Joseph Jefferson's Illiteracy Was No Bar to Success

 

Born Joseph Geoffrion, Joseph Jefferson fled his French Canadian home as an eight-year old boy, depriving himself of an education and as an adult unable to read or write.  Signing his name with an X, Joseph, shown here, became an honored Civll War soldier and co-owner of a successful Springfield, Massachusetts, liquor house, able to give his children the good education he had been denied.

Joseph’s story began in February 1827 when he was born in Varennes, Quebec, the fourth of five sons of Julie Girard and Pierre Geoffrion.  The boy never knew his father who died when Joseph was three.  Soon after, his mother married again.  The stepfather resented the boys and treated them badly.  Joseph determined to run away to the United States.  Although the circumstances of the escape are not clear, this act ended any prospect of Joseph receiving formal education.   

Likely with one or more brothers, the boy crossed the border as early as 1835, to Plattsburgh, New York, and changed his name to Jefferson, just a short stretch from “Geoffrion.”  His early years are lost in the mists of history, but we know he never went to school.  Joseph comes to the public record in October 1845 in Plattsburgh when he married Adeline Venet in the Presbyterian Church.  Eight years later, after having three children, they repeated their vows in St. Peter’s Catholic Church, above.   Descendants have assumed that Joseph converted to Catholicism.  My guess is that as a French Canadian, he had been one from birth and was returning to the faith.

Joseph and Adeline would have seven children between 1847 and 1862, four boys and three girls.  Sadly, one would die in infancy and two others succumbed before reaching maturity.   Between 1858 and 1860 the family relocated to Chicopee, Massachusetts, where they opened a boarding house and accommodated eight residents.  Several years later the family pulled up stakes again and moved to Springfield, just four miles down the road. Shown below, it would be their permanent home. 

With the onset of the Civil War, Joseph’s age (37) and illiteracy did not prevent his enlisting in  the Union Army in August 1864.  In his earlier years he apparently had developed skills as a “moulder,” a skilled craftsman accustomed to shaping metal objects, i.e. cannon balls. He was inducted as a private in the 30th Massachusetts Unattached Heavy Artillery Regiment and sent to help garrison Washington , D.C. 

In July 1864 Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early had led 14,000 Confederate troops across the Potomac River into Maryland and then circled around to attack the Union capital from the north in what became known as the Battle of Fort Stevens.  Early and his men made a few probing runs at the fort, but quickly realized that even with their superior numbers, victory was impossible.  By the time Joseph arrived on the scene, however, any serious threat to the Nation’s Capitol was over.  He served for the remaining months of the Civil War and was discharged in June 1865.  In 1891, the 64-year old veteran would be awarded his Civil War pension.

Shortly after Joseph returned to Springfield, Adeline died, leaving him with a household of minor children.  Perhaps seeking a mother for his brood, he soon married Euphemia Anna Woods, shown here in middle age.  Thirteen years younger than Joseph, Euphemia was born in Quebec of French-Canadian parentage. She came to the U.S, in the late 1850s as a skilled weaver and worked in the mills of Ware, Mass.   It was her first marriage. Together they had four children between 1871 and 1880, two daughters and two sons, bringing Joseph’s total progeny to eleven. Called “Phebe,” a family biographer said of Euphemia: “She worked diligently raising her children, keeping house and running a boarding house.”

By this time Joseph had determined that a more profitable life style lay in selling liquor.  After an initial location at 45 Railroad Street, Joseph moved his saloon to larger quarters at 189 Main Street. He and his family and their boarders resided above the business.  By 1890, the saloon/boarding house had moved once again, this time to 67 Water Street. The residence now was called Jefferson House and a wholesale liquor business had been added to the saloon.  Subsequently called Jefferson & Sons, by 1894 the family enterprises moved once again to 10-12 Bridge Street. The sons involved were Charles and Albert from Joseph’s first marriage, now grown to maturity.

About 1896 the business was renamed once again, becoming Jefferson & Sons Restaurant and Saloon.   Having shucked themselves of the boarding house, Joseph and Euphemia for the first time in their married life were able to live apart from their business.  Their home, shown here, a  large three story residence located at 37 Palmer Avenue was large enough to accommodate them and the families of two daughters.  As they aged, it meant that the couple was surrounded by grandchildren.

For the next few years, Joseph continued to guide the fortunes of Jefferson & Sons, adding cigars, tobacco, billiards and pool to the food and drink available at Jefferson & Sons.  By 1910, Joseph had retired and his son Charles took over the liquor dealership, closing the saloon, restaurant and pool hall.  The company became Jefferson & Deely Wholesale Liquors.  This new partner was John J. Deely, a local businessman.  In a final move their establishment was relocated at 192 Worthington Street in Springfield.

The liquor enterprise featured two house brands, “Westbrook,” a whiskey, and “Worthington,” liquor that came as both bourbon and rye. Neither brand appears to have been trademarked by the Jeffersons.  Shown above is the colorful label of Westbook, depicting a man with a long pole fishing in a picturesque mountain stream.   For their Worthington brand the partners issued shot glasses to customers at the saloons, hotels, and restaurants of Springfield and environs.

 

Now retired and residing amid the family he had been denied as a child, Joseph lived to be 86 years old.   Honored as a Civil war veteran and the patriarch of the Jeffersons, after a five week illness, he died on April 7, 1913 and was buried at Saint Benedict’s Cemetery, Springfield, next to his first wife, Adeline.  Euphemia would join them there four years later.  Shown below is their joint tombstone.  The other side of the stone records the earlier deaths of six of the Jefferson children, each one a source of family grief.

A fitting summation to the life of this extraordinary man has been provided by an anonymous descendant:  “Joseph Jefferson left his home at a tender age, depriving himself of his intended religion, his inheritance and any education. This proud Civil War Veteran, foundry worker, moulder and businessman worked hard, lived a long life yet he signed his name with an X. His children by both marriages were given the benefits of public schools and advanced learning denied the 8-year-old boy who ran away and crossed the border to a better life in Plattsburgh and beyond.”   To this I can only add:  “May he rest in peace.”

Note:  This post would not have been possible without a detailed biography found on the Internet seemingly written by an anonymous descendant.  I am hopeful that a knowledgeable person will see this vignette and let me know the source so that adequate credit can be given.

On the Beams: The Founding Three

 

                         

Foreword:  Several years ago I was contacted by a semi-retired employee of the Jim Beam-Suntory Co. asking me to do some research on the early years of the distillery with an emphasis on Jacob Beam, the founding father.  My efforts yielded some material but little new except for an article in German on Jacob’s origins.  Nonetheless, over time I have gather sufficient details to attempt to tell the story of the three early family members who set Beam bourbon on course to become America’s favorite.

Jacob Beam — The Founding Father.  The Beam story begins with  a family named Boehm, a reasonably common German name found in Europe and the United States.  This family had its roots in Protestantism, although the denominational identity is debated.  I belief the family were Mennonites, a religious body that was discriminated against in Germany. barred from Medieval craft guilds for their beliefs.  A significant number of adherents turned to the distilling and selling liquor.  In some places the terms “Mennonite” and “tavern” are said to have become synonymous.

Facing discrimination in their homeland, many Mennonites in the 1700s emigrated to the American colonies.  Known for their hard work and rigorous deportment, the Quaker leader, William Penn, welcomed these immigrants to Pennsylvania.  Extant data indicates that Jacob Böhm (ca. 1693-1781) was a Mennonite for his entire adult life. He was listed as an elder/deacon in the Mennonite church as early as 1755. 

One observer points out: “The migration of Mennonites from Europe to Pennsylvania in the early 1700s occurred for several reasons, including: increasing religious persecution in Europe, destruction of property and starvation due to the continual warfare among the dominant European powers of that day, the availability of land in Pennsylvania, and the sympathy of the English Quaker, William Penn.”   Among these Mennonites was Nicholas Boehm who arrived about 1752, about 20 years old.  He was accompanied by a wife, Margaretha Myers, and one or two children.  Early marriages were common among the Mennonites.

The family settled in Berks County.  There Nicholas is credited with changing the family name to “Beam” to “Americanize it.  Presumably a farmer, Nicholas also proved to be a prolific progenitor, fathering ten children. Jacob was the fifth in line, born in 1760.  Five years later his father, only age 29, died leaving his widow with a household full of minor children.  

Upon the invitation of Jost Myers, a close relative Margaretha moved to Frederick, Maryland, with her brood, living at Myer’s large plantation where her children grew up learning farming skills.  Says one source: It was in Frederick, Maryland, that Jacob Beam learned how to ferment grapes into wine, apples into hard cider and rye whiskey as a teenager.  Apparently too young for service in the Revolutionary War, Jacob stayed at farming.  In 1785 he married a local girl named Catherine (called “Mary”) Eagle.  Over the next 19 years, the couple would have ten children, four boys and six girls.

During the war, Jost Myers had provided important service to the American army.Because of his advanced age, my assumption is that Myers’ contribution was in the form of provisions for the troops.  In 1875 the new government under George Washington paid Myers back by giving him an 800 acre tract in the newly opened land of Kentucky.   When he died two years later, Jacob Beam laid claim to a slice of that land, subsequently divided into eight parcels of 100 acres each.  Jacob received one.

The thought of having his own land, even though unseen, fired Jacob Beam’s pioneer spirit.  Packing up his family,  in 1788 Jacob set out for Kentucky.  Covering most of the journey on foot, the young family navigated the Cumberland Pass through the Appalachian Mountains, traveling 550 miles to their destination in Kentucky.  It has been suggested that Jacob brought with them a pot still for making whiskey.  The Beans settled in Nelson County, whose seat was and is Bardstown.  

Jacob found much to like in his new setting, although clearing the land involved back-breaking work.  According to a Beam family account, the Mennonite farmer on his arrival found that a group of fifty Catholic families from Baltimore, led by Basil Hayden, many of them distillers, were his welcoming neighbors.  They were willing to share their knowledge.“The Beams…learned more about distilling whiskey.  After three years of bumper crops of corn and other grain products, Jacob began to distill his first whiskey in 1795.   After the whiskey he produced became popular in his home county (Nelson) and another next door (Washington), he started buying the other seven 100 acre tracts of land from his relatives. By 1810 Jacob owned all 800 acres and sent his first barrel of whiskey to New Orleans. They liked it so much that they started ordering more whiskey on a monthly basis.”  Thus the Beam family dynasty was born with whiskey labeled “Old Jake Beam Sour Mash.” 

Shown here in old age, Jacob died in October 1843 at the age of 83. He could hardly have imagined the nationally popular whiskey he had engendered. Jacob’s body was returned to Pennsylvania where he is buried in Honey Brook Cemetery, Chester County. His weathered tombstone is shown above.

David Beam — The Innovator.  As Jacob aged, three of his sons engaged in the whiskey making.  They were Jacob Beam Jr.,(1787-1844) who as an infant had made the arduous trip over the mountains, and two younger brothers, John Beam (1798-1834) and David Beam (1802-1854), born in Kentucky. They were among the first children born in the newly formed Commonwealth of Kentucky.  When Jacob retired at age 60 in 1820 he singled out 18-year old David as his successor.   

Said to be ‘as smart as a whip,” David Beam was highly conscious of the industrial advances going on around him. After Jacob named him the “distillery manager” in 1820.  David is said to have: “Expanded the distillery from a modest family business into a good sized factory, naming it the “Old Tub Distillery.”  David also had the distillery transition from pot stills to column stills, becoming one of the first companies to use column stills in 1820.”  A column still can sustain a constant process of distillation. This, along with the ability to produce a higher concentration of alcohol in the final distillate, is its main advantage over a pot still, only able to work in batches. 

During the 1830’s David began employing steamboats to transport Beam whiskey to major cities throughout the Mid-West including; Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and points south, including Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans. Throughout the 1840’s, David also used the newly emerging railroads to send his bourbon to many major and medium cities throughout the Midwest, Northeast and spreading out across the eastern half of the United States.

In 1824 David married Elizabeth Settle and they produced nine children.  After the death of Elizabeth, David married a woman named Elizabeth Cheatham and had two more children.  Three of David’s four sons went on to become master distillers. Joseph B. Beam, John H. “Jack” Beam, and David M.Beam all followed their father David and went into making bourbon as a career.  In contrast with his long-lived father, David died in 1854 at the age of 52.

Davd M. Beam — The Consolidator. David’s third son, David M. would continue the family business and become president with his father’s death.   At this point the name chosen for the operation was “The Old Tub Distillery” although, strictly speaking, the tubs had been retired in favor of the column still.  The name symbolized the bourbon tradition and that suited the Beams.  

According to a Beam website David M., “instilled hard work at the distillery.”  It fell to him to guide the family enterprise through the tumultuous years immediately leading up to the outbreak of the Civil War and through that wrenching conflict.  Kentucky was fractured with many of its young men fighting for the Confederacy and others for the Union.   Some Kentucky distilleries shut their doors during those years.  David M., by determined effort, was able to continue making whiskey during the conflict.

David M. “navigated the uncertainty of the times”  by moving the distillery closer to Bardstown and better access to railroad lines for more reliable shipping.  The move opened opportunities to reach many parts of the Nation after the cessation of the fighting.  The reputation of Beam bourbon whiskey was beginning to be recognized throughout America. David took the opportunity to add new brands to the distillery offerings.  They were “Pebble-Ford,”  “Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey,” “Belle of Kentucky, Blended Whiskey,” and “Clear Springs Bourbon.”

David M. was the father of James Beauregard “Jim” Beam, born in 1864 while the Civil War raged on.  His middle name, that of a Confederate general, indicates where his father’s sympathies lay in the conflict.  Jim was destined to take the distillery into the 20th Century and subsequently to have the whiskey named for him.  But that is another story for a later time.

Note:  This post draws from several websites maintained by the current ownership of the Jim Beam bourbon brand.  The post also makes use of my research done earlier for a Beam company historian.

 

A Gold Medal for Jack Daniel

With the world being on the cusp of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, gold medals are on many minds.   One  gold medal has been in my mind since I won it on an internet auction site.  Shown above, it actually is a bronze reproduction for use as a paperweight. The medallion has an interesting bas-relief design showing a woman wearing a crown, trailed by a small boy and a man carrying an ax who seem to be encountering three individuals dressed somewhat haphazardly in togas.  Not an easy message to decipher.

The clue to its identity lies in the writing below.  It represents a medal awarded at the “Exposition Internationale de Gand,”  that is, the World’s Fair in Ghent, Belgium, in 1913.  Such expositions tended to give out gold medals like lollipops in a kid’s barbershop to all kinds of products that bothered to participate and demonstrate their wares.  In this case, turning the medal over, shows -- perhaps suprisingly -- that this medal was awarded to the American whiskey maker,  Jack Daniel.

Depicted here on a paperweight,  in 1857 Daniel began his career as a teenage  apprentice to Dan Call, a man who was both a distiller and a Lutheran preacher in Tennessee.  After a visit from a female Prohibitionist the preacher gave up the distillery, located on interestingly-named Louse Creek, and Daniel took it over.  As early as age 14 he was making wagon trips as far as Huntsville, Alabama, to market his whiskey.  After service in the Civil War he was able to acquire distillery property near Lynchburg, Tennessee and about 1866 he registered with the state as Jack Daniel’s Distillery.  

Within a few years Daniel with his nephew Lem Motlow had build his whiskey business into one of the largest in the the United States.  Daniel believed in advertising and publicity.  When an international fair was held in Liege, Belgium, in 1905,  his whiskey was represented and won a gold medal.  By the time of the Ghent fair, however, Daniel, a bachelor, was dead, victim of a gangrenous injury in 1911.  Having no wife or children he left the distillery to Motlow.  The latter was of the same mind about publicity and took his whiskey wares to Ghent.

The Exposition was held on an area of 130 acres not far from the center of town, close to a recently completed railway station.  Renovations were made to a number of buildings in Ghent.  The construction is said to have been controversial and the fair ended on the eve of World War One when many Europeans were not in a fair-going mood   Despite having been sold to townsfolk as an economic boon,  the Ghent Expo ended seriously in debt.   By that time, however, Motlow was home in Tennessee savoring his gold medal.

The medal design was by Godefroid Devreese (sometimes given as “de Vreese") Shown here, he was born at Courtrai, Belgium, in 1861. From the age of fifteen he practiced sculpture in the studio of his father, Constant Devreese, a well known Belgian artist.  At the time of the  Exposition,  the young Devreese was considered one of Europe’s outstanding sculptors in the mode of  “art nouveau.”  That style had been the rage during the latter part of the 19th Century but was slowly going out of fashion in the 20th.  Nonetheless, Devreese created his gold medal in the art nouveau mode.

It is worthwhile comparing the Devreese original with the Daniels reproduction.  A primary difference is in the backgrounds.   In the original the wall behind the figures is utterly plain.  It emphasizes the six figures shown.  The Devreese design indicates that the woman with a crown likely is greeting three Greek muses, probably those associated with music,  “Aoid”, song; “Melet,” practice, and “Mneme,” memory.  This may be why the boy behind the woman has is throwing flowers from a basket toward them.  Concertgoers know that performers are thrown flowers.  

None of this pageantry is evident in the Daniels paperweight.  There a pebbled background obscures the grace of Devreese’s design and makes it look clumsy and “heavy.”  Moreover, the molding of the figures on the reproduction is crude, particularly when compared with the elegant original.

Nevertheless, the Jack Daniel whiskey folks are proud of their medal, despite it having been awarded through a little known and apparently unsuccessful World’s Fair.  As further evidence the distillers included it on a shot glass of their issuance.  Shown here, it is rendered in gold and carries a reminder that it was bestowed on Jack Daniel at  “Ghent, Belgium, Gold Medal, 1913.”

The discovery of this glass opens a question:  Was the company bronze paperweight issued around the time of its award 111 years ago, dating that definitely would make it an antique? Or was it manufactured and distribute more recently?  I lean toward a later, possibly post-Prohibition date.  Although such signs sometimes can be misleading,  the item lacks the patina and evidence of wear that artifacts of that vintage might be expected to display.

Moreover, Jack Daniel’s is a whiskey producer that has outdone all of its U.S. rivals in the number and variety of paperweights it has issued since the end of National Prohibition.   I have collected no fewer than nine,  all of them circulated since 1935, and there are many more. Among those in my collection are an attractive etched black glass weight, decorated with ears of corn and sheaves of wheat, shown here. It carries a sticker on the back identifying it as a product of the Fenton Glass Works of Williamstown, West Virginia, one of America’s oldest and most successful.  Founded in 1905  Fenton glass appears to have weathered the onslaught of foreign competition and at least the last time I looked is still doing business under direction of the Fenton family.

The Jack Daniel’s crowd, however, do not always “buy American.”  Shown above is a weight that displays a variety of whiskey labels related to the Tennessee whiskey.  It bears a sticker on its felt-lined base that identifies it as from the “Waterfill Glass Collection.”   Research discloses that items so marked come from China.

Note:  Jack Daniel and his whiskey have been the subject of several posts on this website.  Others a reader may find of interest can be found Sept. 19, 2017, April 21, 2018, Nov. 26, 2019, Nov. 14, 2021, and Nov. 11, 2022.

John McGlinn Was a Philadelphia Multi-Tasker

To say that John McGlinn was a “multi-tasker” is something of an under estimation.  At his death in July 1926, this Irish immigrant was described in the press as president of the Philadelphia Brewing Co., president of the John McGlinn Distilling Company, president of the Baltimore Distilling Company, president of the Fairhill  Coal Company, president of the John McGlinn Building and Loan Company, vice-president of the Continental-Equitable Title and Trust Company, a director of the Integrity Title and Trust Company, and treasurer of the Catholic Standard & Times newspaper.  McGlinn’s career included being a principal in three successive Philadelphia liquor houses, where, according to an obituary, “the bulk of his estate was accumulated.”

Tracking the McGlinn story from the arrival of an immigrant youth on these shores to riches and recognition as a major Philadelphia businessman is complicated by the plethora of other McGlinns seemingly involved in the local liquor trade.  In 1845 this John McGlinn was born in Ireland, likely County Donegal, the son of Annie Kennedy and John McGlinn.  His birth coincided with the onset of Great Irish Potato famine that found many Irish departing for foreign shores.  McGlinn, however, was 24 years old when he left Ireland for America and residence in Philadelphia, arriving in 1869.

His early occupations in the City of Brotherly Love have gone unrecorded but I speculate that he found work among McGlinn kinfolk who were active in the whiskey trade.  He first comes to public notice in 1875 when he opened a small liquor store at 200 Brown Street, moving almost immediately to 736 North Second Street. There it was reported McGlinn “engaged in the retail liquor business in a small way.”  Within several years he recognized that creating and wholesaling  whiskey was a considerably more lucrative path to riches and directed his energies there.

About the same time he met a fellow Irish immigrant, William Boyle, a man with similar ideas.  Beginning in the early 1880s, they created a partnership called “Boyle & McGlinn, Sole Proprietors,”  located at 145-147 South Second Street.Then they went looking for a name for a flagship brand.  They found it close at hand in a social organization that had been created by Philadelphia newsmen who met at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, a landmark building in center city Philadelphia, shown here.  They called the group “The Clover Club.”  Perhaps the name reminded Irish proprietors of the shamrocks of the “Auld Sod.” They registered the name as their trademark whiskey.

Boyle and McGlinn soon became known as prolific advertisers, aiming for both wholesale and retail customers with larger than usual ads in a variety of motifs but all featuring Clover Club Whiskey. “It is the best” became a familiar mantra in the partners’ efforts to make their flagship brand among Philadelphia most popular liquors.  An 1889 ad, top right, featured three and four leaf clovers.  By 1897 the slogan for Clover Club, lower right, had become “It is liquid velvet.”  The advertising blitz vaulted Boyle & McGlinn into the front ranks of Philadelphia liquor dealers.

As McGlinn was building the business, he was also having a personal life.  Five years after he had arrived in Philadelphia, he married a local woman named Jennie McGlenn.  Given the varied spellings of the name it is possible Jennie, seven years younger than her husband, was a distant relative.  Over the next sixteen years the couple would have six children, sons, William, John Jr. and Joseph;  daughters, Marie, Regina, and Helen. In the 1900 census the household also contained Glinn’s mother-in-law and two Irish housemaids.

Their success as a liquor house suggested to Boyle and McGlinn that they should expand into making beer and the Philadelphia Brewing Company was born.  Boyle was president and McGlinn secretary-treasurer.  As shown in the two ads above the two Irishmen gave their beers distinctly German names.  Shown here is of a squat ale bottle bearing the embossed names of the partners.

The beginning of the 20th Century would bring important changes — and sorrows — to the life of John McGlinn.  In August 1901, Boyle, died suddenly while vacationing at his summer home in Spring Lake, New Jersey.  His body was brought back to Philadelphia where his funeral Mass was celebrated by the Catholic bishop of the diocese.  Boyle’s death was followed a few months later when McGlinn’s wife Jennie also passed away. 

The Irishman proved resilient.  In 1905 at the age of 58, he remarried.  His bride was a local woman named Mary E. Morgan, 52.  He also renamed the business  that he and Boyle had fostered, calling it the John McGlinn Distilling Company.  Despite the new name, the liquor house had not suddenly gone into making its own whiskey.  Rather, he was buying supplies from Pennsylvania and other distilleries for “rectifying” (blending) into his house brands.  Shown here is a certificate of purchase by McGlinn of 25 barrels of whiskey from the Alexander Young Company of Philadelphia. (See post on Young, January 7, 2015.)

Over the next five years McGlinn blossomed into a man of many occupations.  While continuing to look over his liquor house and brewery he became engaged in the financial sector, becoming heavily involved in several of Philadelphia’s building and loan organizations as an investor and member of their corporate boards.  At home, McGlinn’s household continued large.  According to the 1910 census, in addition to second wife, Mary, his son, John Jr., was living there and working for the liquor business.  Also in residence were two adult daughters and a teenaged son.  Rounding out the residents were two Irish servant women and a Maryland-born butler.  McGlinn clearly was prospering.

The Philadelphia Brewery

Over ensuing years, the Irish immigrant, now a fully credentialed American capitalist, continued to direct the commercial affairs of the John McGlinn Distilling Company and the Philadelphia Brewery.  As he entered his 70s, however, McGlinn’s health began to fail.  The diagnosis was “fatty degeneration of the heart.”  He died on June 11, 1916, in Philadelphia, a city he had called home for almost a half century, and was buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery next to Jennie.  McGlinn’s obituary headline in the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger read:  “Well-Known Financier and  Liquor Dealer Dies.”

By this time two of his sons were prepared to take over the management of the family conglomerate.  William McGlinn became president of the McGlinn liquor interests and John Jr. was vice president.  With the coming of National Prohibition, the McGlinns shifted away from alcohol.  In 1925, John Jr. was listed in local directories as president of Continental-Equitable Title & Trust Company, Fairhill Ice Company and the Philadelphia Brewery, now producing soft drinks.  The liquor house that John McGlinn had created and nurtured was not revived by his sons with the repeal of Prohibition.  

Note:  This post was created from a wide range of Internet sources, with ancestry.com as the most important.