In Mississippi the first major success of the Prohibition movement occurred when the legislature passed a local-option law allowing counties to prohibit the sale of alcohol. By the early twentieth century the sale was illegal or seriously limited in a large majority of the state’s counties. In Aberdeen, Monroe County, Allen T. Akin, a wholesale liquor dealer had a dilemma: Go into another line of work — or move from his native state. He chose the road. It proved to be a rocky one.
Akin was born in Tishomingo, a tiny town in an extreme northeastern corner of Mississippi, shown here as it looks today, population 339. The date was April 20, 1849. Originally from Virginia, his father, William Edwin “Will” Akin was a farmer. The 1850 Census found Will, 27, and his wife, Louisa, 23, living in Tishomingo County with daughter Elizabeth, 3, and Allen, 1. The 1860 census sighted the family still in Tishomingo, with indications the father was prospering as a farmer.
By the 1870 census, the family had grown to seven children, including three sons, Allen, Johnson, and William, old enough to be recorded as working for their father on the farm. Shortly after, Allen Akin is cited moving to Simpson County, Kentucky, to work on a farm. From there his progress is a blank slate until, during the 1880s he fetched up as a saloonkeeper in Aberdeen, Mississippi, a town 87 miles southwest of Tishomingo.
By this time Akin had married. His bride was Amanda Bunch, called “Mandy,” the daughter of Erasmus H. and Mary Ann Cowen Bunch. Unusual for those times, Amanda appears to have been four years older than her husband. The couple would have two children, Ernestine, born in 1885, and Collins, in 1889.
For years as a whiskey dealer, Akin had to deal with a state legislature where the forces of “dry” constantly were making inroads. An earlier law made it illegal to purchase less than a gallon at once, aimed at local saloons and taverns. Violators could face fines of between $200 and $500 — ruinous amounts when a shot of whiskey fetched five cents. Repealed three years later, this statute was followed by others seeking to cripple the liquor trade, including an 1873 law that if any state legislator was found drunk the individual could be charged with a crime and removed from office. About 1900, as Monroe County contemplated a “local option” ban on alcohol, Akin felt forced to leave his native state and a municipality he considered his home town. He packed up his small family and his liquor supplies and moved to Jackson, Tennessee. In 1908, Mississippi would become the first state to ban all alcohol sales.
Tennessee looked to many liquor dealers in states like Mississippi as an oasis that might never vote “dry.” For Akin it was a 180 mile journey almost straight north to a Jackson, a rapidly growing city of about 15,000 people, almost five times the size of Aberdeen. After the Civil War Jackson became a hub of railroad systems ultimately connecting to major markets to the north and south, as well as east and west. This was key to its development, attracting trade and many railroad workers in the late 19th century. Akin opened a saloon and liquor business at 209-211 N. Market Street in Jackson’s busy downtown, shown above.
Indications are that Akins was taking advantage of the excellent train connection to ship whiskey from sources within Tennessee and reaching up into Kentucky where transit was easy. He may have had difficulty initially in finding potteries to make his jugs as indicated by the two containers shown above. Both are crudely stenciled.
As shown above and below here, Akin eventually was able to find a potter to provide him with an attractive design using an “underglaze transfer” of applying a distinctive label. The size of his containers varied from quart (top left) to gallon (top right), two gallon (below left) and five gallon (below right). The larger jugs would be for his wholesale customers, the whiskey to be poured into smaller containers before being served across a bar.
Although exact dates are hazy, Akin was established in Jackson by at least 1904. That year he incorporated as A.T. Akin Company, with capital of $7,700. He headed the incorporators joined by a W.T. Akin, relationship unclear, and two others in Jackson. As the newly-come Tennessee whiskey man was to find out, that state was not immune to “dry” laws. At the county level prohibitionist were whittling away at liquor sales. Jackson was not immune.
By 1908 Akin had moved to still “wet” Memphis. There he operated the A. T. Akin Company, Wholesale and Retail Whiskies at 150 South Main Street. His son, Collins Akin, now an adult was the establishment’s manager. By 1915 Akins’ liquor house had moved to 325 South Main, below, and Akin had taken a partner named Bates. He also had put the management of the liquor house into other hands, including son Collins and retired with wife Amanda back to Aberdeen. The same year a Tennessee law forbidding all alcohol sales passed court tests of its validity and began to be enforced.
From Aberdeen, Akin could watch the end of his peripatetic liquor house after a run of almost a third of a century. Now 67 years old, his health was failing. On March 14, 1916, Akin died. He was buried in Aberdeen in the Old Fellows Rest Cemetery above. His tombstone contains this tribute: “None knew thee but to love thee.” Amanda would join him there in 1923. Her memorial reads: “Thy memory will ever be a guiding star to Heaven.”
Note: There are notable “holes” in this narrative about A. T. Akin, including how he was able to move from farm work to keeping a saloon. I am hopeful some alert descendant will see this post and help me fill in the gaps.
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