10 Cents to $1,400 — A White Elephant Makes Good

The dictionary definition of a “white elephant” is “an unwanted, useless, and troublesome possession or item that is too expensive or too much work to maintain and which is not worth the effort.”  Yes, but not always.  Asa B. Jones valued his “White Elephant Saloon” whiskey jugs so much that he offered a princely ten cents (equiv. to $2.20 today) rebate if he refilled it.   Asa could hardly have imagined, however, that in 2021 one of those same White Elephant jugs would fetch $1,400 at auction.

Asa Jones was born in Mississippi in January 1860.  His father was from Alabama and his mother from Georgia, according to a 1900 census document.  At that time he was living in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, illustrated below as it looked in that era.  Asa was married to Rossie, a woman 17 years younger, also born in Mississippi.  At that time the couple had a six month old baby boy, christened Wriston and had lost an earlier child.   The census gave Jones’ occupation as “saloon.”  

A local news item from the early 1890s set the stage:  “Mssrs. A. B. Jones and L.G. Daniels have purchased the lot facing the McLester House in Tuscaloosa and are preparing to erect a fine two story brick building as a permanent home for the “White Elephant.”  They are enterprising gentlemen and deserve the success which they have attained.”   The hotel is shown below.

Once in permanent quarters Asa advertised vigorously to Tuscaloosa’s drinking public, aware he was competing with at least six other downtown saloons.  An excerpt from an ad headlined “Something Good” that appeared in the Tuscaloosa Gazette of October 7, 1891 reads:  “If you want fine whiskey ask for “Old Gum Spring,” the finest three dollar whiskey to be found on the market….Mr. A.B. Jones has the exclusive right to sell it in this city, hence it can be found only at the White Elephant, where you can get it in any quantity desired.”  

“Old Gum Spring” was a brand distilled and aged in Kentucky by Thompson-Wilson & Company of Paducah.  This suggests that Asa was buying whiskey from distillers by the barrel and shipping it by rail to Tuscaloosa where he was decanting the contents into smaller containers.  He also claimed exclusive franchise for Paul Jones’ whiskeys, including advertising a personal 1891 certification from the Louisville distiller that declared: “…That the White Elephant Saloon has the sole exclusive control of my Whiskies in Tuscaloosa.”  Asa also advertised “Rosebud Whiskey” from the Applegate Distillery in Louisville and “Possum Hollow” from Thomas Moore Distillery in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

Evidence is that in addition to retailing national brands through the White Elephant, Asa also was buying barrels of non-brand whiskey and selling in smaller quantities to local saloons, restaurants and hotels, as well as the public.  For this purpose he used ceramic jugs that have become prized by collectors.  An early White Elephant jug was a crude ceramic in which the label was “scratched” into the brown Albany slip glaze.  In time, Asa bought more sophisticated containers from Alabama’s potteries as seen below..

Shown below is the same White Elephant jug that recently received so much attention on an auction site.  The item attracted 13 bidders during the week in which it stood for sale, gradually pushing the purchase price to the eventual $1,400.That figure is made all the more startling by the label offering ten cents to anyone refilling it at the White Elephant. 

In addition to issuing containers under the name of the White Elephant, Asa Jones had his own line of liquor.  A jug advertised his “Southern Bell Whiskey.”  Whiskeys with “Belle” in the name were common and the “Southern Belle” brand had been registered with the government in 1907 by J. Grossman’s Sons of New Orleans.   Asa may have feared violating a trademark and dropped the “e” for his brand, one likely blended to his specifications.  An interesting  A.B. Jones flask also exists, linked to Asa’s saloon by an embossed elephant.

Jones' drinking establishment obviously was a favorite of the locals. In an article entitled “I Remember Old Tuscaloosa,” author Fred Maxwell recalled his boyhood friendship with a supervisor for a railroad building a regional line through Tuscaloosa:  “It was Mr. Laland’s custom to ride horseback to the White Elephant saloon at the corner of 6th St. and 24th Ave….to get a cold glass of beer….Learning of my love of horses, he would frequently pick me up and let me ride behind his saddle to the saloon.  I would sit and hold his horse while he went inside.”

Despite the popularity of the White Elephant, anti-alcohol forces were on the move nationally and in Alabama.  Among steps taken by Alabama “drys” was a new tax on whiskey.   In 1895, Asa Jones took an ad in the Sumpter County Sun saying:  “A. B. Jones wants people to know the whiskey tariff has not affected him as he laid in a large stock of Fine Liquors before the law was passed and can still furnish his patrons with the best at cheapest rates.”  Nevertheless, over ensuing years new local and state enactments drew the noose ever tighter on the liquor trade until 1915 when Alabama went completely “dry.”  The White Elephant was forced to close.

There the trail of Asa Jones grows cold.  He seems only to have been recorded in the 1900 census and never thereafter.  In 1902 the city banned all saloons in favor of a public "dispensary" system that last six years.  Online Tuscaloosa directories offer no clues.  The saloon briefly was brought to mind in 1932 when workmen excavating at a downtown building unearthed 76 brown and white quart whiskey jugs that bore the name “White Elephant Saloon.”  Had they been stashed there a century ago to avoid destruction?  Or, just possibly, to gain value?

Notes:  This post was made possible by help from Bill Garland, an expert on Alabama advertising jugs and the companies that issued them.  His insights opened the way to discovering Asa Jones and the background of Tuscaloosa’s most famous pre-Prohibition drinking establishment.