Apparently operating both outside and inside the monopolistic efforts in the distilling, blending and marketing of whiskey referred to as “The Whiskey Trust,” the Block brothers survived for more than three decades in Cincinnati bearing the innocuous title of the Standard Distilling Company. Although the efforts at a whiskey cartel have never been systematically documented, the Blocks’ story offers insights into this late Nineteenth Century American phenomenon.
Standard Distilling was founded about 1886 by brothers Jacob and Simon Block. The elder by some eight years, Jacob was the president; Simon was secretary-treasurer. Their parents were German immigrants who settled at first in New York City where Jacob was born in 1850. For reasons unknown, their father, Joseph Block, during the following decade moved the family to Macon, Georgia where Simon was born in 1858. From there the brothers found their way north to Cincinnati where about 1885 they opened a liquor house at 13 West Pearl Street. It was the first of five addresses their company would have over the next 33 years in that city.
The Blocks’ liquor house featured a healthy list of brands, including: "Ben My Chree,” "Bluefield Rye,” "Day and Night,” “Delicacy,” “Gladiator,” "Hanover Rye,” "Lick Run,” "McBride’s,” “Metropolis,” "Royal Reserve,” "Sweet Caporal,” “Weldon,” and "Yea Yea.” The brothers’ trademarking of these labels was irregular. They registered Lick Run with the government in 1897 and then waited until 1905 to register Weldon. In 1906, after Congress strengthened trademark laws, they trademarked Day and Night, Delicacy, Gladiator, McBrides, Metropolis, and Sweet Caporal.
The Blocks’ favorite way of advertising appears to have been though shot glasses. These would have been presented to wholesale customer such as saloons, restaurants and hotels as standard practice and to retail customers at special holidays. Examples are found throughout this post.
Two court cases indicate the Block’s interactions with the forces of the Whiskey Trust. In 1899, the Blocks filed suit in federal court against another liquor house that called itself the “Standard Distilling and Distributing Company,” a name almost identical to their own firm. This organization is widely believed to be a remnant of an earlier Peoria-based effort at a whiskey monopoly that was known for its strong-armed tactics, including use of dynamite to coerce participation.
After collapsing from financial and legal problems in 1885, the cartel morphed into three organizations, of which Standard Distilling and Distributing (aka S.D. Co.) was one. Two original Trust leaders, Joseph Greenhut and Julius Kessler, have been identified as involved. [See posts,Sep. 23, 2019 and Dec. 17, 2019.] Registered in New Jersey and headquartered in Chicago, this outfit also had offices in Cincinnati, in direct competition with the Blocks. The brothers brought suit over the similarity of names.
A Federal district judge, dismissing objections by Trust officials found for the Block brothers, in effect agreeing that: “The incorporators of the defendant corporation, before its organization, knew of the existence and character of the complainants’ business, and the trade-name under which it was being carried on; and, notwithstanding its attention has since been called to the injury which it has done to the complainants’ business, it refuses to desist from the use of the name so wrongfully used.” Although the Blocks were upheld, subsequent legal action failed to achieve a name change.
Apparently deciding “if you can’t lick ‘em, join 'em,” the Blocks in 1898 agreed that they would continue to distill whiskey at a distillery they controlled but that all plain spirits or alcohol for their rectifying (blending) activities would be purchased from S.D. Co. The Trust strategy was to tie a liquor house to the cartel and limit its production in an effort to create shortages. Shortages in turn would inflate whiskey prices to the consumer. In exchange S.D. Co. contracted to pay the Blocks $1,000 a month for the ensuing five years. In today’s dollar that deal would be worth $1.9 million.
For the first few months, S.D.Co. payments flowed into the Blocks, but stopped totally in July 1899. Breech of contract by a cartel was a regular practice when market conditions changed and no longer advantaged the organization. The Blocks sued in a Cincinnati court for damages of $10,000 plus interest. S.D.Co.’s rebuttal was astounding. The defense claimed that the contract was in violation of state law in Kentucky and thus was void. The judge pointed out, however, that the contact had been made in Ohio between two Ohio companies and Ohio had no such laws. He awarded the Blocks their requested damages. Appealed to the Cincinnati Superior Court, the judgment was affirmed and additional court costs levied on S.D. Co.
Jacob continued as the president of Standard Distilling until about 1900 when at the age of 50 he retired and Simon became its chief executive. The Federal census that year found both living in a still-standing spacious home at 2351 Park Avenue in Cincinnati. Jacob had never married but Simon had a wife, Jessie, and three youngsters, Ralph, 10, Helen, 9; and Margaret, 4. There were two household servants. Simon’s leadership of Standard Distilling proved as successful as his brother and by 1912 son Ralph had been added to the staff as a clerk.
Throughout the early 20th Century, the attempts at a Whiskey Trust began to wane and exertions by existing “wannabe” cartels gradually became less aggressive. For the Blocks monopolies no longer were a major concern. Now Prohibition was. When Ohio adopted statewide prohibition in January 1919, Simon was forced to shut the doors on their liquor house after more than three decades.
Jacob died in 1829 at the age of 79. Simon lived to be 75, dying in 1933 — just in time to see National Prohibition coming to an end. The brothers are buried in adjacent graves in Cincinnati’s Walnut Hills Jewish Cemetery. Although their jousting with elements of the Whiskey Trust was not unique, their story illuminates a small part of the murky and largely untold history of the attempt to monopolize whiskey making and sales in America.
Note: This post largely is derived from the two court cases cited here as well as from genealogy sites. Shot glasses are largely from Robin Preston's "pre-pro" site.
No comments:
Post a Comment