Malcolm, Mencken and Monticello Rye

Malcolm Crichton and Henry (H. L.) Mencken, though they likely never met,  forged an enduring  bond between themselves because of Monticello Maryland Rye.  Crichton created it and Mencken, the “Sage of Baltimore” gave it national recognition by championing it as a superior brand of whiskey.

One of America’s best known wrlters,  Mencken claimed the family physician “believed and taught that a shot of Maryland whiskey was the best preventive of pneumonia in the R months.”   That directive was firmly held by Mencken’s father, Augustus, a cigar manufacturer.  When the senior Mencken sent out for whiskey he demanded Monticello.  

His famous son recounted:  “His…bill file shows that on December 27, 1893, he paid…$4 dollars for a gallon of Monticello whiskey….Before every meal, including breakfast, he ducked into the cupboard in the dining room and poured a substantial hooker of rye, and when he emerged he was always sucking in a great whiff of air to cool off his tonsils.  He regarded this appetizer as necessary to his well-being.  He said it was the best medicine he had ever found for toning up the stomach.”

The man responsible for this elixir was Malcolm Crichton (pronounced “Cri-ton”).  Born in Illinois about 1840, he was the son of Janet M. and William Crichton, a Scottish-born wholesale grocer who relocated the family to Maryland in 1848. His father appears to have been something of a taskmaster.  A Baltimore friend told an anecdote about Malcolm and his brother being driven to school by William:  “He wore riding breeches and held a fine whip in his hand.  I heard him tell [the schoolmaster] to keep his sons in order and not to spare the rod.  ‘Send for me,’ he added, shaking his whip, ‘if you need any help.’”

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Malcolm began his career prior to and during the Civil War working for his father in the grain and fertilizer business on Baltimore’s waterfront.  An 1863 city directory listed Wm. Crichton & Son as grain, flour and guano dealers and commission merchants.  The father was also listed as president of the Corn and Flour Exchange.  After the war, Malcolm left his father’ employ and struck out on his own.  For someone familiar with grain it seemingly was only a short step to distilling.  At the age of 25 Crichton was recorded in city directories engaged in making whiskey at a site near Holliday and Bath Streets in Baltimore.  

In the meantime Crichton met and fell in love with Antoinette Kennedy, the daughter of John Kennedy of Hagerstown, Maryland, and through her mother related to the influential McPherson clan of Baltimore.  They married on June 15, 1865. The couple would have six children, William, Nettie, Malcolm, McPherson, James and Mary Elizabeth.  Two of them are shown here, reading one of several children’s books Antoinette wrote and published.

Clearly an enterprising young man, Crichton took over a defunct distillery once run by Joseph White.   He rebuilt the facility and began producing the whiskey he called “Monticello Rye.”  Baltimore already had its Mount Vernon Rye — named after George Washington’s home.  That may have inspired Crichton to appropriate the name of Thomas Jefferson’s home for his whiskey.  A serving tray and his ads fully exploited the connection.  Crichton also claimed in his advertising, without proof, that the date of origin for this brand was 1789 — half a century before his birth.

Calamity struck on July 24,1868.  That was the date of the Jones Falls Flood, Baltimore’s greatest natural disaster of the 19th Century.  The water rose to twelve feet downtown,  shown here in an artist’s depiction.  Among the casualties was the Monticello Distillery, washed away by the rushing waters.  Crichton lost little time before rebuilding, this time aided financially by Charles E. Dickey, the owner of a meter manufacturing company.

The location at 136 Holliday would be the home of the M. Crichton & Company plant for the next twenty years.  A Sanborn insurance map shows the extent of the facility on two sides of Holliday Street.  In 1880 Crichton moved his sales and management offices to 57 Second Street in Baltimore, later moving them to the Fireman’s Building at the northeast corner of South and Second Streets.

Jim Bready, the historian of Baltimore whiskey, has written that the rebuilt Monticello Distillery was not far from City Hall.  In summer when the windows were open, there being no air conditioning in those days, the aromas of the whiskey-making would waft through municipal offices — obviously fomenting thirst among the clerks.  Bready also noted that Mencken, like others of his time was fond of standing at the bar, the “Sage of Baltimore” said, to “toss the bartender for drinks.”  Monticello Distilling obliged the practice by issuing a token that could be flipped to see who paid.

 Before long, Crichton had built his distillery into one of Maryland’s largest, gauged by the taxable value of the spirits produced.  In 1900, for example, Malcolm’s facility produced a taxable $228,788 in product, roughly equivalent to $5.6 million today.   In Maryland he was second only to the Hannis and Sherwood distilleries.   Monticello Rye not only had a loyal customer base in Maryland but also reached liquor dealers such as Peter Welty in Wheeling, West Virginia, and Loeb-Lion-Felix in New Orleans. In 1881, likely concerned about brand infringement, Crichton trademarked the name. 

Unfortunately, Malcolm Crichton had little time to enjoy the success and prosperity his Monticello Rye had engendered, dying in 1890 at the early age of 50. The Baltimore Sun carried details of his demise: “About a year ago Mr. Crichton had an attack of erysipelas in the face. Under the care of Dr. Silas Baldwin, he recovered. Two weeks ago Mr. Crichton was attacked with erysipelas in the food and Dr. Baldwin was again summoned. Gangrene developed and at Dr. Baldwin’s request Dr. Alan P. Smith was made consulting physician. Shortly after 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon Mr. Crichton rose from his chair and attempted to walk across the room. He fell after making a few steps and soon died.”

Because of the artistic efforts of his son, James, we are fortunate to have a small portrait of Malcolm Crichton in middle age.  He seems not to have lost the intensity seen in the face of the younger Malcolm, shown above.  With his family gathered at his graveside, he was buried in Baltimore’s Green Mount Cemetery.

When Malcolm died, it appears that none of his sons were interested or equipped to take over for him.  The distillery was sold to Baltimore brothers, Bernard and Jacob B. Cahn.  Bernard earlier had been in the liquor business as a partner in Cahn, Belt Co. [See my post on this firm August 2013.]  The Cahns continued successfully to run the Monticello Distillery and market the brand for almost 30 years, until shut down by National Prohibition.  During Prohibition Monticello Rye was one of those whiskeys that could be bought for “medicinal purposes” with a prescription at drug stores.  With Repeal, the brand under new ownership continued to survive into the 1940s.

Shown here drinking a beer at the stroke of midnight ushering in 1934 and Repeal,  Henry Mencken was enthusiastic about the demise of National Prohibition. Later he came to see Repeal as something of a mixed blessing.  Now, Mencken raged in print, Monticello Rye cost $3 to $3.50 a quart — not the $4 a gallon his father had paid.

Peter Welty: Known Through the Jugs He Issued

 Although facts about the personal life of Peter Welty of Wheeling, West Virginia, are scanty, he has left behind a strong legacy of strikingly decorated whiskey jugs by which to remember his apparent long career as a whiskey man.

Welty’s origins are relatively obscure.  His family were German immigrants and Peter’s birthplace appears to have been Germany.  He first comes into the public record in the 1860s as a partner in an import and wholesale liquor business run by his brother,  Christian Welty,  known corporately as C. Welty & Bro.  In 1882 located at 11 South Main Street, according to Wheeling business directories, the firm later moved to 1118 Main Street.   From an 1887 invoice  it appears that Christian later retired from the scene and Peter Welty was running the liquor dealership.   The invoice is on C. Welty & Bro letterhead but signed by Peter Welty & Co. at the Main Street address, indicating a transition.

Shown on a 1889 letterhead here is an illustration of the Main Street entrance and a second outlet that Peter had opened at 1121 Market Street.  Two other names appear on the document,  C. Wm. and Samuel Welty.   Peter does not appear to be their father since the two men, brothers,  had been living with their widowed mother, according to the 1880 census.   Nor do the age differences suggest Peter could be their brother.  My guess is that he was an uncle,  but additional research is required.  Welty seems to have been particularly proud of his Market Street facility which he boasted extended “the full depth of the Square from Main to Market St.”   His ads showed a cutaway version of the building.

If you look carefully at the drawing, it is clear that lots of jugs are stacked inside, many containing whiskey.   Welty may have been one of the last whiskey dealers to employ the large, two gallon or more, saltglazed stoneware jugs with stenciled designs and lettering.  Shown here are three examples of those containers, all remnants of the Civil War era when whiskey often came in large containers. 

In the later part of the 19th Century and into the 20th, Welty shifted his containers to a more contemporary look.   Among them were stoneware quart jugs with a light glaze, brown necks and fancy gold lettering.  They held respectively,  “Monticello Rye,” a highly praised Baltimore Maryland product, and “Old Crow,”  a successful Kentucky bourbon.   So far, I have been unsuccessful in determining exactly what pottery or potteries made these containers.  No so, for a third jug that has a light top,  dark bottom, gold lettering and a hand-painted flower on the front.   Advertising “Dougherty Rye,”  a Pennsylvania whiskey,  this jug was made by Fulper Pottery of Flemington,  New Jersey.   Despite  having no pottery mark the link back to this pottery was  definitely made several years ago.   Welty seems to have fancied the Fulper jugs since there are at least five varieties that have come to light with his name on them.

The Fulper Jug

I find it interesting that although Welty also was a “rectifier,” mixing up his own blends of whiskey that he chose to put other people’s whiskey into the fancy containers. Those included the national brands noted earlier and the well-known “O.F.C. Taylor,” another Kentucky label. Among Welty’s own brands were “Smoke House,”  trademarked in 1905;  “Old Eighty-One (81),” trademarked in 1909;  and “Old Fowler,” never trademarked.

Welty’s business success was not limited to dealing in liquor.   Wheeling was a center of the region’s insurance industry with one life and ten fire insurance companies located there.  Peter was the vice president of one, Aetna Fire and Marine.  About the same period he was listed as one of the incorporators of the Artic Ice and Storage Company with principal offices in Wheeling.  It was capitalized at half a million dollars.

It is difficult to determine exactly how C. William and Samuel Welty fit into the picture.  Although their names appear on company letterheads,  their titles and responsibilities do not.  In the 1880 census   C. William Welty, then 22, was recorded as a “clerk,” likely for a family owned firm.   Samuel, 18, was “at school.” At the time of the census ten years later in 1910, Samuel is listed as a liquor dealer and merchant, almost certainly working for Peter.

Meanwhile Prohibition was tightening the noose on the liquor trade in West Virginia.  As early as 1883,  the lower house of the West Virginia  legislature had passed a ban on alcohol but it was defeated in the State Senate.   By 1910 some 37 of the 55 counties in West Virginia were completely dry or had permited towns to pass “local option” laws.  In 1912 statewide prohibition was put to the voters and passed by a majority of  92,342 votes.  As a result, liquor and beer were banned completely from West Virginia on July 1, 1914 -- a full six years before National Prohibition.   The New York Times reported that on that day 1,200  West Virginia saloons shut down, along with every liquor dealership.   The Times noted that “no serious disorder and very little excitement” attended the closings but that in final hours drinks were being sold at bargain prices.

Peter Welty & Co. had not waited around for that calamity to strike.  The business moved lock, stock, barrel and jug in early 1914 to nearby Pittsburgh and set up shop there at 103 Smithfield Street.  During this era, the company appears to have moved from ceramic containers into glass. Shown here is a clear labeled pint of  Old Fowler and an amber labeled quart of Old Eighty-One.   The company’s sojourn in Pennsylvania would prove to be relatively short-lived.  It disappeared from Pittsburgh directories in 1918 as National Prohibition closed in on liquor sales everywhere.  Although neither the company nor its brands revived after Repeal,  Peter Welty left behind a legacy of fancy decorated whiskey jugs that today keeps his memory alive.  




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