Harford Kirk Gave Wings to the Old Crow

Beginning in 1853, Harford Bradford Kirk, age 23, opened a wine and liquors importing business in New York City that by virtue of his merchandising genius proved to be highly profitable over the years.  Meanwhile out in Frankfort, Kentucky, the W. A. Gaines distillers were selling their “Old Crow” whiskey by the barrel, allowing customers to bottle it as they chose.  With the arrival of East Coast investors at Gaines, the game changed.  Now regional bottlers were being chosen for their marketing moxie.  Among them was the H.B. Kirk Company.  Kirk pivoted to whiskey and his talents gave an old brand a new look and new life.

Kirk was born on Christmas Day in 1831, in Henniker, New Hampshire, a small Merrimack County town that had been incorporated before the Revolutionary War. The son of Thomas and Elizabeth Kirk, as a boy he received the kind of education that a one room school house could provide.  Demonstrating unusual intelligence and ambition, from an early age Kirk appears to have gravitated to the wine and liquor trade with emphasis on imported spirits.

Shown above is an 1860 ad for the H.B. Kirk & Co. at its first location at 68 Fulton Street in New York City.  Note the emphasis on imported brands.  In these early days of his enterprise, the emphasis was on wines and imported liquors.  Shown here is green ceramic jug that once held Scotch whiskey from the famous Glenlivet District of Scotland that bears Kirk’s name and his New York location.  For almost the next two decades the young Kirk would be gaining a reputation for his ability to import and merchandise alcoholic beverages.  His success required opening a second outlet on Broadway at 27th Street.

Then Kirk made a pivotal decision.  According to a New York Times report: “In 1872, 19 years after his business was established, H.B. Kirk placed a sample order of 200 barrels with W.A. Gaines & Co. When it came to maturity, Kirk was delighted with its quality, and placed a large order….”   From then on whiskey, would be his focus.

Meanwhile, out in Frankfort, Kentucky, the W. A. Gaines Company, had been distilling and selling Old Crow, named for the master distiller James Crow, exclusively in bulk in 40-gallon barrels for a flat $3.50 a gallon. Liquor houses around the country could bottle it and slap whatever label on it they wished.  Brand identification and quality control by W. A. Gaines was virtually impossible. With the arrival of a group of New York investors from Paris, Allen & Co., headed by Edson Bradley, shown here, things changed drastically. [See  my post on Bradley, Sept. 19, 2011.]  

Bradley quickly saw to the incorporation of W. A. Gaines with all the assets and trademarks under its ownership.  He also determined that those liquor houses selling Old Crow bourbon should not be self-selected chaos, but chosen to represent the brand exclusively in specific markets.  In New York City he wisely anointed the H.B. Kirk Company.

Initially W. A. Gaines had designed a label that depicted an aerial view of the Old Crow distillery.  Kirk, however, had seen the benefit of using the black bird as the symbol of the brand, as shown in the image that opens this post.  Bradley, now president of W.A. Gaines Co., was quick to recognize the power of the crow symbol Kirk had initiated. He ditched the drawing of the distillery buildings, and decreed that henceforth on all bottles of the whiskey “James Crow would become species Corvis,” a bird with a stalk of grain in its mouth while standing on sheaths of bundled grain.

This image quickly was trademarked.  The result was a proliferation of copyright infringements as wholesalers who lost distribution rights or others who wanted to capitalize on the brand’s reputation copied or passed-off ersatz whiskey as Old Crow. By 1900, over 1,800 trademark infringement notices had been issued by W A. Gaines & Company.  Countering imitation would become a frequent theme of Kirk advertising.

Kirk took full advantage of his status as the sole bottler and distributor of Old Crow in the largest market in America.  While continuing his wine and imported liquor trade, he moved wholeheartedly behind merchandising the brand.  That included using humor.  Shown below are two Kirk ads, one equating George Washington with Old Crow.  The second one bears a highly unusual headline for a whiskey ad:  “It Kills Them Quickly.”  It purports to tell the story of a Mr. Lynch of Muncie, Indiana, “who for many years took in heavy jags of Old Crow Rye” and died at 120 years old.  “He was in hard luck,  We hope his premature demise will not deter others from using it.”

 

As W.A. Gaines in time experimented with other renderings of the crow, Kirk moved to his own distinctive label.  While keeping the crow involved, he featured a most unusual design for his labels.  It consists of intertwined heads, one of a white woman, a second of a black man, and a third of what appears to be a Native American.  The three are tied together by a ribbon held by a clover-shaped clasp with a “K,” presumably for Kirk.  Unable to find any source to describe the meaning of the symbol, I conclude that it is an effort to depict a unity of the American people.  Below is Kirk’s Old Crow quart bottled in amber glass, along with an unusual embossing of the three faces.

In telling the story of how Harford Kirk helped make a black bird an enduring symbol and the Nation’s bestselling pre-Prohibition whiskey, I have neglected Kirk the man.  Although unable to find a photo of this leading liquor dealer, we have two descriptions of him from passport applications when he was 59 and 68.  Although they differ on some particulars they agree that he was five feet, ten inches tall, had blue eyes, a full and open face, and gray hair.  In 1891 he sported a chin beard and “mutton chop” sideburns.  By 1900 those apparently were gone.

In 1871 Kirk married Mary Sears Cowles, a woman 19 years younger than he.  She had been born in 1850 in Claremont, New Hampshire, the daughter of Sarah Stilson and Timothy Cowles, a merchant.  Their nuptials took place in Weston, Massachusetts.  They would have two girls, Josepha, born 1874, and Lucy, 1879.

The 1880 Census found them living in New York City.  They were attended by two housemaids and a male servant.  By the time of the 1905 New York State Census the serving staff had grown to four, to include a nurse, cook, waitress and gardener.  

More important to the Kirk flourishing liquor business was the presence in the home of Ralph L. Spotts, 29, who had married the Kirks’ daughter, Josepha, and given them a grandson, Ralph K.  Although he had no sons, Kirk now had a son-in-law to assist him in his business.  Shown here, Spotts was working in the liquor trade, according to census records, as a “merchant, wines.” Spott also was a director of the Kirk Company. The presence of a family member in his liquor business allowed Kirk to undertake other activities.  Among them was as president of the Harlem Bridge, Morrisania and Fordham Railway Company.  Unfortunately, the activities of this incorporated business have faded into the mists of history.

In 1902, H. B. Kirk Co. placed the following announcement in the New York Tribune:  This year marks the close of a half century during which we have transacted business on Fulton Street.  After April 21st we will occupy the spacious seven story building, No. 156 Franklin Street, as our present quarters are wholly inadequate for our steadily increasing business.  Shown here, the building, rented by the company, added the seventh story just before Kirk moved in.  The structure is unusual on the block for having the fire escape in front.

As the 20th Century began, Kirk, now in his 70s, began to experience ill heath.  He was troubled by repeated bladder infections and chronic weakness.  He retired from the firm.  By this time, H. B. Kirk Company had incorporated and  Spotts, a member of the board, took over as president.  In July 1907 at the age of 76, Kirk died in his home in New York.  He was buried in Trinity Cemetery, Cornish, New Hampshire, 40 miles from where he was born.

During his lifetime as an important result of his creativity and marketing skills, Harford Kirk had seen Old Crow grow from among the many brands emanating from Kentucky during the late 19th Century into becoming the most popular whiskey in America.  Ralph Spotts, whose story will be told in a subsequent post, carried on Kirk’s efforts until National Prohibition.  

Note:  This post was researched from a wide variety of sources.  Key among them was a article entitled “The Whiskey Wash”  by Chris Middleton dated December 17, 2020 and available on the web.  The photos of the amber bottles are from the online Virtual Museum of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors (FOHBC), an exciting new venue for viewing rare American glass containers.  This post lacks a photo of Kirk, an omission I am hopeful some alert reader will remedy. Ralph Spotts is featured in a post of April 27, 2022.