Wheeling and Dealing with the Stolls in Kentucky

 

From their base in Lexington, members of the Stoll family at various times owned part or all of five Kentucky distilleries, bought and sold such plants frequently, and played cozy with the Whiskey Trust.  Their gambits in the liquor trade did not bring them lasting fame but in their own time earned them grudging respect as canny businessmen.

The Stoll family was established in the United States as early as 1818 when Gallus Stoll, a native of Wurtemburg, Germany, brought his family here.  After a brief flirtation with Pennsylvania, Gallus headed west, settling in Lexington.  There his son, George, was educated, found a wife in a Kentucky native, Mary Scrugham, began a family, and sold furniture and later insurance.

From that union emerged a band of brothers whose names would be among the most noted in distilling circles of the time.  The eldest, born in 1851, was Richard Pindall Stoll, shown right, whose jutting chin and stern demeanor give some hint of his determination to succeed.  Educated in public schools and at the University of Kentucky, he first learned the liquor business as a federal revenue agent, collecting taxes on distilled products.  In time his brother, James Scrugham Stoll, born in 1855, would join him in the whiskey trade.

In 1880 the brothers, operating as Stoll & Co., established their first distillery, one they called “Commonwealth.”  Known in Federal parlance as Registered Distillery #12 in Kentucky’s 7th District, the whiskey-making was accomplished within the brick shell of a old cotton warehouse.  This distillery was capable of producing 45 barrels a day or 5,000 barrels per year, made possible by twelve 9,000 gallon fermentation vats in the cellar.  Three small warehouses could accommodate 13,000 barrels of aging stock.

After five years Stoll & Co., in a likely shrewd business move, dissolved and its assets were auctioned publicly.  A third brother, George J. Stoll, bought the distillery and Richard Stoll acquired several hundred gallons of the stored and aging whiskey.  Out of this transaction the Commonwealth Distillery Co. was born, incorporated in 1883.  Richard became president and his board included James and a fourth brother, Charles H. Stoll.   Members of a Cincinnati liquor wholesaling family, the Pritzes, also came on board. [See my post on Pritz, October 2011.]

Meanwhile a second firm was formed by Richard Stoll with a partner, Robert B. Hamilton, to merchandise the products from the Commonwealth plant.  To a great extent using large ceramic jugs for their wholesale customers, they sold under their own names and “Old Elk.”  Their symbol for the latter was a large elk head peering from a horseshoe and bearing the motto, “Always Pure.”

Meanwhile Richard also was becoming involved with William Tarr in the Ashland Distillery (RD #1, 7th District), the facility shown below, located in Fayette County.  In a series of business moves this distillery had come into the possession of Tarr, a prominent Kentucky land speculator [See my post on Tarr, February 2015.]  In time James Stoll, shown right, also became a major partner.  The Ashland distillery issued $50,000 in bonds secured by company assets.  The aftereffects of a financial panic and depression in the whiskey industry, as well as some bad personal loans by Tarr, however, soon caused the company to go into bankruptcy.

In May 1897 all Ashland Distillery assets were assigned to James and Richard Stoll, as receivers.  The major asset was 10,000 bottles of  “Old Tarr" whiskey in bond.  Two years later the distillery was sold at auction for $61,000 to a “straw bidder” for the Kentucky Distillery & Warehouse Company, better known as the “Whiskey Trust.”  The cartel was now a major force in Kentucky distilling and Charles H. Stoll was its attorney who engineered the deal.

Meanwhile the brothers continued to be busy on other fronts.  In 1891 James Stoll, shown here, teamed with Sanford K. Vannatta, a whiskey broker from Bloomington, Illinois, in a effort to make “Old Elk” a recognized brand across America.  As the Stolls' relationship with the Trust ripened they deeded the Commonwealth Distillery to the Trust and it promptly expanded production.  James Stoll eventually severed the relationship with Vannatta but continued to wholesale Commonwealth whiskey under the name “Stoll & Company.”  James’ son, George J. Stoll III, was made a vice president of this entity.

Returning the several favors the Stolls had bestowed on it, the Trust reciprocated in 1902 by ceding the family the Bond & Lilliard Distillery (RD #274, 8th District), located in Anderson County, on Bailey’ Run near the town of Lawrenceburg Courthouse.  In March 1905, once more with Trust assistance, the Stolls acquired the Belle of Nelson (RD #271, 5th District) and the E. L. Miles (RD #146, 5th District) distilleries both located in New Hope.  With these acquisitions the Stolls now were running the largest whiskey-making operation in Kentucky.

  

In addition to Old Elk the Stolls controlled a number of whiskey brands including “Bond & Lilliard,”  “Old Buckhorn Rye,”  “The Acme,” and “Belle of Nelson.”  For the last label the Stolls issued a series of saloon signs that depicted Western card-playing scenes.  My favorite is one in which a cowboy is reaching for his gun against a gambler while a Union soldier sits nearby in a drunken stupor.

In March 1903 as the Stolls were at the apogee of their power in Kentucky distilling, Richard died at his residence, only 52 years old.  Several months earlier a local newspaper had commented on his vigor and youthful appearance. The cause of death given was a sudden heart attack. He was buried in the Lexington Cemetery.   Through his lifetime Richard Stoll had been prominent not only in business but in the civic and political affairs of his community and state.  He was elected to represent Fayette County in the Kentucky legislature twice and  had run unsuccessfully on the Republican ticket for state treasurer and the U.S. Congress.

In 1907 the Stoll liquor empire underwent a further change as distillery operations were merged with the whiskey marketing arm.  This new unified corporation featured James S. Stoll as the president and George J. Stoll III and Richard’s son, John G. Stoll, as vice presidents.  Suggesting the Stolls continued relationship with the Whiskey Trust, the cartel’s man, Samuel Stofer, was secretary and treasurer.   That arrangement was in place only one year when James Stoll died in May, 1908, during a visit to Oxford, Ohio.  He was 53 years old.  He too was buried in Lexington Cemetery where the gravestones of the brothers lie not far apart.

With James’ death the liquor empire rapidly came to an end.  The days of Stoll wheeling and dealing in Kentucky whiskey were over.  Family distilling interests were ceded in their entirety to the Trust, that already had controlled much of the Stolls’ output.  At that point the Ashland Distillery, one that had helped launch the family into state prominence, was razed.  The family, however, continued to be involved importantly in Lexington.  Richard P.’s son, Richard C. Stoll, became an attorney and was a leader in local business, including guiding family ownership of the city’s transit system.  He also was a power in Republican party circles.

Pete Strader’s Good Life: “Women, Horses, Whiskey” — and Assault?

As the proprietor of R. S. Strader & Son (he was the son), Wilson Peter Strader of Lexington cheerfully told prospective customers that Germans might favor “wine, women and song,”  but a Kentuckian knew that nothing could be better than “women, horses and whiskey” and illustrated it with ads like the one above.  Omitted from this view of the good life was Strader’s run-ins with other Kentuckians, including his own relatives.

Born in Lexington in 1866,  Strader, known as “Pete” throughout his life,  grew up knowing a lot about horses.  His father, Colonel Robert S. Strader, was a successful trotting horse breeder and manager of the Kentucky Trotting Horse Association.  He maintained a large farm near Lexington where he bred and trained his race horses.  Accustomed to dealing with the wealthy men who dabbled in the sport, the Colonel was a particular friend of Leland Stanford, the California railroad tycoon.

Although some of his siblings followed their father’s interest in horses, Pete early on was enthralled by another key Kentucky industry, whiskey.  After serving an apprenticeship in the trade, at the age of 24 he was able to convince his father in 1890 to finance their own wholesale liquor house in Lexington.  The Colonel’s money made it possible to locate R. S. Strader & Son in a building on East Main Street that provided sales space and a four story warehouse.  My surmise is that management from the beginning was in Pete’s hands.  The Colonel’s health was declining and a year later he was dead.  By 1892 the young Strader was the sole owner. 

R. S. Strader & Son soon became known as a major wholesale broker for high grade Kentucky whiskeys, fine wines from Leland Stanford’s famed Palto Alto vineyards, European brandies, mineral waters and imported cigars and tobacco.  Strader developed several proprietary brands, including “Red Heart,” “Kentucky Belle,” and “Old Kentucky Home.”  He also purchased the rights to “Old Pugh,” a brand originally distilled at the Gus Pugh Distillery in Bourbon County, Kentucky, and “Old Barton,” another Bourbon county whiskey previously distilled by Joshua Burton at Blocks Crossroads.  Strader trademarked Red Heart, Old Pugh, and Old Barton in 1907, Kentucky Belle in 1908.

From 1891 to 1897 Strader’s whiskeys were produced by the Ashland Distillery, owned by William Tarr, a family friend. [See my post on Tarr, February 2015].  Later the James E. Pepper Distillery in Lexington produced his brands. Pete also became the exclusive agent in Kentucky for Pepper’s “Old Pepper” and “Old Henry Clay” whiskeys. [My post on Pepper appeared in September 2012].  At shown below, Strader began putting an illustration of the Pepper Distillery on his letterhead.  He established a saloon and retail sales in the lobby of Lexington’s Phoenix Hotel and in 1902 opened a branch office in Cincinnati, not far from the railroad depot.  Another Strader, Joseph N., managed the Ohio outlet.

In addition to being knowledgeable about horses and whiskey Pete Strader seems to have known something about women.  In 1895 he married Daisy Lee, eight years his junior.  She came from a Kentucky family of means and when she wed, her father gave her $1,500, equivalent today to more than $35,000.  She promptly turned it over to her new husband “to take and use in his business.”  Daisy apparently had good mercantile instincts and later was a director in a separate corporation set up by her husband.  The 1910 census found the couple living in Lexington’s second ward with two children, Mary Lee, 7, and Theodore, 5.

Like many Kentucky wholesalers of the time Strader was generous in his advertising giving away items.  These would have been provided to saloon owners and bartenders featuring his brands.  They included corkscrews advertising Old Barton and shot glasses, shown throughout this post.  Of note was a trade card he issued to celebrate the U.S. victory of the Spanish-American War.  It shows a youth draped in the American flag with his dukes up.  This pugnacious image takes us to the downside of Pete’s life in Lexington.

The trouble began in May 1902 when Strader decided to expand his operation into a two story warehouse down Main Street from his headquarters.  For payment he needed $4,000 in gold coins that he obtained from the Lexington City National Bank by exchanging $4,000 in greenbacks and bank notes.  After closing, while counting the money, bank personnel discovered that the amount Strader had given them was $500 short.  The teller and bank president, J. Will Stoll, a member of a well-known Kentucky whiskey clan, soon called on Strader and accused him of shortchanging the bank.  As reported by the Lexington History Museum, the following ensued:

“After words were exchanged, Strader knocked down Stoll.  Stoll ended up with a broken leg and cut forehead.  Strader was arrested for assault and battery….At a preliminary hearing Strader testified that Stoll had threatened him with a gun, while Stoll denied having a gun with him.  Strader was released on $300 bond.….Stoll was represented by his brother Charles H. Stoll (attorney for the Whiskey Trust.)  In July 1902 all charges were dropped.”

The Stolls may have had indirect revenge.  The same year Strader had been sitting in his parked liquor delivery wagon on Lexington’s Main Street when a streetcar crashed into his van and he sustained a broken kneecap.  The streetcar was owned by the Stolls who controlled the Lexington Railway Line.  After these events, notes the museum narrative, “Stoll and Strader avoided each other.”

Strader had continuing problems with money.  After a series of convoluted financial dealings involving Lexington drinking establishments, his  brother, Stewart, with whom Strader had been partners in a saloon, sued Daisy Lee, claiming that he was owed $1,000 that he gave Pete that Pete had used illicitly to pay off his creditors.  Instead of suing his brother, possibly considering him insolvent, Stewart sued Daisy Lee with her independent wealth.  Two courts turn down the brother’s claim.

As the years advanced, Strader found his business increasingly constrained by the emergence of the Whiskey Trust.  Not himself a distiller, he was reliant on obtaining supplies of raw product by contracting with independent distilleries.  Increasingly these were being swallowed up by the Trust.  Many were closed down and prices for whiskey to rectifiers like Strader were being hiked up.  Given the close association of the Stoll clan with the Trust, the animosities Pete had raised obviously did him no good.  In 1911 he shut down his liquor house and perhaps disgusted with the situation in Lexington, moved to Louisville,

By 1914 Strader had opened an insurance brokerage in Louisville and was involved in other enterprises.  He lived to see the imposition of National Prohibition that ended all whiskey making and sales, not only in Kentucky but throughout the Nation.  With Repeal in 1934, he returned to the whiskey trade opening a liquor brokerage in Louisville.  A year later, as he walking downtown, Strader was felled by a massive heart attack.  He was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.  At the time Daisy Lee was in Owingsville, visiting her daughter who was ill.  She rushed to Louisville and arranged for Pete to be buried with other Strader family members in Lexington Cemetery.  His grave marker is shown here.  Daisy Lee would live to be 97 and is buried in Owningsville.

“What better could you want?”  Pete Strader asked in the ad that opens this post.  For him personally “the good life” was appreciating thoroughbred horses, selling quality whiskey, and marrying a true helpmate.  He seems to have accomplished them all.  None of them, however, were enough to keep him out of financial difficulties and trouble with the law.

Tom Megibben Was a Man of Many Distilleries

An American distillery owner most usually was engaged in just one such whiskey-making operation, although occasionally a proprietor might have two plants under management at one time.  An exception was Thomas Jefferson (T.J. or “Tom”) Megibben who controlled multiple Kentucky distilleries and at his death was said to have “an interest” in at least six.  Shown right,  Megibben is a whiskey man whose story can be told through a list of distilleries.

Findley & Foley Distillery.   Megibben was born in 1831 in the Ohio river town of Neville, Clermont County, Ohio, the son of William and Emily (Galvin) Megibben.  Educated in the Neville schools until the age of 16, he left school to make his own living, finding employment as an employee in a local distillery.   He quickly learned the whiskey-making trade and after two year, relocated to Cynthiana, Kentucky, a town in the north central part of the state and the seat of Harrison County,  located about half way between Cincinnati and Lexington.  There in January 1849 Megibben took a job with Findley & Foley Distillery.

Those partners had established a distillery near Broadwell, Kentucky, several years earlier.  They hired Megibben initially as their assistant chief distiller.   After spending a year working in that capacity he so impressed the proprietors that they made him the chief distiller.   He stayed in that job until about 1854 when a severe drought hit that region of Kentucky and the corn failure halted any distilling.  One biography says Megibben then “engaged in [unnnamed] agricultural pursuits.”

Megibben had strong incentives to keep working.  In June 1853 he had married Elizabeth J. David, the daughter of Simon and Nancy (Brown) David of Harrison County.  Elizabeth has been  described as “a lady of most exemplary character, pleasing address, and good judgment, and well worthy to be the life companion…”  The Megibben’s first child, Mary Loraine, was born a year later.  In time there would be seven other children, a total of four sons and four daughters.

Megilbben & Bramble “Excelsior” Distillery.  In the early 1850s with a partner, C. Bramble, Megibben struck out on is own, building a distillery near his home in Cynthiana at a place called Lair’s Station.  The flagship brand was “Excelsior Whiskey” and the distillery became known by that name.  Tom took his brother, James, into the business with him at this facility.  By the early 1800s, Megibben’s plant had a mashing capacity of 700 bushels and three warehouses with a capacity of 17,500 barrels.  A on-premises cooperage shop could turn out fifty barrels a day and at peak the distillery employed forty hands.  Annual production of Excelsior and other company brands was 8,000 barrels while an additional 11,000 barrels were aging in bond.  In 1868 management of this extensive operation was turned over to a Megibben nephew.

The Edgewater Distillery.  Not content with running only a single distillery Megibben during the 1850s purchased an existing plant that had been established in 1836, owned and operated by Benjamin Brandon as part of a a grist mill and whiskey-making complex.  After passing through several proprietorships, about 1855 it was leased for three years to Megibben and two partners.  The lease included twenty-five acres of farm land on which cattle could be kept to feed spent mash.  The venture proved very profitable and before the end of the three years, Megibben, after buying out his partners, purchased the entire property.  It included the distillery, “all the appurtenances thereto belonging,” and a 200 acre farm.

As sole owner, Megibben lost no time in improving and expanding the distillery.   As shown above, it was expanded over time into a large complex, featuring five warehouses with the capacity to hold 25,000 barrels of aging whiskey.  According to insurance records, the distillery itself was of frame construction with a metal or slate roof.  The warehouses included three adjoining bonded buildings constructed of brick with metal roofs, a separated iron-clad bonded stone warehouse located 250 feet southwest of the still, and a “free” (non-bonded) stone warehouse with a shingle roof, located 120 feet east of the still.

According to an 1893 report on Megibben’s Edgewater distillery:   “The warehouses…are constructed after the most approved plans for the maturing of the product and are lighted by immense skylights which give a perfect flood of light and safe so arranged that the reflected rays of the sun are thrown upon the entire space.  The whiskey is still further matured by the use of steam-heat which is forced by steel blowers to all parts of the houses.”

His flagship brands became “Edgewater Sour Mash Whiskey” and “Edgewater Rye.”  Megibben put his own portrait on the labels, perhaps as an indication in his pride in the product. He merchandised these whiskeys vigorously throughout the country, finding a ready customer base because of their quality.  It was one of the Kentucky brands specially featured at the 1893 Columbian World’s Fair in Chicago.  A Kentucky publication boasted that Edgewater Whiskey “is to be found in nearly every first-class hotel and bar in this country.”

Over time Megibben continued to add parcels to his holdings until he had accrued some 3,000 acres.  Shown below is a line drawing of the estate he created for himself and his large family not far from the distillery complex.  These holdings allowed him during the 1860s to become known as a breeder of fine cattle. Willing to pay big money for prize bulls, Megibben assembled a herd that was said to be one of the finest in the United States.  He also was breeding high-grade sheep.

The Ashland Distillery.  His passon to own distilleries not yet satisfied, Megibben early in the 1870s became a partner in the Ashland Distillery, located on Manchester Street (Frankfort Pike) in Lexington, Kentucky.  Shown below, this plant on eleven acres had been established in 1865, produced the “Ashland Whiskey,” brand, and had gone through several ownerships before closing.  Dates differ, but about 1871 Megibben, with well-known whiskey entrepreneur, William Tarr, acquired the distillery and restarted production.  [See my post on William Tarr, February 2015.]  The partners continued to produce the Ashland brand and introduced “Wm. Tarr Whiskey.”   Both brands came in bourbon and rye versions.

In May 1879, a fire destroyed the distillery, one that largely had been constructed of wood.  This disaster forced the city fathers of Lexington to establish a waterworks to provide a year around supply of water to fight fires and thereby lower insurance rates.  With this safeguard the distillery was reorganized during which Megibben became a director, owning 40%, and his son-in-law, Joseph M. Kimbrough the plant manager.  Shown here, the distillery was rebuilt at a cost of $75,000 (almost $2 million today).  By 1882 the output was approximately 45 barrels a day with 18,000 barrels in bonded storage in two warehouses, both adjacent to a railroad spur.

The Van Hook Distillery.  Not long after acquiring the Ashland Distillery, Megibben struck again, purchasing the Van Hook Distillery in Harrison County, shown below.  Although scholars disagree on the origins of this facility, they agree that it was destroyed by fire in 1869 and rebuilt the same year.  At the time of McGibben’s purchase, during the early 1880s, the distillery had a mashing capacity of 300 bushels per day and produced 3,000 barrels of whiskey annually, with 6,000 barrels held in bond. The size of the distillery was 35 x 55 feet and rose three floors. Three brick warehouses with a capacity of 7,500 barrels could be found on the grounds, containing L. Van Hook Pure Bourbon.  A cooper’s shop attached to the still annually turned out 4,000 barrels.  Waste from the mash fed 150 cattle and 400 hogs. Shipments from the warehouses were made via the Kentucky Central Railroad from Cynthiana.

After operating the Van Hook Distillery for a few years with continuing success, Megibben sold the property to another son-in-law, Felix S. Ashbrook.  By this time he had become the largest landowner in Harrison County.  His abundant energies included horse racing.  In 1872 he bought his first thoroughbred horse and eventually ran a stable of fifty thoroughbreds and a hundred trotters and pacers.  His horses competed in the Kentucky Derby in 1882 and again in 1884.  Neither won.

The Paris Distillery.  Shown above, this whiskey manufactory had been built in 1860, located about half mile from Paris, Kentucky, on the Kentucky Central Railroad. It had been operated under at least two ownerships by the 1880s when Megibben got involved.  This facility produced a whiskey called “Paris Distillery Hand Made Sour Mash.”   The daily mashing capacity was 412 barrels per day and boasted a warehouse storage capacity of 15,000 barrels.  The warehouses were five, four bonded of brick construction and one free, iron clad.  The distillery was frame and the property included a frame cattle shed 225 feet west of the still.  By 1884 Megibben was in charge of managing this distillery.

While just keeping track of these many business activities might have been too much for an ordinary man,  Megibben also found time for politics.  He first was elected to the Kentucky State House of Representatives from Harrison County in 1871.  According to a biographer:  “By being always vigilant and watchful, regarding the best interests his constituency and singularly prompt in devising measures best adapted to their wants…,” he was elected to a second term.  In 1879 he was elected to the State Senate, serving one term.  A delegate to a Democratic convention that nominated Grover Cleveland, Megibben was a familiar figure in Kentucky Democratic circles and his mansion home, shown here, a frequent political gathering place. 

Megibben also fulfilled the old adage, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.”  In addition to his many business and political interests, he often was tapped for other leadership roles.   He founded the Latonia Track and Jockey Club, was president of the Shorthorn Cattle Breeders Association of Chicago, and president of the Kentucky Trotting Horse Breeders Association from 1873 until 1882. McGibben was elected the first president of the Kentucky Distillers Association at its 1880 initial meeting in Louisville.  He continued to be active in the organization until his death.  

At the End.  When T. J. McGibben died in January 1890 at the age of 59, his obituaries noted, seemingly in awe, that he continued to have an interest in six Kentucky distilleries.  Extra trains were run to Cynthiana from both Cincinnati and Lexington to bring some 300 mourners to his funeral services.  A lengthy procession led from the church to the Battle Grove Cemetery where he was laid to rest in Section G, Lot 4.  A tall stone pillar marks the place.

McGibben was the object of many tributes after his death.  Among them, is one from the Frankfort Capitol that captured the man rather than the titan of Kentucky whiskey.  In part it read:  “Modest as a woman, gentle as a child, ‘Tom’ McGibben, as those who loved him loved best to call him, never betrayed a trust, never faltered in his devotion to a friend or forgot to keep his plighted faith to any man.”

Note:  T.J. McGibben was given considerable biographical attention after his death, the information on which much of this post is drawn.  Most important was the 1882 volume, History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, by William H. Perrin. 
 

William Tarr: The Rise and Fall of a “Money King of the Blue Grass"

William Tarr was well known in his home state of Kentucky as a astute businessman, someone who had parlayed profits from a watermelon patch, mule trading, and farming into making whiskey before the Civil War, and subsequently made a highly successful distillery and real estate investments.  In 1882 a biographer termed him “one of the money kings of the Blue Grass region.”  All that changed, however, when Tarr fell in love with railroads. 

Tarr’s roots were deep in Kentucky.  His grandfather, Charles Tarr, was born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and migrated about 1790 as a newlywed with his wife to Nicholas County, Kentucky.  A farmer, Charles is said to have become one of the prominent men of the region.  Although he later decamped for Illinois, one son, John B. Tarr, remained, married Milly Turner, and raised a family of five sons and two daughters.  Among the sons was William, born in June 1825.  The Tarr family was not wealthy and a biographer noted of William: “He began life as a poor boy….”

The youthful Tarr’s first enterprise was raising and selling watermelons.  From there he graduated to mule trading, an activity that gave him sufficient money to farming on rented land with his brother.  After a few years working the soil with evident success, the two parted ways.  Tarr went into business for himself, making whiskey on a small scale.  With the profits from that enterprise in the early 1860s he invested in what became known as the Chicken Cock Distillery in East Paris, Kentucky.  He became a partner in 1863 and operated the distillery until 1868 when he sold his share in favor of new opportunities, primarily in land speculation.

During the 1860s, Tarr also was having a personal life.  He married a Kentucky- born woman named Sarah Fisher, the daughter of W.W. and Sarah (Garth) Fisher.  She was known by her middle name “Findlay,” the only one on her gravestone.  The couple would have two sons, Thompson, born in 1866 and Fisher, born in 1870. 

The whiskey-making opportunity that presented itself to Tarr was the Ashland Distillery in Lexington, Kentucky.  It had been established in 1865 by Turner, Clay & Co., a business that included Horace Turner, Samuel Clay and Thomas Mitchell.   The facility was located on Manchester Street (Frankfort Pike) between Cox and Perry and was the first to obtain a Federal Register distillery license (RD #1, 7th District) in Lexington.  Its products were marketed as “Ashland Whiskey.”  Identified by the logo shown above, the firm produced about 30 barrels of whiskey a day, slightly less than its 37 barrel capacity.  The partners also completed a bonded warehouse, one said to be “fireproof.”

The distillery seemed to have struggled financially from the outset and after Turner’s death in 1871, the partnership dissolved.  Tarr with Thomas Megibben, a Lexington dry goods merchant, acquired it and restarted production.  They continued to produce the Ashland label and introduced a new brand, initially called “Wm. Tarr Whiskey” and later “Old Tarr.”   Both brands were produced in bourbon and rye versions. Another Tarr whiskey label was Belle of Marion,

shown below.

The decade of the 70s brought two setbacks to Tarr.  In 1873, his wife, Sarah, died, still a very young woman, leaving William with two small boys to raise.   Perhaps to give his children a mother, three years later he married a second time.  His new bride was Mary Fisher, a sister to his first wife and a woman 34 years his junior.  They would have three children of their own:  James born in 1877;  William Orr, 1878; and Mary Best, 1880. 

 

For this growing family he built what was described as “one of the most beautiful homes in Bourbon County, having provided it with all the modern conveniences and tasteful designs, and a large and commodious park well stocked with deer.”  Shown here in a contemporary illustration, the Tarr home had originated as a smaller Federal style building but William greatly enlarged it to accommodate extensive Italianate features.  The main entry way was made of  Flemish-bond brickwork, an expensive and labor intensive addition.

Tarr’s second setback of the 70s was a raging fire in 1879 that destroyed his distillery.  Not only was it largely of wooden construction but Lexington did not have a waterworks to provide a supply of water to fight the conflagration.  The structures burned quickly and out of control.  The disaster apparently triggered a company reorganization.  Tarr remained the president, with three partners.  He owned 40%, Megibben another 40%, and the remaining 20% split between Sam Clay, a company salesman, and a plant manager who was Megibben’s son-in-law.   Under this arrangement the distillery and warehouses were rebuilt at the cost of $75,000 ($1.8 million today), this time in brick with fire proof slate or metal roofs.

Tarr’s distillery, shown above rebuilt, was a “state of the art” facility on eleven acres.  The floor space covered 25,000 square feet and included 14 fermentation tubs, each with a capacity of 9,500 gallons.  The primary mash tub held 10,000 gallons, with 400 smaller mash tubs of 101 gallons each.   In lieu of refrigeration, the small tubs allowed a faster cooling process.  By 1882 thirty-five workers were employed to produced about 45 barrels of whiskey daily, mashing 300 bushels of corn and 120 bushels of rye and barley malt.  Corn was purchased from local farmers but rye and barley malt came by train from the West on a siding running into the facility.  Barrels of whiskey were transported out by rail.  Water for the distillery was supplied from a nearby spring, at first under a lease and later purchased outright by Tarr.  Pumps supplied 200,000 gallons of fresh limestone water daily through a system of pipes.  Annual whiskey production grew to six thousand barrels, valued at $150,000 ($3.1 million today).  Some 18,000 barrels were kept in bonded storage.  Old Tarr was advertised as "always true."

As the head of this distilling giant, Tarr was lionized for his entrepreneurial genius.  One biographer extolled him as “…A man of great business tact and ability, his large and increasing business interests extending throughout the country.”   In 1882 another observer opined:  “…He has become one of the money kings of the Blue Grass.”   Yet even then the seeds of destruction for this “up from the bootstraps”  entrepreneur were being sown.  William Tarr, ever the speculator, fell in love with railroads.  The extent of his fascination can be seen in the illustration of his estate above.  The train depicted there was running on a right-of-way the “Money King” had donated in sight of his mansion windows.

Even before the Civil War a railroad from Lexington southeast through the coalfield of Kentucky and onto Virginia had been proposed.  After the war speculation in railroads was rampant and Tarr was not immune.  With his distillery partner Megibben he formed the Kentucky Union Railroad Company in 1872 with Kentucky and out of state investors. Shown below is a $1,000 bond certificate issued by the company.  

From the beginning the railroad was vexed by problems.  The construction relied on convicts for labor.  Maltreated, some died and were laid in unmarked graves.  Other escaped during winter months, reputedly to seek warmth and proper clothing.  The project also required the erection of a 500-foot trestle over a river.  Financial problems and a shortage of steel caused delays into 1884.  When completed, the railroad cost almost $1 million ($25 million today) and had been funded largely by undercapitalized distillers, with Tarr the lead investor.  Unable to gain additional financing, he and his partners in 1886 were forced to sell the railroad at a ruinous 50% loss.

The decline of Tarr’s fortunes seem to have triggered another reorganization of the Ashland Distillery.  By 1888 Sam Clay had departed and his share was obtained by Thompson Tarr, William’s eldest son.  By 1890 Megibben had died and Tarr purchased his interest and installed Thompson as company vice president.  Now the Tarrs owned the Ashland distillery almost in its entirety.  Always aggressive, William in 1892 purchased the nearby Lexington Distillery to acquire 10,000 barrels of bourbon in storage.  He then demolished the plant and moved the whiskey to his own warehouses.   

Although this activity might indicate continued strength of Tarr’s enterprises, he had been weaken financially by the railroad debacle.  Furthermore, he had endorsed notes for family and friends who defaulted during the national “Panic of 1893,”, leaving him with judgments ranging from $200 to $8,000.  As as way out, Tarr invited into the management members of the Stoll family of Lexington who controlled a number of distilleries in central Kentucky.  In January 1897 Tarr issued $50,000 in bonds as a last ditch effort to save his distillery.  In May of that year, the end came.  He declared bankruptcy and all assets were assigned to the Stolls.  Those included 10,000 barrels of Tarr’s bourbon and his distillery.   The latter was sold at auction in 1899, purchased by a straw bidder for the Kentucky Distilling & Warehouse Co., widely known as “The Whiskey Trust.”

His reputation as a canny businessman in tatters, in 1898 Tarr retired to his farm with his wife, Mary.  He was 73 years old and still owned considerable tracts of land in Bourbon County and Eastern Kentucky.   The receivership played out for some 14 years, ending only in 1911 when Tarr’s debts were finally settled.  The lengthy process was a continuing reminder to everyone of how far he had fallen.  A year later Tarr was dead, 86 years old.  He was buried in a Paris, Kentucky, cemetery with a cement headstone, adorned with a rose.  It marks his name and dates of birth and death.  Both of his wives are buried near him.  The notice of his death in a Lexington newspaper identified him pointedly as “formerly one of the most widely known distillers of the United States.”

 

The William Tarr Distillery and associated brand name were retained for a time by subsequent ownerships but the plant finally was closed down by National Prohibition.  One night in March 1920, a masked gang of thieves raided the warehouses at the distillery.  Overpowering two guards, they took 96 cases of bonded whiskey valued at $20,000 from the government-controlled facility.  To safeguard the remaining whiskey it was removed to one of the U.S. “concentration warehouses.”  Today the only vestige of Tarr’s distillery is one warehouse, now serving as a Lexington bar.  As shown below, the family mansion now stands abandoned and sadly has been allowed to fall into disrepair.