Celebrating One Thousand Posts

 When I began this blog in April 2011, little did it occur to me that in just over a decade the number of entries would reach the 1,000 mark.  My research on whiskey had convinced me that the American liquor trade prior to National Prohibition in 1920 was virtually unexplored territory.  I decided that a blog devoted to the stories of the men (and a few pioneering women) working as distillers, whiskey dealers, saloonkeepers, bartenders, etc., were needed to shed light on almost forgotten segment of American history.

It is extremely gratifying that so many people have agreed.  Since its inception this website as has attracted more than 1,333,000 “hits” from all over the world.  Some 2,570 respondents have contributed comments.  Those messages include observations from descendants, inquiries about whiskey artifacts and values, and factual corrections.  I attempt to answer each communication and make changes as needed.  The blog also has attracted 376 “followers.”  Those are individuals who receive immediate notification when a new item is posted.  I am extremely grateful to them for their loyalty.

Five Posts of Uncommon Interest

In looking back at the 999 posts that have gone before, several stand out.  A highly important “whiskey man,” Judge W. H. McBrayer, was an early profile on October 2, 2011.  Over the years, this very early post has attracted 5,556 “hits.”  More important, McBrayer’s story led me to do posts on his son-in-law, his “master” distiller and his liquor broker — all stories worth telling.

The idea of Brigham Young, a leader of the Mormon people, as a “whiskey man” seemed farfetched until my research found that Young for at least three years was in charge of all liquor sales in Utah.  The story also involved commentaries from Mark Twain and Sir Richard Burton.  Since running on August 18, 2016, that post has attracted some 10,874 views.

The name Len Motlow is a familiar name to many whiskey aficionados because as a relative of Jack Daniels he inherited the distillery and help build it to the international brand it is today.  Few people, however, know that Motlow once was arrested for murdering a railroad conductor.  He escaped punishment by playing “a race card” at his trial because the only witness was a black porter.  That story, running on March 26, 2019, has attracted 3,981 hits.

Christopher Hilbert

It is unusual when an existing post attracts more than a dozen or so watchers in a single day.  Thus it was with astonishment this past August that an entry of January 17, 2022, recorded 2,444 views in one day.  The subject was the Hilbert Brothers, two liquor dealers in San Francisco.  They were beneficiaries of a criminal enterprise by local politicians to extort money from saloonkeepers and dealers, a scam that made national headlines when exposed.  The sheer number of viewings in a single day suggests that other websites were tapping into the post but I have yet to find them.

That mystery brings me to the unfathomable question of the apparent popularity of my post on Otto Wagner’s liquor business in Tiffin, Ohio, that ran on December 6, 2013. It was devoted to the extraordinary variety of designs for the whiskey jugs issued by Wagner, shown here.  To date the post has garnered 21,688 look-ins, far and away the highest response of the other 998.  Even if every man, woman and child in Tiffin tapped into the story, the number would be 5,000 fewer than the “hits” actually recorded.  My efforts to unravel this mystery have been unavailing. 

Some Reflections at 1,000

Looking back on the many stories that have been told on this website about “whiskey men” of the pre-National Prohibition era, a few conclusions  become evident:

1. The prevalence of immigrants.  Although I have not made a count, my instinct is that more than half of the people featured on this blog were either immigrants to the United States or the children of immigrants.  The liquor trade, unlike other occupations, was not exclusionary about those within its ranks.

2.  Religion was important.  Roman Catholics and Jews dominated the numbers making and selling alcohol, along with some Episcopalians and Lutherans.None of those religious groups officially banned alcohol use.  Many in the liquor trade were generous to their church or synagogue.

3.  Contributions to their communities. In instance after instance, the contributions both in money and time made by whiskey men to civic betterment, public welfare, and general education were hugely important to the developmentof their cities, towns, counties and states.  Often their obituaries omitted that their financial resources had come from liquor profits.

4.  The role of women.  Virtually all the women profiled on this blog inherited their whiskey businesses from husbands who often pre-deceased them by many years.  Some widows ignored strong pressure to sell out.  Many women guided their enterprises to levels of success beyond the legacy of their late spouses.

5.  Legal strategies to avoid prohibition.  The pre-1920 liquor trade proved to be creative in finding ways to avoid the prohibitionary laws and regulations that  were being enacted almost daily somewhere in America through “local option” or statewide auspices.  Strategies like mail order sales, “whiskey trains,” and relocation from “dry” areas to “wet” kept many a distillery and liquor dealer afloat for years.

6.  Illegal strategies after National Prohibition.  With passage of the Volstead Act virtually all the remaining distilleries and liquor firms simply shut down.  A few, however, decided to cheat.  Almost all those “amateur” attempts failed as alert Federal authorities swooped down.  Successful bootlegging subsequently was the province of organized crime.

7.  Post-prohibition occupations.  After the liquor trade was closed to them many practitioners were still young enough to want second careers and had the assets to make it happen. Because the automotive age was just beginning many gravitated there, selling cars, car parts, or garage services.  Others went into real estate and banking.   A few chose farming.

Going Forward

At 87 years old I recognize that my ability to take this website through another decade is an unlikely prospect.  I am also faced with the reality that finding new good stories is becoming more and more difficult.  For every whiskey man I choose to write about, my research effort rejects six or seven that do not meet my criteria for reader interest.  That said, I will continue as long as possible to post every four days.  Should a paucity of subjects occur, I will lengthen the time between posts and move on.