The Walshes: NOT Kentucky “Whiskey Barons”

Beginning with their immigrant Irish father, James, and carried forward by two sons, Nicholas and Denis, the Walsh family carved out a liquor dynasty in northern Kentucky that began before the Civil War and lasted for more than a half century.  Because the Walshes openly declared themselves to be whiskey re-distillers and compounders, the state’s “whiskey barons,” dedicated to straight bourbons and ryes, could scorn them for making “imitation” whiskey.   Truth was, the Walshes really didn’t care.

James Walsh, left,  was born in April 1817 in County Mayo, Ireland, the names of his parents unrecorded.  Information on his education and early occupation is also sparse.  Unlike many Irish whiskey men James did not come to America as a child or teenager.  Records indicate his immigration was in 1832 when he was about 25, eventually heading to Covington, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.  Walsh appears to have returned to Ireland three years later to marry Mary Ellen McCarthy of Cork.  Bride and groom were both 28.  Over the next dozen years, living in Covington, they would have three sons, James, Nicholas, and Denis.

About 1848 Walsh found employment in Covington working for a liquor house that had been erected in 1830 as a whiskey “rectifying” plant, located near a major suspension bridge that spanned the Ohio River. Shown above as later expanded, the facility was founded by Marcus Smith who later sold it;  a succession of owners ensued over the years.  Walsh is recorded employed there as a distillery worker.  When the Irish immigrant’s talent for the business was recognized, Walsh was brought into management by a subsequent owner, Samuel Murphy.  He became a junior partner in 1860. 

With Murphy’s withdrawal, Walsh moved into position as senior partner.  During this period, as his sons matured, he brought Nicholas and Denis into the company.  The following decade was one of rapid expansion for the distilling firm.  In addition to its Covington compounding and re-distilling operations, it acquired the rights to the production of the Sam Clay Distillery in Paris Kentucky (6th District, RD #77) and source of nationally known “Sam Clay” sour mash whiskey.

  Shown above, the Paris Distillery was located 1/2 mile east of Paris on the KentuckyCentral Railroad.  It had the capacity to mash 412 bushels of grain daily and a warehouse capacity of 15,000 barrels.  Insurance underwriter records from this time describe the distillery as being of frame construction with a metal or slate roof. The property included a frame cattle shed 225 feet west of the still, and five warehouses:

   Warehouse A -- brick with a metal or slate roof and located 350 feet north of the still.

   Warehouse B -- brick with a metal or slate roof, adjoining "A".

   Warehouse C -- brick with a metal or slate roof, located 300 ft NW.

   Warehouse D -- a new brick building with a metal or slate roof, located 180 feet       NW of the still and 10 ft east of "C"

    A Free Warehouse -- iron clad, located 210 feet north of the still.

Now operating as James Walsh & Company, in 1875 the Walshes acquired the Rossville Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, 25 miles east of Cincinnati. Shown below, this plant at buildout had a daily mashing capacity of 5,000 bushels of grain, storage space for 60,000 barrels in its warehouses, four steel grain elevators holding 200,000 bushels, and two slop dryers that held 5,000 bushels of feed.

In 1886  "Industries of Cincinnati,” a book extolling the virtues of the city, reported that the Walsh company now owned three distilleries, employing some 100 workers. The corporate offices were at Pike’s Office Building in downtown Cincinnati.  By  this time the company had reorganized with James Walsh, Nicholas Walsh, Denis Walsh, and Peter O'Shaughnessy as partners.  Under their father’s watchful eye, Nicholas attended to the office work, Denis looked after the Lawrenceburg operation.  H. D. Haynes managed the Paris Distillery. Peter O'Shaughnessy superintended the compounding and redistilling business in Covington. 

Their large distillery facilities allowed the Walshes to issue a blizzard of brands:

"A Rye Whiskey - Kenton Co. Ky.", "A. L. Rye", "Belle of Paris", "Duncan Bourbon", "Gold Medal Rye", "Golden Pheasant", "Joe Fiske", "Juniata Pure Rye", "King of Kenton", "Ned White", "Old Buck Creek", "Old Hickory", "Orange Valley", "Paris Club", "Rossville B Bourbon", "Rossville B Rye", "Sam Clay", "Walsh Old Stock", and "Well House.”    Of these, the Walshes trademarked only four:  “Orange Valley” and “Well House” in 1876, and then, possibly discouraged by the lax legal protection afforded, not again until years later with “A Rye Whiskey” in 1906 and “Old Hickory” in 1907.  Over time the company also sold corn whisky under several labels, said to be aged 10 years.

 

Kentucky’s straight bourbon distillers, the so-called “Whiskey Barons,” were contemptuous of operations like the Walshes.  Col. E. F. Taylor, vocal leader of the bourbon makers, referred to compounded and re-distilled whiskey as “imitation” and lobbied Presidents and the Congress to require that the word be prominent on labels. Corn whiskey was derided as “cheap goods.”  The idea that the Walshes operated a distillery in Indiana also would have elicited criticism.  Truth was, however, Walsh’s whiskey was less expensive than straight bourbons and the market for them was brisk.  Profits rolled in and the family thrived.

The ascendancy of the Walshes was not without setbacks.  On March 19, 1893, fire broke out at their sprawling five story re-distilling and compounding facility in Covington.  For two and a half hours local firefighters strove valiantly to save the structure but to no avail.  The walls crumbled and destruction was total.  Falling debris also damaged adjacent small structures.  A Government bonded warehouse in the rear escaped but about 2,000 barrels of whiskey stored elsewhere were destroyed.  The New York Times reported the total loss at $250,000 (equivalent to $8.2 million today) “well insured in numerous companies,

mostly foreign.”

By that time, James Walsh had died.  Apparently in declining health he had retired in 1888 at the age of 71.  Two years later, while on a visit to Washington, D.C., he was stricken and died.  The cause given was “apoplexy,” likely a stroke.  He was buried at St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, just outside Covington.  

The burden of maintaining the Walsh whiskey empire fell to Nicholas.  In charge when the fire ripped through the Covington plant, he decided not to rebuild.  Nicholas also was faced with the growing prohibitionary fervor in the country, reducing markets.  Moreover, increasing pressure from the Whiskey Trust had grown strong in Kentucky.  In 1902 he sold the Paris Distillery to the monopoly.  Following the 1905 death of his brother, Denis, Nicholas increasingly relied on  Peter O’Shaughnessy who brought his own sons into company management.  Retiring in 1914, Nicholas died in 1915 at 59 years old.  The Walsh dynasty, despite the critics, had lasted 54 years.

The O’Shaughnessys continued to operate as James Walsh & Co., with their main distillery the Rossville plant in Lawrenceburg.  Indicating the continuing prestige of the Walsh name, they called their flagship liquors “James Walsh Bourbon” and “James Walsh Rye.”  Following the imposition of National Prohibition, the plant continued production of grain alcohol for medicinal and commercial purposes and resumed making whiskey after Repeal.  It was subsequently sold to Schenley.

Meanwhile, the Walshes, father and sons, lie united in death even as they were in life.  Shown left above is the family monument that stands in St. Mary’s Cemetery.  Note the panels below each of the arches.  They memorialize each of the three men buried nearby, a family united in their passing as they were in life.

Note:  This post was assembled from a wide variety of sources available on the Internet.