Druggists as Whiskey Men

Foreword:  During National Prohibition (1920-1934) all legal whiskey supplies were in the hands of druggists who could issue small quantities of liquor upon presentation of a doctor’s prescription.  During those 14 years, numbers of prescriptions soared and local pharmacies prospered.  Even before 1920, however, druggists were active in the liquor trade, often mixing up their own brands of whiskey and advertising it widely.  Below are vignettes of three druggists who saw the advantages in commercing in alcohol and, as a result, prospered.

In the Pre-Prohibition era it was common practice for pharmacies to carry a line of alcoholic beverages. Often whiskey, brandy and wine package sales were the chief economic engine of such establishments and made rich men of their owners. Edwin E. Bruce of Omaha, Nebraska, was among those American druggists who profited mightily by being in the whiskey trade.

With three partners in the 1880’s Bruce founded a wholesale drug company in Ottumwa, Iowa, and subsequently opened a firm in Omaha in 1887 that became  known as E.E. Bruce & Co.  Bruce quickly found success in Nebraska and beyond. His trade was reputed to extend “throughout all sections of the West to the Pacific coast.” By the early 1900s Bruce employed thirty clerks, assistants and traveling salesmen in a spacious Omaha building. Despite the facade of wholesale drugs, Bruce’s advertising emphasized his spiritous beverages. 

Bruce’s flagship was Country Club Bourbon, a brand he sold in an elegant stoneware quart cylinder that was the  product of Sherwood Brothers pottery in far off New Brighton, Pennsylvania.  His whiskey likely was obtained from distilleries in Kentucky. Bruce also may have done some “rectifying,” that is, mixing several whiskeys to improved taste and smoothness. 

Made rich by his drug and liquor business, Bruce and his family occupied a mansion, located in Omaha's Gold Coast neighborhood. A co-founder of the National Association of Wholesale Druggists, Bruce also was well-known in Omaha business circles. According to a contemporary account, he was someone respected for “his ability, enterprise and ingenuity.“

Shown here in a 1892 cartoon, George Fleming wasted no time in putting his Pittsburgh pharmacy on the map. A contemporary account called him “undoubtedly the best known druggist west of the Allegheny Mountains.” Doing business from its single location at Market and Diamond Streets, the company advertised Fleming’s Export Rye and Fleming’s Malt Whiskey across America. 

A square bottle similar to one shown here has been found in a Sacramento, California state park. It is embossed on two sides: “Fleming’s Export Pure Rye” and “Bottled Expressly for Family Use.” 

George also featured as gifts to prime customers attractive paperweights and shot glasses, as shown here. They frequently stressed the role of physician endorsements,. as might be expected for a druggist. Whiskey sales not only were brisk but apparently extremely profitable. A contemporary satirical poem about George Fleming averred: “For although he’s a druggist his earnings are high...From selling old rye.” 

Flemings was a rectifier, not a distiller. He bought whiskey in bulk, mixed it with other ingredients to their taste, slapped a label on it and called it his own. Look at the cartoon again:  George could be stirring up a cocktail of Fleming’s Export Rye in that giant mortar. 

Philip P. Van Vleet, a prominent wholesale druggist in Memphis, Tennessee, was another whose success depended heavily on marketing a wide array of whiskeys.  Liquor, along with proprietary drugs and nostrums, brought him wealth and allowed him to hobnob with the rich and famous, including the President of the United States.  

After working years for other druggists, in 1884 Phillip struck out on his own,  establishing the wholesale pharmaceutical house of Van Vleet & Co., located at 320-324 Main Street, a major Memphis commercial avenue.  He managed this business to such affluence that he was able to buy up several other Memphis drug firms.  They included the Mansfield Drug Co., a well established company, whose purchase by Van Vleet was considered a coup in Memphis business circles.  

He called the resulting enterprise Van Vleet-Mansfield Co., its building shown on a glass paperweight.  The new corporation was instantly profitable, attributed by one author to the exertions of Van Vleet himself:  “He created this colossal pattern of success through his guidance and by his service-driven attitude.  The result was one of the largest and most progressive wholesale drug companies in the country.”   

Essential to this prosperity was the emphasis Van Vleet put on making and selling whiskey.  In addition to mixing up drugs and proprietary medicines on his premises, he was blending, bottling and selling his own brands of booze.  Among his labels were “Chickasaw,” “Clarendon,”  “Gayoso Club,”  “King’s Choice,” “Mossy Dell,”  “Old Southern Home,” “Rosadora Rye,” “Silver Plume,” “Sweet Fern,” and “Wayside Inn.”  

Accounted a multi-millionaire in his own time, Van Vleet and his wife were described as  “great globe trotters.”  When the couple visited the Philippines, newly acquired by the United States from Spain, they met William Howard Taft, at the time the civilian governor of the islands.  According to the Washington Post, “a warm and enduring friendship was established.”  When Taft was elected President, the Van Vleets were his guests at the White House.

Note:  All three of these druggists as whiskey men have been written up in the past on this blog as individual biographies.  Those are available as:  Edwin E. Bruce, May 18, 2011;  George Fleming, August 13, 2011; and Philip Van Vleet, June 24, 2016.  

Peter Van Vleet’s Whiskey Filled a Prescription for Success

Although Philip P. Van Vleet, was known as a wholesale druggist in Memphis, Tennessee, his success depended heavily on his marketing a wide array of whiskeys.  Liquor, along with proprietary drugs and nostrums,  brought him wealth and allowed him to hobnob with the rich and famous, including a future President of the United States.

Van Vleet’s story was a true tale of “up from the bootstraps.”  He was born in Galesburg, Michigan, in November 1849 of Dutch-English descent, the son of Ralph S.  and Henrietta (Lockwood) Van Vleet.  One of his ancestors was reputed to be among the earliest settlers of Manhattan Island. Peter was educated in local public schools and, although his parents were of modest means, afforded an opportunity to attend nearby Kalamazoo College, a highly regarded liberal arts school.  During his college years he worked his way as a clerk in a Kalamazoo drug store, learning the trade. 

 

According to one account, upon completing his courses, Van Vleet decided to seek his fortune outside of Michigan and in 1871 traveled South, possibly heading for New Orleans.  Upon reaching Memphis, according to a biographer, “…He was quick to see and realize the possibilities of the place…”  Shown above is the city’s Main Street in the late 1800s. Van Vleet found employment as a prescription drug clerk with G. W. Jones & Company, at that time the largest wholesale drug house in the city.  He rapidly was advanced to management and in 1879 purchased a half interest in the business.

When Peter was 29 years old, he married Ramelle McKay in Memphis. a woman about ten years his junior who had been born in DeSoto County, Mississippi.  Her father was a New Yorker and her mother an immigrant from England.  Together the Van Vleets would have three children, Elsie born in 1885;  August, 1888, and Ramelle, 1893.  Despite the difference in ages, the couple had an enduring marriage.

In 1884, Peter sold his shares in Jones & Company and striking out on his own established the wholesale pharmaceutical house of Van Vleet & Co., located at 320-324 Main Street, a major Memphis commercial avenue, shown above.  He managed this business to such affluence that he was able to buy up several other Memphis drug firms.  They included the Mansfield Drug Co., a well established company, whose purchase by Van Vleet was considered a coup in Memphis business circles.  He called it the resulting enterprise Van Vleet-Mansfield Co., its building shown below.

The new corporation was instantly profitable, attributed by one author to Peter himself:  “He created this colossal pattern of success through his guidance and by his service-driven attitude.  The result was one of the largest and most progressive wholesale drug companies in the country.”   Essential to this prosperity was the emphasis that Van Vleet put on making and selling whiskey.

In addition to mixing up drugs and proprietary medicines on his premises, Peter was blending, bottling and selling his own brands of booze.  Among his labels were “Chickasaw,” “Clarendon,”  “Gayoso Club,”  “King’s Choice,” “Mossy Dell,”  “Old Southern Home,” “Rosadora Rye,” “Silver Plume,” “Sweet Fern,” and “Wayside Inn.”  Although he trademarked “Old Southern Home,” in 1900, Van Vleet waited until Congress strengthened trademark laws in 1904 and 1905 to protect his other brand names. Shown here is a Van Vleet molded glass whiskey decanter that declares of the contents:  "Not a headache or a cross word in a barrel of it."

Alcohol also was a familiar ingredient in many of Van Vleet’s patent medicines.   Shown above and below are colorful trade cards for four of his products. “Femenina,” advertised as “an infallible remedy for female disorders” contained such herbals as “unicorn root,” “cramp bark,” “squaw vine” and “black haw.” but most importantly to patient relief, a strong dose of alcoholic spirits.   Van Vleet's “Plantation Sarsaparilla,” was an elixir said to purify the blood that “Cures by Eradication, Not by Suppression.”   In an era when no one knew what caused malaria, Van Vleet also featured “Plantation Chill Cure,” guaranteed to cure chills, fevers and all other “malarial troubles.”  It too was generously laced with alcohol.

Van Vleet-Mansfield boasted a team of twenty-five traveling salesmen fanned out across the South and Southwest — from Tennessee to Texas.  “There is probably no other line of business in Memphis which has a more carefully organized and better trained force of drummers than are to be found in his wholesale drug house,” opined one writer.   Among the products they were selling were the myriad Van Vleet whiskey brands.  Even in “dry” states and localities, “medicinal” whisky could be sold in drug stores.

With continuing success, the Van Vleet-Mansfield Drug Co. eventually moved to a larger building, located at the corner of Second and Gayoso Streets.  It was a handsome brick structure of seven stories, offering ample space for his employees to mix up Van Vleet’s proprietary whiskeys and patent medicines.  Obviously proud of this “new home”, Peter issued a glass paperweight that showed the structure.  The building still stands in Memphis, now converted into apartments and known as “Van Vleet Flats.”

Shown here on a paperweight, Van Vleet himself increasingly was being recognized as a Memphis business leader.  In addition to his drug business, he was a founder and director of the Bank of Commerce & Trust Company, and active in the Merchant’s Exchange and Memphis Business Men’s Club.  He was leading a social life as a member of The Tennessee Club, The Chickasaw Guard’s Club, and the Memphis County Club.  Reflecting his interest in hunting were memberships in the Waponoca Club and the Mud Lake Ducking Club.  

Accounted a multi-millionaire in his own time, Van Vleet bought an tract of land on Poplar Avenue and built a mansion for his family, shown here.  The frame house was distinguished by a portico that featured four two-story Corinthian columns.  Peter’s estate was so large that today the grounds hold the Memphis Technical High School and a housing development.

Described as “great globe trotters,” Peter and Ramelle visited the Philippines, newly acquired by the United States from Spain, and came to know William Howard Taft, who was the appointed civilian governor of the islands.  According to the Washington Post, “a warm and enduring friendship was established.”  When the Van Vleets visited Washington, D.C., in July 1905, they visited Taft who now was the Secretary of War in Teddy Roosevelt’s cabinet and expected to be the Republican candidate for President in 1908.  Pressed about his views, Van Vleet told the Post reporter that although he was “an extreme Democrat,” he would feel a strain on his party loyalty if Taft were the nominee “as everyone must admit he is magnificently equipped for the highest office in the land.”

Van Vleet lived to see his friend, William Howard Taft, elected President only to lose his attempt at re-election in 1912.  As he aged, Peter developed heart disease and died in April of 1915, 65 years old.  He was buried in a large family mausoleum in Memphis’ Forest Hill Cemetery, shown here.  

In both life and in death, Van Vleet was extolled for his personal care and concern for his employees, and their consequent loyalty to him:  “It is human interest, his great sympathy, given in practical form, that makes his milestones of success,” said one article.  To that opinion I would add that making and selling whiskey represented another often overlooked “milestone,” a prescription leading to Peter Van Vleet’s financial reward and recognition.