James Crow Was Whiskey’s Prescribing Doctor

As the putative originator of “Old Crow” whiskey,  Dr. James Crow has been the subject of considerable distiller fabrications in the years since his death in 1856.  Fortunately we have an account of Crow’s life and accomplishments written about 42 years later by a respected Louisville journalist named Daniel Bowmar whose purpose was not to sell whiskey but to rectify “how completely the great Scotsman’s personality had become obliterated from the minds of men, even in the community where he lived and died.”  This post relies heavily on Bowmar’s article.

1780's Edinburgh 

Crow was born in a town about 20 miles outside Edinburgh, Scotland, in June 1787 (sometimes given as 1889), the son of William and Catherine (Early) Crow.  His family apparently could afford to send him to the prestigious University of Edinburgh. below. There he received a classical education, well grounded in theology and law, before moving on to the university’s medical college, considered one of the world finest.  In 1822 Crow earned a medical degree while demonstrating a particular aptitude for chemistry.

Described as a youth of “magnificent physique and attractive presence” Crow is list as five feet, nine inches, in height, blue-eyed and wearing no facial hair.  He also had an adventuresome streak. Shortly after graduation he headed for American shores.  His first stop was Philadelphia where Bowmar’s account says enigmatically:  “He did not succeed there.”  Apparently Crow went bankrupt.

By the following fall Crow had moved west to Kentucky, settling in Frankfort.  There he met Col. Willis Field, a member of the Kentucky legislature and plantation owner.  He took an interest in the young Scotsman and invited him to stay at his home in Woodford County.  Like many farmers at that time, Field ran a small distillery on his land, operated with crude equipment and indifferent results.  After tasting the product, Crow, well aware of quality whiskey, took a strong interest in improving Field’s operation:  “…There was an element missing that Crow was quick to perceive.  He set himself to working out the problem.  The result of his experiments, which consumed many long weeks, was the first gallon of scientifically distilled sour-mash whiskey ever produced.”

Crow brought new apparatus to his distilling.   Among his innovations was introducing the two-column still that had been invented a few years earlier by Irishman Aeneas Cofffey.  Shown here in diagram format, this continuous distillation method allowed for the production of spirits with an alcoholic content greater than 90 percent. 

Shown below is a device that may have been invented by Crow.  It is a single chamber where the alcoholic content of distilled bourbon could be measured.  He employed litmus paper to test for acidity in the mash and a saccharimeter to ascertain sugar content, while thermometers and hydrometers were used to calculate temperatures and liquid density of the spirits.  Clay also insisted that no more than two-and one half gallons of whiskey should be produced from a single bushel of grain.

The fame of Crow’s whiskey spread rapidly as Fields was quick to send samples to the rich and famous of his acquaintance.  These included Kentuckian Henry Clay, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives.  According to Bowmar:  “Henry Clay smacked his lips over the sample and demanded to know who made it and where it came from.  He ordered a barrel of Clay whiskey to Washington the following winter….”  A century later the distillers of Old Crow would advertise with an illustration of a supposed meeting of Clay and Crow.

Daniel Webster also is said to have been an early enthusiast for Crow’s whiskey.  The New England political giant is said to have visited Crow in Kentucky after writing that his whiskey was “the finest in the world.”  This alleged meeting also was pictured in an Old Crow magazine ad of the 1960s.  One mistake stands out.  A sign identifies the location as “James Crow’s Distillery.”  No such place existed;  Crow always worked for other people.

Demand for Crow’s whiskey soon outgrew the limited facilities that Field’s plantation could provide and the distilling genius moved on.  He joined Oscar Pepper, a distiller at Glenn’s Creek, Kentucky, who already had a good reputation for his whiskey.  Crow enhanced it.  “When Crow took charge the whiskey made at the Pepper distillery had been selling for 12 1/2 cents a gallon.  He hadn’t been there long until the price doubled and none of the patrons objected to paying the increased rate.”

Crow worked for the Peppers from 1833 until 1855, with exceptions being 1837 and 1838, possibly because construction to expand the distillery, shown below,  was proceeding.  Crow’s deal was that he would be compensated by being given one-tenth of the production.  In 1855 the distillery produced 80 barrels from which Crow presumably drew eight.  In his admiration for the Scotsman, Oscar named one whiskey “Old Crow” and gave the distiller a house of his own on the property.

Although modest and retiring, Crow had a reputation as highly intelligent, able to discourse knowledgeably on many subjects with the leading men of Kentucky.  His knowledge of the poems of Robert Burns and ability to recite them at will was treated with awe.  Crow apparently continued to practice medicine, said to give medical aid to the poor without charge and willing to walk miles to relieve a suffering patient.

That said, Crow had an air of mystery about him.  Some onlookers thought that a man as talented, handsome and strong must have clandestine romantic adventures.  Yet his friends and neighbors were astounded when one day a Mrs. Crow and a daughter, Catherine, suddenly appeared from Scotland at the distillery.  Crow had never told anyone of their existence.  From their gravestones it is possible to extrapolate that Catherine was born in 1812 when her mother, Eliza, was 19 and Crow about 23.  They apparently had married while Crow was still a medical student.

Of Crow’s reaction to their arrival Bowmar commented:  “He alone manifested no surprise on their sudden appearance.  He provided a comfortable home, which he shared with them, and continued to go about his business as complacently as though nothing had occurred out of the ordinary routine.”   Continuing to live on in their Woodford County home after Crow’s death, both women established themselves as exceptionally gracious neighbors. 

Near the end of his life, Crow made one last employment move in the spring of 1856, working for a distiller named Anderson Johnson.   By this time, age 67, he was experiencing heart problems.  One morning while working in the mash room, he fell dead.  Buried initially on the property,  later the Scotsman’s remains were removed to a cemetery at Versailles, Kentucky.  Eliza would join him there five years later.  Their headstones are shown here.

The origins of the Crow brand started in the 1840s when James Crow marked his  share of barrels by chalking C-R-O-W on each of his barrel heads. He then scratched over the chalk with an iron hook, C-R-O-W, etching ownership of the whiskey that represented his future income. In the Pepper warehouse, the whiskey was known either as Pepper’s or Crow’s. They were, in fact, one and the same product.

The first recorded mention of Crow whiskey outside the distillery was a dealer order from Memphis in 1865, ten years after the doctor died. W. A. Gaines and his partners recognized the growing recognition and value of the Crow name when they leased the Old Oscar Pepper distillery early in 1867. They named the whiskey produced as Old Crow Sour Mash.  As James Crow had no living heirs, W. A. Gaines Company was able to appropriate the brand without initial challenge.  That changed rapidly as other distillers and wholesalers sought to capitalize on the Scotsman’s sterling reputation.   By 1900 more than 1,800 trademark infringement notices had been issued by the Gaines organization.  

Notes:  As earlier indicated, this post relies heavily on the account given by Daniel M. Bowmar, the longtime publisher of the of the Woodford Sun newspaper. Although undated, the article originally ran sometime between 1897 and 1899.  It was reprinted in a similarly undated publication called Black & White as a submission from a William Crow, relationship if any to James, unknown.  I fortunately have an original copy of that article.  All quotes in italics are from Bowmar’s article.