With the rapid rise of the automobile during the early 20th Century came a concurrent rush in the advertising world to insert the motor car into magazine and newspaper ads as symbols of modernity. Beer companies were quick to align their alcoholic beverages to this idea and over time I have collected dozens of their pre-Prohibition ads featuring motor cars. Most “whiskey men” by contrast, seemingly were reluctant to identify drinking liquor with driving. A major exception was Olney B. Cook, selling whiskey in (where else) the “Motor City” — Detroit.
The saloon sign below deserves careful scrutiny. It captures a scene, clearly not in Michigan, with high mountains, perhaps the Alps, a pine forest, a landscape filled with deep snow and a scattering of boulders. It is a winter scene with an ice and snow-covered road that leads to an Alpine-like inn bearing a sign reading “OLCO Whiskey For Sale Here.” Taking in the entire panorama, it might be speculated how the automobile was able to reach the tavern at such heights amid the slippery and rutted condition of the roadway.
Now concentrate on the centerpiece of this artistic gem, the automobile, its passengers, and a waiter with a tray full of drinks. The occupants appear heedless of the dangerous driving conditions that will face them as they motor down the mountain. Three are eagerly reaching out for one of the glasses of whiskey being proffered by the young attendant. Only the operator seems otherwise occupied, holding a rope of ambiguous purpose. Does it open the driver side door? Or engage the emergency brake? No mind, there are four glasses on the serving tray. The driver will get his liquor soon enough. Moreover, the boy has brought the whiskey bottle. Other libations presumably will follow.
Olney Cook, the liquor dealer responsible for commissioning this enthralling scene, was a descendant of an old Colonial family that dated its coming to Massachusetts in 1643. According to a biographer: “A much prized relic in Mr. Cook’s possession is the Cook Coat-of Arms, brought to this country by his ancestor, Walter Cook in the seventeen century.” Olney also could claim kinship with slain President James Garfield and Gen. Cyrus B. Comstock, senior aide-de-camp to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
One of ten children, Olney Ballou Cook was born in 1837 to Marinda Thayer and Fenner Cook, a farmer. He received an elite education for the times, first at the local elementary schools in Mendon, Massachussetts, and later attending a secondary boarding school for boys at Westminster, Vermont. Apparently not attracted to farm life, in 1857 Olney at age 20 took the opportunity offered him by an uncle, Colonel Levi Cook, to come west to Detroit, Michigan, where his kinsman was a well-known figure, shown here, having served in numerous public positions including three terms as mayor of the rapidly growing city.
Levi Cook also owned a general merchandise store in Detroit where he employed his young nephew. Olney proved to be a quick learner and the importance of liquor sales at Uncle Levi’s establishment particularly caught his fancy. After 14 years working for others, in 1871 Olney struck out on his own opening a wholesale liquor store on Detroit’s major commercial street, Jefferson Avenue. He called his enterprise “O.B. Cook & Co.”
Olney’s move may have been triggered by his marriage in August,1866. His bride was Vashti T. Goldsmith, from a distinguished Detroit family who claimed kinship with New York governor George Clinton and General William Belknap, Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant. A biographer noted a difference in religious affiliation between the couple. Vashti was a staunch Presbyterian; Olney an adherent of the more liberal — and non-Prohibitionist —Universalist Church. The couple would go on to have three children, daughter Alma, and sons Charles and James.
Cook appears to have met with quick success as a liquor dealer. A wholesaler, he was selling his whiskey in four and five gallon jugs to the saloons, hotels and restaurants in his customer base. He also was a “rectifier,” blending whiskeys distilled elsewhere to achieve particular characteristics, then bottling and labeling them as proprietary brands. He was drawing liquor from the warehouses of J. B. Wathen & Brother distillery of Jefferson County, Kentucky, and the R.P. Pepper distillery, Louisville. [See post on Wathen, Aug. 1, 2020.]
The transplanted Yankee sold his own proprietary brands both at wholesale and retail. They included "Export Brand Whiskey,” "Knickerbocker Whiskey,” “Del Monte Whiskey,” "Vallonia Whiskey,”, and "Yankee Rye.” OLCO Whiskey was his flagship label, obviously standing for OLney COok. He never bothered to register any of these names for trademark protection. Cook issued shot glasses for most of his brands, examples to be found throughout this post. Shown here is his back-of-the-bar bottle for OLCO.
His success rapidly advanced Cook’s reputation in the commercial centers of Detroit. Noted his biographer: “Through persistency and a fixed determination to forge ahead Mr. Cook has succeeded in building up a fine business enterprise and he holds prestige as one of the foremost businessman of Detroit….” Interestingly, nowhere in Cook’s two page profile does the biographer mention the source of his wealth and prestige — selling liquor.
Cook for many years also was secretary-treasurer of the Allouez Mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, shown here. This mining operation, extant from 1869 to 1923, was aimed at tapping the riches of the Allouez Conglomerate Lode, porous rocks containing agates, quartz, calcite, and other valuable minerals. He also was a founding member of the “Old Club,” a boating and country club located on Lake St. Claire, below.
As he aged, Cook brought his son James into the business. Although the young man, shown here, demonstrated an affinity for the trade, his father into his 70s continued to be active in managing what had become a large liquor house. Cook died in December 1916 and was buried in Detroit’s Woodmere Cemetery, Section 1A, Lot 765. His widow, Vashti, joined him there 21 years later having lived to be 96 years old. Son James guided the fortunes of the liquor house his father had built for the remaining few years until shut down by Prohibition.
As for Olney Cook, the last word here is left to a biographer writing in 1888: “He is a fine old man and his life history is certainly worth of commendation and emulation, for along honorable and straightforward lines he has won success which crowns his efforts and which makes him one of the substantial residents of Detroit.” To which I would add: A man whose melding of drinking and driving in a saloon sign stands virtually alone in its audacity.
Note: Key to telling the story of Olney Cook is his extensive biography in the 1888 volume entitled “History and Geneology of the Ballous in America,” compiled and edited by Adin Ballou, available on the Internet. The material there has been augmented by information on ancestry.com, Find a Grave and other websites.
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