The Holihan Clan Could Fall and Rise Again

The name “Holihan” is derived from an ancient Celtic word meaning “proud.”  The family, that is found in several parts of Ireland, took as its motto, in loose translation, “Supported by God, I am not depressed." Yet it must have been a depressing time in the Holihan family of Lawrence, Massachusetts, when the progenitor,  a successful whiskey man named Patrick Holihan, died in middle age and his business fell into other hands.  The story lies in  his three sons regaining the company and bringing it into prosperity and prominence.

Patrick Holihan was born in Ireland in May 1831 and as a young man had emigrated to the United States, along with other family members.  By the age of  25 in 1856 with his brother, Peter, he established a grocery and liquor business in Lawrence,  the downtown shown above as it looked in the early 1900s.  The brothers called their enterprise “P & P Holihan.”  A year later Patrick married Julia O’Riordan who was three years his junior.  Within a decade, Julia died.  At the time they had a two-year-old daughter, Mary .  In 1868, Patrick married a second time to Bridget Gibney, also a native of Ireland.  She would give him three sons,  James Peter born in 1872;  Joseph Patrick, 1874, and Charles, 1876.

During those years, the Holihan firm was prospering.   Then at the relative early age of 51 Patrick died.  At the time his eldest son was 10; the youngest only 6.  His brother, Peter was married but had no children and, somewhat older than Patrick, may have been unable to carry on the business by himself.  Patrick’s wife and family may also have been strapped for money.  Whatever the reason, the Holihans sold their grocery and liquor business and it became known as Murphy & Davis.

One can imagine James, Joseph and Charles Holihan huddled around their mother, Bridget, plotting to take back what their father Patrick had built.  That opportunity came sooner rather than later.  When James was just 18 in 1890, according to the record, the Holihans were able to buy back the business.  The 1900 census found all three boys engaged in the store.  James was the proprietor;  Joseph (shown here in maturity) and Charles were liquor salesmen.   Living with their mother and sister Mary, none of the Holihan males were married.  By that time they had renamed the company  “Holihan Bros.” and were located in a four story building at the corner of Common and Hampshire Streets in Lawrence.

Their firm carried a general line of liquors, including two brands they claimed as proprietary, “Banquet Pure Rye” and “Old 56,”  the latter presumably for the year their father and his brother had founded the business.   They issued giveaway shot glasses for both flagship brands.  Banquet Rye advertised with the slogan, “The People’s Choice.”  Old 56 “Hand Made” Whiskey was touted as “pure whiskey...dining & family use.”  The Holihans also  gave  an unusual corkscrew to favored customers like bartenders,  The sheath for the instrument read:  “Holihan Bros., Wholesalers to the People.”

In 1912, the Holihans took a step unusual for whiskey men -- they started a brewery.  At the time the beer and liquor trades were often at odds about their respective business practices and how to offset Prohibition forces.  That conflict did not deter the Holihans. With the profits from their liquor trade they built a brewery on the site of an old farm at the corner of Andover and Beacon Streets and called it the Diamond Spring Brewery.  The main building was five stories with two adjoining four-story storage facilities.  Adjacent were the engine and boiler houses.  The brewery was capable of producing 75,000 barrels of beer annually.  The business employed about 75 people.  The Holihans advertised their brewery products heavily in the Northeast and built a strong customer base.  In addition to their ales, they featured lagers, porters, stocks and half stocks.  They chose clear bottles for many of their brews.

Following the death of their mother, Bridget, in 1902,  the sons continued to live together with their sister   Then in June 1909 James wed Mary Alice Behan.  Born in Massachusetts she was from Haverhill in  Essex County.  They were recorded as having one child, a son named William born in 1911.   Joseph and Charles remained bachelors, working for Holihan Bros.  In 1917 Charles died, leaving James and Joseph to manage the company.

Apparently feeling the pressure of Prohibition, the Holihans turned to new products.  For  years the spring water that was present in Diamond Spring beers and ales had been sold to the people of Lawrence as Knowles Diamond Spring Water.   In 1917 the brothers began to use the water as the basis for the manufacture of Diamond Springs ginger ale.  When it proved popular they expanded production into a variety of soft drinks.  A specialty was fruit tonics, turning out out beverages flavored by real fruit  --  strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon.  They found this an increasingly important part of their business just as markets for beer and whiskey were diminishing.

With the coming of National Prohibition, the Holihans were forced to close their liquor wholesale house,  dating back almost 65 years, and ending their beer-making as well.  One historian believes the company stayed in business through the dry spell by selling soft drinks and possibly “near beer.”   James Holihan died in 1924 and was buried in a Holihan family plot in Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Essex County.   According to one source,  Joseph Holihan married at the advanced age of 61 in 1935.   His bride was Grace E. Towle,  some nine years his junior. 

After Prohibition, Joseph Holihan with other family members apparently revived the Diamond Springs Brewery in Lawrence about 1934.    Joseph died in 1938 and is buried near his brothers in the Immaculate Conception Cemetery.  Other family member kept the brewery operating until about 1970 when economic pressures from national brands forced it to close.  Shown here is a tip tray from the post-Prohibition Diamond Spring Brewery It includes the coat of arms for the Holihan clan as well as its motto -- “Supported by God, I am not depressed” -- in Latin.  Although the Holihans had experienced untimely deaths,  National Prohibition, the Great Depression, and two World Wars,  they never considered giving up and thus were able to prevail for more than a century.

Joseph Friedman: A Whiskey Man for the Headlines

On the morning of July 6, 1913, many people in Paducah, Kentucky, reached for their Sunday newspaper to be greeted by a front page headline that might have been used for declarations of war or major U.S. disasters.   It told them that the previous day a man named Joseph L. Friedman had died in Chicago while on his way to his summer home in Northern Michigan and that the announcement of his death had shaken “Paducah commercial life to its foundation.”  Just who was Joseph Friedman and why did he deserve this kind of attention?

Friedman’s story began in April 1857 when he was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Leopold and Louise (Weil) Friedman, accounted as pioneers in Kentucky. He was educated in the public elementary schools of his home town and, because his family was reasonably affluent, was able to attend Cecilian College, a secondary school that had been founded in 1860 by three brothers.  After working in local stores as a clerk, Friedman became a traveling liquor salesman for the Bernheim Brothers in Louisville and was accounted a star.

During a subsequent move to Paducah apparently to go into business on his own,  Friedman is said to have persuaded his father to relocate there and to finance and help him manage a company to produce and sell vinegar.   After his father’s death in 1886, he began to seek a buyer for the vinegar business and sold it 1890 --  “advantageously,” according to a biographer.   In 1886,  Friedman found time to marry.  His bride was Elizabeth Keiler, born in Kentucky in 1861. She has been described as “a lady of rare accomplishments” and a gracious hostess.  She and Joseph would be married for 22 years but without children.

Elizabeth’s brother,  John W. Keiler,  had already established a whiskey dealership in Paducah and circa 1891, Friedman partnered with him in a firm called Friedman, Keiler & Company.  It was located initially at 124 North Second Street.  Although their letterhead accounts them as “distillers,” the partners principally were “rectifiers,” blending and mixing whiskeys drawn from several Kentucky distilleries.  For a time the partners apparently had a financial interest in a distillery located on the Dix River at Lancaster, Kentucky, being operated as the Pilgrimage Distilling Company.  At the time this facility was mashing approximately 100 bushels a day and had a storage capacity for about 10.000 barrels.  Federal records show the owner withdrawing spirits from the warehouse on behalf of  Friedman, Keiler Co. in 1898 and 1901.

Like many rectifiers Friedman and Keiler featured multiple brands, including: "Crescent Club,” "Crider Club,” "E. O. S.,”  "Hal Walters,”  "J. W. Palmer,” "James E. Owen,” "King Leo,”  "Moss Rose High Grade Rye,” "Newport E. O. S,”  "Samuel McClure,” "Sweet Revenge,” "The Prophet,” "Tom Manning,” and "Victoria Rye."   The company packaged these liquors in both glass and ceramic bottles.  As shown here are containers for King Leo and Crescent Club, one bearing a colorful label, the other a striking underglaze design.

Far and away the flagship brand of Friedman, Keiler & Co. was “Brook Hill” whiskey.  The company advertised it widely.   Shown here is a flask with the typical black label for the brand.  At right is another Brook Hill bottle, perhaps one of the most unusual spirits containers to be found.  Measuring about 9.5 inches high, the neck protrudes from a metal outer body, two sides of which have hand-etched designs.  One says “Brook Hill” and the other is a detailed drawing of a baseball player.

Unusual containers were a trademark of Friedman, Keiler & Co. and Brook Hill.  Perhaps the outstanding example, and one of the most highly sought American whiskey ceramics was the the firm’s back of the bar whiskey decanter.   Likely made for the company in Germany, the jug was highly decorated with race horses, sea shells and other do-dads and through a spigot at the base (corked here), it dispensed whiskey to the bartender.   This was not the only gift to be presented to favored customers, saloons and restaurants carrying Friedman, Keiler products.   Another was a sign color lithographed on tin showing a black and white hunting dog peering through a hole in a fence.   Meant for the wall of a drinking establishment, it was entitled, “The Brook Hill Dog.”   Other examples of the liquor dealers’ largesse were shot glasses and mini jugs advertising the flagship whiskey.  Those might have been given to retail as well as to wholesale customers.

About his liquor firm,  Friedman’s obituary had this to say:   "From the first it was a success, and the business has grown rapidly and steadily. Now the company occupies a handsome building at First and Jefferson streets and it is considered the most prosperous in the state."  Joseph was accounted the wealthiest man in Paducah and among the richest in Kentucky.  His net worth at his death was accounted at (in current $$) between $20 and $24 million.

If Friedman had been only a whiskey merchant, however, he would not have merited the blaring headline in the Paducah newspaper.  His involvement in the commercial life of his home town was intense.  He was a moving force for the development of the Paducah Traction Company, bringing street cars to the city,  and subsequently its president.  Friedman  also served as president of the company that built and owned the Palmer House hotel, shown here.  He is credited with building the Kentucky Theater.  He was vice-president and director of the City National bank, and a director of the Paducah water company.  Friedman also had a financial interested in the Smith & Scott Tobacco Company, and Lax-Fos, a patent medicine firm.  He also owned considerable Paducah real estate.

The Paducah News Democrat told its readers:  "Joseph L. Friedman probably was interested in more enterprises in Paducah than any other man. There have been but few projects of consequence launched in Paducah in the last 20 years that he has not been one of the moving spirits in his untiring energy, combined with his keen foresight and his faith in the bright future of the city, is attested by the great success of all the institutions in which he was most interested."

Friedman also was active in Paducah’s community life.  He was a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks,  Knights of Pythias, and the Knights of Honor.   He appears to have been active in all these groups.  In politics, Friedman was accounted a Democrat but he never sought political office preferring to make his career in business.  Recognizing his Jewish heritage, he was an active member of Paducah’s Temple Israel and of B’nai B’rith.

Friedman’s charitable work was legendary.  It was said that whenever a petition for funds was circulated,  he frequently headed the list with a liberal donation and that he had a reputation for assisting all the charitable institutions in Paducah.   His dedication to his city is indicated by the following story:   During one Ohio River flood of the city, likely 1884, Friedman was out of town.  He reached Paducah on the last train that arrived. Without a moment's hesitation, it was said, he assisted the rescue work. Not only did he contribute financial aid to the relief fund which was dispensed through the local flood committee, but he made many purchases of supplies for suffering families.  Insisting as well that he wanted to do the actual relief work he donned a pair of hip boots and waded into the water with flood workers bringing relief to stricken families.

After his wife died in 1908,  Friedman frequently went to his Northern Michigan summer home, accompanied by a relative.  His nephew was with him in July of 1913 as they made the trip from Paducah.  While stopping off in Chicago,  Friedman,  only 56 years old, suddenly was beset with kidney failure, diagnosed at the time as Bright’s Disease. With his nephew by his side,  Friedman died in a hotel room.  His body quickly was shipped back to Paducah for burial.  His funeral procession was three miles long and involved hundreds of vehicles as thousands mourned the loss of this dynamic Paducah businessman.  Joseph was buried next to Elizabeth in the imposing Friedman-Keiler mausoleum in Temple Israel Cemetery near Lone Oak, Kentucky.

A tribute written about Joseph Friedman during his lifetime in 1904 book entitled “Memorial Record of Western Kentucky,” provides additional evidence of why Joseph Friedman’s death garnered so a large headline in his local newspaper: “Such a personage as Mr. Friedman is a distinct ornament to the community, one of the pillars which uphold the structure of society and give it stability.  Honesty and integrity in business and personal life, loyalty to friends, free handed generosity and kind heartedness in his dealings with all, are characteristics which increase his esteem among men and widen his beneficent influence with each succeeding year of life.”   And, in the end, served him handsomely in death.

Mary Jane Blair and Her Kentucky Distillery

                      
When promoters put together an illustrated history of the Kentucky’s distilling interests for the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893,  they  had this to say about one county where distilling was common:  “There is no portion of Kentucky more beautiful or more suited to manufacture fine Kentucky whiskey than Marion County.  A rolling country, beautifully drained, with many clear streams of water. beautiful forests, fine horses and cattle, and magnificent men and women.”    Of the last mentioned,  one woman stands out:  Mary Jane Blair.

From 1907 to 1919, in a industry almost entirely dominated by men, the Mary Jane Blair Distillery Company was a major whiskey-making facility in Marion County.   Mrs. Blair was born there in 1844 near a hamlet that was known at the time as “Chicago.”  That locality bore little resemblance to the Illinois metropolis after which it had been named.  Situated 12 miles west of Lebanon, the county seat, it was settled in the early 19th Century and soon after a post office opened.  With a population of about 150 Chicago’s greatest asset was being a station on the Louisville & Nashville (L & N) Railroad.  It also boasted a steam sawmill and, more important, distilleries.   The “skyline” of Chicago was dominated by a Catholic church, St. Francis of Assisi;  a parochial school and cemetery.

Mary Jane was raised on a farm near Chicago and lived in the area throughout her life.  Her parents were Harry and Annie Peterson, described as “among the highly respected residents of the community.”  Given the predominance of distilling in the vicinity, it is likely that early on she was made aware of the workings of the trade.  That familiarity obviously intensified when she met and married Thomas C. Blair.  He was a native of Marion County and  a local distiller who was born in 1833 and was 11 years her senior.  Mary Jane and Thomas would have eleven children, of whom seven would live to maturity. 

Shown below, the Blair distillery was originally built and operated by J.R. and J. P. Smith sometime around the mid-1800s. The initial plant produced about 100 to 200 barrels of whiskey a year.  Distribution was handled by the Temple & Washburn Company of Louisville under the brand name of “Smith & Smith.”  In 1855 the distillery was purchased by John Procter Dant.  He operated the facility until 1879.  At that point Thomas Blair, a local merchant, became involved in running the distillery.  He partnered with a local named Ballard, probably W. T. Ballard, a local with a reputation as a skilled distiller.  The Ballard family was a well established one in Marion County.  One Ballard was the postmaster and railroad express agent in Chicago.  Another Ballard was married to one of Mary Jane and Tom’s daughters.

Under Blair and Ballard’s management the firm prospered and expanded, despite a fire in 1894 in which more than 1,000 barrels of whiskey were destroyed, earning headlines coast to coast.  The distillery quickly was rebuilt and resumed making whiskey. Proximity to a railhead was crucial to company success because its products could be sent in all directions to customers via the railroad.  A 1900s publication listed whiskey as the “chief export” of the Chicago of Kentucky.

Subsequently a third partner was added and the name became Blair, Osborn & Ballard.  Under the Bottled in Bonding Act,  the plant became known as Registered Distillery #11 in Tax District #5 of Kentucky.  The partners also opened a outlet in Kansas City, Missouri,  at 1304 West Ninth Street.  That venture was short-lived, listed only a single year, 1885, in local directories. The Louisville whiskey brokerage firm of David Sachs acquired a financial interest in the distillery and claimed ownership in its ads.  (See my post on Sachs, October 2011.)  More likely, through a contractual relationship with the  proprietors, Sachs for a time was buying up the entire output of the facility.
 
The picture changed radically in 1907 when Thomas at age 65 died. Shown here is his gravestone in the cemetery of St. Francis Church.  There followed a revamping of the management structure of the firm.  According to the “History of Kentucky and Kentuckians”  (1912),  Mary Jane Blair inherited her husband’s share of the distillery and bought out his partners.  The name was changed to the “Mary Jane Blair Distillery.”  Although the greater part of her life had been spent in the Blair home as housewife and mother, evidence is that she took an active role as president of the company, which distilled about five months in the year.   Limited production was not unusual in the Kentucky whiskey industry,  some distillers believing that fermentation was done best only in certain months.  As the distiller Mrs. Blair hired W. P. Norris, another well known Marion County whiskey man.

The day to day management of her distillery was left to her son, Nicolas.  Born in 1867, from an early age he  had shown a particular flair for the business.  Nicolas was educated in the local schools of Marion County and then was sent to the nearby Gethsemene College for three years.  Upon his return he had worked with his father at the general merchandise and distilling trades.  In 1898 he married Mary Ellen Norris of Chicago, whose mother was a Ballard.  The couple had two children.   Nicolas was considered a leading citizen of Marion County and was said to take an active interest in local affairs and Democratic politics, although not as an office-seeker.

Nicholas Blair expanded the capacity of the distillery that now bore his mother’s name.  By 1912  the plant had the mashing capacity of 118 bushels per day and four warehouses able to hold a total of 9,000 barrels.  The Blairs were producing whiskey sold under several labels,  some their own brands, some merchandised by others.  Chief among them was “Old Saxon,” Mary Jane Blair’s product, but apparently sold through the Sachs outfit.  Shown here are a shot glass and a back of the bar bottle, for Saxon and Old Saxon. 

At this point the ownership of the distillery gets murky.  Mary Jane Blair continued to be the name under which the distillery was known until 1919 and the onset of National Prohibition.  Federal records show her making transactions at her bonded warehouses up until 1914, under her own name and sometimes as Old Saxon Distillery Company.  About the same year, according to some sources, the distillery was purchased by Thixton-Millett & Company of Jefferson County, Kentucky.(See my post of February 2014.) They operated it until Prohibition and then it closed.
 

Mary Jane Blair never saw Repeal.  In 1922 at the age of 76, she died and was buried in St. Francis Cemetery near her husband as her children and grandchildren grieved at her grave site.  Her marker is shown here.  The Blair family subsequently sponsored a window in St. Francis Church to pay tribute to their parents.  Shown here, the dedication at the bottom reads:  “Pray for the Family of T. C. and Mary Jane Blair.” 

It appears, however, that the Blair progeny were not finished with the distillery their parents had fostered.  With Repeal,  Nicolas, now in his mid-fifties,  organized a new corporation called The Blair Distilling Company and bought out Thixton-Millett and its brand names.  He also featured a number of labels of his own, including “Colonel Blair,” “Nick Blair,” “Marion County,” “Blair’s Old Club.”   Nicholas himself was the distiller.  The new company expanded the facility once again. As a result, the distillery by 1936 was mashing more than 500 bushels of grain per day.  Four warehouses had been enlarged in order to store for aging some 38,000 barrels of whiskey.

By late in the 1930s,  probably because of economic pressures linked to the Great Depression,  the Blair Distilling Company was sold by the family, then re-sold, and later used as a facility to bottle and store wine.  Leased to Seagrams during World War II, the plant produced high-proof spirits but production ended in the 1950s and the distillery was closed for good about 1965.  For a time the warehouses continued to be used by other distillers to age their products but that ended in 1977 and the warehouses eventually were dismantled.  Even from the grave, Mary Jane Blair might have shed a tear.

Note:  Do not go looking on a map of Kentucky for a place called Chicago.  Possibly because of confusion with the Illinois city on Lake Michigan, the townsfolk changed the name, calling it after their church.  Since 1938 the community has been known as St. Francis, Kentucky.

Ferd Westheimer Spun the Red Top -- And Won

When a man has eleven children he has to find a way to support his family. Ferdinand Westheimer made his livelihood in the liquor trade beginning in St. Joseph, Missouri, by advertising throughout America a whiskey he labeled “Red Top Rye.”  As a result, Westheimer not only grew wealthy, he created lucrative opportunities for his eight sons.

Ferdinand was born in Darmstadt, Germany, the fourth son of Leser and Bessel (Kahn) Westheimer.   With his family in straitened circumstances and seeing little opportunity in his native land,  in 1847 at the age of 22,  he emigrated to the United States,  possibly accompanied by his younger brother, Samuel. The 1850 U.S. Census found him living in New York City,  his occupation given as “peddler.”

At some point between that time and 1861,  Westheimer moved to St. Joseph, Missouri.  He had made a good choice.  Ever since the 1840s,  “St. Joe,” as it is popularly known, had been booming.   Initially the growth was generated by the covered wagons, oxen and supplies purchased by pioneers on their way West across the Missouri River.  Another economic boost was provided when railroads reached the city, making it a supply and distribution point to the entire western half of the United States.  Situated next to water that ran to the ocean as well as accessible by land and rail, St. Joe experienced what one historian has called “phenomenal growth” throughout the 19th Century.

In January 1861, Ferdinand, now age 36, got married.  His bride was Sarah Flarsheim, herself an immigrant from Germany.  Born in 1841, Sarah was 16 years younger. The couple immediately began growing their family.  Eugene was born in November of that same year.  Morris followed in 1863, Isadore in 1865, Leo in 1868, and Henry in 1870.  Then in 1872 Milton came along,  Sidney in 1874, David in 1877, and Irvin in 1879.  Tragically, the couple’s only daughter, Ida, died in infancy.

As his family size increased, Westheimer was advancing from peddler to established merchant.  By 1868 he became co-owner of a grocery, tobacco and liquor store in St. Joseph.  Before long he determined that his principal opportunity lay in the wholesale liquor trade.   Partnering with his brother Samuel, he opened a firm called Westheimer Bros. in 1871.  Over time they operated at several addresses on St. Joe’s South Second Street.  In 1878, however, the brothers parted ways.  Samuel kept the original business and the name, while his elder sibling struck out on his own in a liquor dealership he called “Ferdinand Westheimer & Co.”

The reason for the split may have been Ferdinand’s desire to bring one or more of his sons  into the business.  Eugene was the first to join the company, followed by Morris and Leo.In time all the Westheimer boys would be incorporated into the operation except Isadore who had died before his 13th birthday.  Reflecting the addition of his boys, the father in 1887 changed the name on the door to “Ferdinand Westheimer & Sons.”

As whiskey wholesalers,  the Westheimers also were rectifiers, that is, blending and compounding raw whiskeys to taste,  creating their own brands, and merchandising them.  Among them were such labels as “Boston League,”  “C .C. Bond,” “Clover Brook,” “Manhattan Reserve,” “McAllister,” “Number One,” “Old Hutch,”  “Planet,” “White House Club,”  and “Pullman Rye.”   Far and away the most featured brand was “Red Top Rye.”  As shown here, it was advertised in newspapers and magazine coast to coast, often with the motto, “If it’s Red Top, It’s Right.”  The whiskey might be presented with a Father Time/Avenging Angel drinking from an hour glass,  a ominous sickle on his shoulder, or cowboys in tough guy poses. As shown here, Westheimer packaged Red Top and other brands in glass quarts, pint flasks, and miniature bottles.

As the reputation of Red Top Rye grew, the need for a steadier supply of whiskey for blending became evident.   In 1897 Westheimer purchased a controlling interest in the Old Times Distillery of Louisville, Kentucky.  At that time, according to insurance records, the property included a single brick warehouse with a metal or slate roof, located 370 feet southeast of the still.  Within several years a new plant had been built across the street from the original distillery, located at the corner of 28th and Broadway.  He named it “The Number One Distillery.”  Westheimer also opened an liquor outlet in Cincinnati, Ohio, at 317-319 Main Street and called it his “Eastern Offices.”   Just as St. Joe was a window on the West,  so Cincinnati was a major center for whiskey flowing Eastward.   The Westheimer liquor “empire” was well illustrated on a letterhead from 1904.

While Eugene stayed in Missouri with his father, Morris and Leo, and later the youngest, Irvin,  were dispatched to run the operation in Cincinnati.  The three would make Ohio their home for a lifetime.  Henry and Milton Westheimer went East to Baltimore where the Westheimers also had financial interests.  Henry was recorded there as a vice president of the Cahn Belt Company (see my post on Eugene Belt, August  2013).  Sydney and David, as they came of age, remained in St. Joe,  working at  the 117-119 South Third Street offices.  Ferdinand had found productive employment for all his boys.  One obituary cited his “Success...in the rearing of a family of sons who honor him in their records and achievements.”

According to city directories,  Ferdinand Westheimer  & Sons also operated a branch in Minneapolis from 1890 to 1914, apparently seeking a conduit for its whiskey into the Northern Tier of states.  Initially located on Nicolet Avenue,  eventually the office moved into a suite in the Met Life Building.  Now that he had spun his Red Top Rye from coast to coast, Westheimer was accounted in St. Joe as one of its millionaires.

As Red Top Rye became a top seller in America,  the Westheimers, like other whiskey wholesalers, provided a wide range of giveaway items to favored customers.  They included Red Top shot glasses, Red Top goblets and Red Top match safes.  Among the most impressive was a Red Top saloon clock.  The face was a reverse-on-glass with numerals in silver against black around the perimeter of the face.  The hands spun on the Red Top.  There could be no mistaking which whiskey was telling time to the faces along the bar.  

Another major gift item was an elaborate under glaze transfer ceramic bottle advertising Pullman Pure Rye, featuring a railroad passenger car as the principal motif.  Whether this was meant as a back of the bar bottle or for some other use is not clear.  Today this Westheimer issue is a highly sought and valuable American whiskey ceramic.

Even as he grew older, Ferdinand Westheimer never ceased to take an active interest in the operations of the wholesale liquor company he had founded.  For his 80th birthday, his employees presented him with a silver punch bowl and ladle, both decorated with rabbits. The 1910 U.S. Census found him at age 84 living in a mansion at 1723 Francis Street, a home he had built for his burgeoning family in 1885. Designed by the architectural firm of Eckel and Mann,the house is shown here as it originally appeared, a marvel of multiple porches and chimneys with a three-story tower.  Occupying the mansion with him were his wife of 49 years, Sarah; two sons, Sidney and David;  Sidney' s wife, Grace; and five servants.  Ferdinand gave his occupation to the census taker as “merchant - liquors.”

Three years later, at age 87, Westheimer died and, as his grieving family looked on, was buried in St.  Joe’s Adath Joseph Hebrew Cemetery.  After his death his sons carried forward the family business interests.  But Prohibition forces were closing in. The firm was taken to court in dry states like Kansas for whiskey shipments and although it won,  the effort was expensive and discouraging.   Anticipating the advent of National Prohibition,  Ferdinand Westheimer & Sons in 1919 shut down its operations in Louisville, Cincinnati and St. Joseph.  The sons either retired or sought employment in other fields.  Irvin Westheimer in Cincinnati became noted for founding the “Big Brother, Big Sister,” program.  The Francis Street home still stands.  Operating today as a bed & breakfast,  it is appropriately named “Whiskey Mansion.”

Ferdinand Westheimer himself deserves a last word. Among the outpouring of tributes to him at his death was one published in the National Bulletin of the Liquor Dealers Association.  Here are excerpts:  “Coming from his early home of restricted efforts to a land of promise and opportunity, his pioneering efforts were rewarded.  Through trials and difficulties he pressed valiantly onward to honorable success....High repute, splendid family, devoted friends, material fortune, all were his, and well did he merit and prize these unusual blessings.”  In short, Westheimer had spun the Red Top and won the game.








  

  

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Gallagher & Burton Were “Well Preserved” in Whiskey

Charles J. Gallagher and Edward Burton ran a liquor wholesale and retail operation in Philadelphia from 1877 to 1918 that advertised by showing sprightly looking elderly gentlemen intoning a rhyme that gave credit to G & B Whiskey for their vitality.  The same could be applied to the partners themselves:  In time they would be well preserved not only through the artifacts they left behind but also by a 1945 advertisement purporting to depict them live and kicking.

Except for short biographies of the partners by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, an organization to which both belonged, personal information about them is sparse. Gallagher was born in Philadelphia in March 1839.  His father was an immigrant from County Tyrone in Ireland.  Born in June 1847, Burton, also a native son of Philadelphia, was somewhat younger than Gallagher,   He was recorded as the grandson of Rebecca and Benjamin Hutton through his mother and the son of Robert Burton.   As youths both individuals apparently served apprenticeships working for other Philadelphia merchants, likely in the liquor trade. For a time Burton worked for Philip Powell, a immigrant Irish store owner.

Charles Gallagher open a wholesale Philadelphia liquor establishment in 1872 when he was 33,  locating it initially at 1001 Coates Street.  Adjacent to the Delaware River,  the street was so named because it ran through the estate of the Coates family.  A year after Gallagher moved there, the name was changed to Fairmount Avenue.  It seemed to be of no consequence to his liquor trade because by that time he had moved to 700 North 10th Street.

When Gallagher was joined by Burton in 1877 to form their partnership,  a new location was chosen at 10th and Filbert Streets.  An elaborate,  “art nouveau,” trade card advertised that address, as well as “fine whiskies.”  Gallagher & Burton, although at times claiming to be distillers, have no record of owning a distillery.  Many Pennsylvania distillers were very willing to supply them “raw” product for “rectifying,” that is blending and compounding whiskey to achieve desired tastes.  Rectifying is an art and not all whiskey men were accomplished at it.  Gallagher and/or Burton were talented at blending for smoothness and taste and their liquor began to achieve a national reputation.

Their flagship brand bore their own name.  It was vigorously advertised and featured on their giveaway items to favored customers like saloons and restaurants carrying their products.  Among those items were serving trays featuring the Gallagher & Burton name illustrated by prominently and well-dressed elderly gentlemen intoning the doggerel verse: “I am well preserved you see;  many thanks to G. & B.”  Two trays are shown here.  While each geezer is similarly dressed and holds a bottle, differences can be noted in their facial appearance.

Unlike other whiskey wholesalers/rectifiers, Gallagher & Burton featured only a limited number of brands beside their flagship label.  Among them were “Superior Whiskey” and  ”Black Label,” the latter shown below as reproduced on an ashtray.  The tray also displays the firm’s logo.  The partners trademarked that branding illustration in 1906,  describing it as follows:  “The representation of two cross bands, two concentric circles circles thereon, between which appear the words “Gallagher & Burton Philadelphia, within the inner circle appearing the letters “G. & B.” and the numerals “1877.”

Of the partners, Gallagher appears to have been the entrepreneur.  When Ocean City, Maryland was being platted and developed he invested in real estate there.  He was a stockholder in the Atlantic Hotel, shown here, for many years the premier hostelry in that resort town.  He also purchased two lots in town and opened a general merchandise store that prominently sold Gallagher & Burton Whiskey.  Gallagher also was prominent in the Philadelphia insurance business, serving as president of the Mechanic’s Insurance Company. That organization had been chartered by the State of Pennsylvania in 1854 and capitalized for today’s equivalent of $6 million. For a time Gallagher also was a Philadelphia insurance commissioner.  His banking interests included serving as a director of the Beneficial Savings Fund of Philadelphia.

Although Gallagher had investments in Ocean City, he built a spacious summer home for his family in Cape May, New Jersey, a resort town on the Atlantic that attracted many wealthy Philadelphians.  Shown here, the mansion featured a mansard roof reflecting the French Second Empire style.  The center entrance was flanked by a three story bay, second story porch, and large side verandah reminiscent of England’s Queen Anne architecture. The exterior displayed an abundance of American “gingerbread” millwork.  Its eclectic architecture defined it as a showy seaside manse,  The house still stands as a bed and breakfast.

Both Gallagher and Burton seemed to have avoided census takers throughout their lives.
City Directories, however, tell us that in 1890 Charles was living at 1725 Master Street and Edward had his residence at 1512 Tenth Street.  During that period the liquor dealership was also located on Tenth.  In 1902 the company moved to 1204 Arch Street and in 1914 a second outlet  was opened at 1205 Cuthbert.   The coming of Prohibition caused both stores to close in 1918.

After Repeal, a Seagram Canadian subsidiary obtained the rights to the Gallagher & Burton name. Trading on its national reputation for quality, the brand subsequently was marketed out of Baltimore, Maryland. That is how and where Gallagher and Burton came to be “well preserved.”  In 1945 at the end of World War II the company bearing their name issued an ad that purported to depict the founders.  By this time Gallagher would have been 106 and Burton 98.  The fact that both were dead proved to be no bar to the admen who featured them as very much alive and highly patriotic.

The message:  “Buy Victory Bonds.” The figure on the left, presumably Gallagher, faced toward an open door where a younger man in a homberg hat, presumably Burton, was flashing a wad of U.S. currency.    Gallagher:  “Victory, Mr. Burton, is what our boys brought us.  Backing this loan is the very least you and I can do in return.”   Burton emphatically agreed:  “What’s more,Mr. Gallagher we’re not giving.  We’re investing our money at interest in our own welfare.”   And, oh yes,  the ad additionally suggested that by choosing G&B whiskey “...All is well with your drinks.” 

Despite the effort to keep  Gallagher and Burton “alive,”  if only in the minds of the drinking public,  the whiskey ultimately failed to find a strong consumer base.  G. & B. whiskey was taken off the market about 1960.  There may be a moral in the story:  Even the best preserved individuals and whiskeys have a shelf life.