Pre-Prohibition Kids Selling Whiskey

 

A 21st Century mentality has a hard time grasping the idea that in the 19th and early 20th Century it was perfectly fine to advertise and sell whiskey by using images of children.  Beginning in 1920 during National Prohibition such pictures disappeared and were not revived after Repeal in 1934.  Presented here are ten “pre-Pro” whiskey ads, trade cards and saloon signs featuring youngsters, just  a small sample of the thousands distributed at that earlier time.

The youngest child is a photograph of a tot, presumably a boy, standing at a table on which sits a jug from the Edgewood Distilling Company of Cincinnati.     From 1875 to 1877 the firm name was Diehl & Paxton Brothers,  to be changed to Paxton Bros. & Co., Distillers, from 1878 to 1883.  Finally in 1887 the business became Edgewood Distilling.  The distillery was located in Lincoln County KY.  The firm disappeared from Cincinnati directories after 1918,  a casualty of Ohio’s statewide ban on alcohol sales.   The jug on the table was manufactured by the Fulper Pottery of Flemington, New Jersey.   The company made ceramic whiskey containers called “fancy jugs” and were used by distillers and dealers nationwide.

The next tots are almost as young as the first, but not too young to be doing some inter-gender smooching.  The Willard Distilling Company almost certainly were not distillers and probably not “rectifiers,”  (i.e. blenders of whiskey) but most likely wholesale distributors and dealers.  This liquor house was located in  Baltimore, Maryland, and appears to have been short-lived.  Nonetheless, Willard’s amorous kids made a statement with their “soul kiss.”

Next trade card here ushers in a series of whiskey ads featuring children and animal.  It depicts a youngster, well dressed in breeches and a feathered cap,  advertising J.S. Stone Old Bourbon Whiskey which, we are assured, is “chemically pure.”  He is accompanied by two doves, neither of which could have laid the giant egg the boy seems to be rolling.   This whiskey was the product of Holden & Clay, a Boston based liquor store that shows up in city directories in 1891 and not afterward.

The “Old Forrester” trade card shows a precious little lass is leading a equally precious little lamb.  What could be more appropriate for selling whiskey?  This was a brand from the Vogt-Applegate Company of Louisville, Kentucky.  The Applegates were a prominent distilling Kentucky family whose founder, Colonel C. L. Applegate,  would sell you four quarts of his whiskey for $3.00.

Fernberger Bros. at 1230 Market Street in Philadelphia advertised their “pure old rye whisky” with another youth.  In his case, the doves have been replaced by an owl with a knowing look.  The card advertises that for $3 one could buy a gallon of the Fernberger’s product and, it is claimed, a libation of equal quality would cost at least $4.  As Prohibition closed in, many whiskey outfits claimed that their product was only for “family and medicinal use,” i.e., not to be imbibed in those awful saloons.  The Fernbergers were in business from 1871 until 1902.

Our last child-animal association is considerably less benign than the earlier ones.  Here a youth, whose gun has been laid aside, confronts a bear and seemingly is reduced to prayer as a response to the apparent threat.   This was a trade card for “Golden Horseshoe”  rye whiskey, at $1 a bottle.  It was sold by Max D. Stern at his 49 Whitehall Street address in New York City.   He claimed that his booze “aids digestion & strengthens the constitution.”   He does not, however, say how it assists in being threatened by a bear.

At the age of 28, Oscar Good bought an existing distillery in his native Franklin County.  Good’s flagship label was “Blue Mountain Rye.” The brand was featured on a colorful trade card of a winsome lad carrying a flowering branch and a basket.  The reverse side declared:  “These whiskies are pure, distilled from clean grain, and soft mountain water, which seems to be the secret of making fine whiskies.  I will give one hundred dollars if any person finds adulterations of any kind in my whiskies from the time I commence mashing the grain until I dispose of them.”    Good also asserted that his whiskeys had no unpleasant aftertaste.  He further suggested it could be served to hired hands at harvest time.

The next trade card features two little girls, one with a doll and the other with a quill pen and a writing desk advertises “Stonewall Whiskey.”   This was a brand from Charles Rebstock & Co. of St. Louis whose whiskey dealership survived from 1871 until 1918.  Rebstock’s flagship label was “Stonewall,” which he registered with the federal government in 1874.  His ads said of this whiskey:  “It makes people happy and wealthy.”  It was also touted as “America’s Finest Whiskey” and “Perfection.” Rebstock, by now very rich, shut down his liquor house as Prohibition approached.

The calendar depicting two barefoot “Huck Finn” type boys was from the Utah Liquor Company, a  most interesting whiskey dealership.  The company was formed in 1898 Salt Lake City and its  owner, Jake Bergerman, literally sold whiskey in the heart of Mormon land.  Bergerman even issued a metal token good for 12&1/2 cents in trade at the Utah Liquor Co. that had an image of the Mormon Tabernacle on the reverse. 

The last example is from California, a sign promoting the whiskey and wines of the Theodore Gier Company. It depicts four lovely young girls with a dog hauling their wagon. After having been in the U.S. for only a year, Gier set up a grocery store in Oakland that proved successful.  With those profits, he established a retail and wholesale liquor company. Those profits he used to plant vineyards and make prime wines.  When Prohibition arrived, Gier attempted to continue selling wine, was caught, fined heavily and his property confiscated.  He died broke.

Here we have ten pre-Prohibition images of children being employed to sell whiskey,  While the notion of such merchandising seems out of bounds today,  at an earlier time it was  common and accepted by the drinking public.  With the coming of National Prohibition in 1920 all liquor advertising ceased and by 1934 when it resumed the use of children to push alcohol had become anathema. 

Note:    Longer treatment of six of the “whiskey men” mentioned here also may be found on this website:  Diehl & Paxton, April 24, 2012; Charles Rebstock, Sept. 6, 2011; Jake Bergerman, July 13, 2012; Theodore Grier, Nov. 22, 2011; Vogt-Applegate, June 21, 2012, and Oscar Good, April 6, 2012.

     

The Proliferating Freibergs of Cincinnati Liquor

Foreword:   The name Freiberg is a ubiquitous one in the annals of pre-Prohibition liquor enterprises in Cincinnati, Ohio.   Eleven different companies bearing the Freiberg surname can be counted from city directories of the time.  Moreover, some of those eleven did business under several names as partners came and went.  I have long since given up trying to establish family relationships among the Freibergs but believe a list of their companies, identifying proprietors, flagship brands, and a few pertinent facts, would help allay confusion among historians and collectors.  Each Freiberg entity is treated below in a paragraph,  listed in the order of the year of its apparent founding.

1.  Freiberg & Workum (1855-1918).  Julius Freiberg, shown here, immigrated from Germany in 1847, settling in Cincinnati.  In 1855 he partnered with his future brother-in-law, Levi Workum, in a wholesale liquor store.    Freiberg & Workum became so successful that in 1867 the company purchased the Boone County Distillery at Petersburg, Kentucky, located on the Ohio River not far from Cincinnati.  By 1880, the Petersburg distillery was making more whiskey than any other distillery in the state of Kentucky.  That year, the distillery was worth $250,000 ($6.25 million today) and produced 975,820 gallons of whisky. By 1887 annual capacity had ballooned to 4 million gallons.”  As said by one observer:  “…Freiberg and Workum were the biggest fish in a very large pond.”  (See my post of Feb. 15, 2015 for further information on Freiberg & Workum.)

2. J & A Freiberg & Co.(1866-1918.  Brothers Joseph and Abraham Frieberg formed their wholesale liquor company in Cincinnati in 1866.  Not distillers but rectifiers (blenders) they produced a “blizzard” of brands, at least thirty. Their flagship appears to have been “Puck Rye.”  They eventually brought other family members into the business. The 1912 annual report of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce lists Abraham Freiberg, Edgar S. Freiberg, J. Arthur Freiberg, Joseph Freiberg and Sidney J. Freiberg as associated with this company.

3. Isaac Freiberg & Brother (1873-1906).  This Cincinnati whiskey wholesaler, apparently headed by Isaac Freiberg, went under several corporate names and addresses during its 33 years in existence, apparently dependent on Isaac’s partner at the time.  The company began as Freiberg & Rheinstrom (1873-1874), then Freiberg & Levi (1875-1882), then longest as Isaac & Brother (1883-1900), and ending as Freiberg, Meyer & Co. (1904-1906).  Among the house proprietary brands, likely blended on the premises, were “Electric Whiskey,“  “Faraday Whiskey,” and “Kentucky Thoroughbred.”

4. Freiberg Brothers (1875-1894).  According to information in Cincinnati directories, this wholesale liquor house included four Freibergs, apparently siblings: Louis, Benjamin, Henry, and Julius Jr.  The final name suggests a relationship among the four men with Julius Freiberg of Freiberg & Workum.  Located at 14 Main Street for much of its existence, this enterprise featured “1879 Old Jug Whiskey.”  The proprietors gave it distinctive packaging in a ceramic quart bottle that today is prized by collectors.

5. Herman Freiberg & Co. (1878-1903).  Data on this company is sparce although Herman Freiberg is recorded active in Cincinnati Jewish activities.   He was a liquor wholesaler and may have done some whiskey rectifying, although he seems to have offered only several “house” brands, including “Blue Grass Belle,” “Kentucky Thoroughbred,”  “Spring Garden Rye” and “Pembroke.”  This last label appears to have been his flagship brand, advertised in the “Wine & Spirits Journal.”  The company was located at only two addresses, initially 38 Main Street (1878-1899) and later 224 East 2nd (1900-1903)

6. Freiberg & Co. (1895-1918). Although this company existed for 23 years  only the barest information is available.  The company is shown at six different addresses over its lifetime:11 E Pearl (1895), 211 E Pearl (1896-1898), 224 E 3 Rd (1900-1908), 112 W Pearl (1909-1912), 28 Main (1913), 206 E Front (1914-1918).  This company was a wholesaler but the names of Freibergs associated with the enterprise I have not found in Cincinnati directories.

7. Freiberg Distilling Co. (1896-1915).  This company is similarly obscure.  After 1904 it appears in city directories as the A. J. Freiberg Distilling Co. It was located at several addresses in Cincinnati:  420 E Pearl (1896-1898), 244 Main (1899-1902), 529 Walnut (1904-1907), SW cor 3 rd & Race (1915). 

8.  Isaac Freiberg (1899).  This was a short-lived, enterprise, recorded in directories one year and gone the next.  It listed at only one address, 930 E. Front Street.  Whether the proprietor was the same Freiberg noted earlier with Isaac Freiberg & Brother is not clear.

9. Sig & Sol Freiberg (1899-1918).  In 1899 brothers Sigmund and Solomon Freiberg began operations in Cincinnati. The firm’s initial address was at 58 Main St. By 1906 Sig and Sol Freiberg, Distillers, had moved to 424 West Fourth St. -- their final address. As depicted a cartoon rendering of Sig, the firm’s flagship brand was Gannymede “76” Rye. In Greek mythology, Ganymede (note the different spelling) was a young shepherd who caught the eye of the god, Zeus, who promptly sent down an eagle to carry him off to Mount Olympus.  Sol and Sig were prolific in the number of their brand names: They included “Manchester,” “Carnation,” “Fresno Club,” “Liederkranz,” “Louisiana Purchase,” and a dozen others. The company aggressively marketed its products with a number of giveaways, chiefly shot glasses. [See the Feb. 3, 2004, post on Sig & Sol for further information.]

10.  Freiberg & Kahn (1901-1918).  Annual reports of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce list Henry Freiberg as associated with this company. It operated from three addresses over its 17 years: 49 Main (1901-1902), 52 Main (1903-1915), 216 E 9 th (1916-1918).  Whiskey wholesalers and rectifiers, Freiberg & Kahn used the brand names “Arbitration,” “Ashwood,” “Beaconsfield,” "Cream of the South,” “Creedmore,” "F. & K. Special 92,” “Magnet,” "Old Fisherman", and "Stallion Gin.”  Company flagship appears to have been “Metropolitan Club.”

11. Julius Freiberg Jr. Co. (1903-1906). We may assume that this short-lived wholesale whiskey house was run by the son or close relative of the pioneering Julius Freiberg whose company leads off this post.  It counted two addresses: 333 Sycamore (1903-1904), and 224 E 3 rd (1906).

Five Freiberg designated whiskey companies cited above, apparently successful ones, were forced to concluded business in 1918, two years before National Prohibition.  That was the year that  Ohio’s total ban on making or selling alcohol took effect. 

Note:  This post would not have been possible without the assistance of Robin Preston’s highly informative website, www.preprocom.  Robin has amassed a great deal of information drawn from earlier pre-Prohibition materials created on the subject, adding his own and other more recent research.  It is a valuable resource for anyone researching pre-Prohibition whiskey.

  

Site Map | Annual reports of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce lists Henry being associated with this

Patrick Kennedy Launched an American Political Dynasty

Shown here, Patrick J. Kennedy lost his father at age four, was forced to end his schooling at 14, and went to worked on the docks of Boston. Bolstered by two strong women, he became a well known saloonkeeper and liquor dealer, political leader and businessman.”PJ,” as he was called, is best remembered, however, as the patriarch of arguably the most prominent American political family of the Twentieth Century:  The Kennedys.

Patrick was born in January 1858 in East Boston, the youngest of five children of Bridget Murphy and Patrick Kennedy, Irish Catholic immigrants both from New Ross, County Wexford.  Ten months after his birth his father died of cholera, as that plague infested their lower class neighborhood.  His mother, Bridget, a woman of uncommon strength and intelligence, was able to keep the family of five children together and see to a good elementary education for Patrick.  She purchased an East Boston stationary and notions store, staffed it with her children, and later expanded into groceries and liquor sales.

As Bridget’s talents as a Boston business owner began to be appreciated, she was hailed as “a strong, cheerful woman, liked and respected.”  While appreciated for her generosity, she also was known as a “a determined woman…with a deep natural shrewdness.”  Her son later would be seen with similar qualities.

At the age of 14 Patrick left school.  To help support the family, he took a job as a stevedore on the Boston docks.  Tiring of the backbreaking toil there, he found employment as a brass finisher in a machine shop.  When factory work also proved unsatisfying, Patrick turned to a trade in which his mother already was engaged:  Selling liquor.  With financial help from Bridget, in 1879 for $3,000 he bought a bar called Haywards at Boston’s Haymarket Square, shown here, and soon found that running a saloon was a natural fit for him.

Meeting with success at the liquor trade, young Patrick went looking for other investments. With personal knowledge of the strong thirsts of longshoremen, he found a location near the East Boston docks, shown here, and bought a saloon there.  The profits from his two drinking establishments allowed him to go upscale, opening a third “watering hole” at the posh Maverick House Hotel, below.  With  the profits from his saloons, Patrick, still not 30 years old, purchased a liquor wholesale-retail liquor business and a mansion home in East Boston.

Patrick also plunged wholeheartedly into politics, beginning at the neighborhood level as Democratic precinct captain, moving quickly to ward chair, and eventually to secretary of the Suffolk County Democratic Party.  As Author Neal Thompson put it:  “The Irish gift for gab turned out to be a powerful political asset.So did a saloon.  By 1885, P.J.’s political patrons decided that their loyal, well-connected soldier was ready.”   Still only 27 years old, Patrick was encouraged to run for the Massachusetts House of Representatives.  In his first try at public office, he triumphed over both Republican and Prohibition candidates.  Running again the following year Patrick was re-elected by a substantial margin and was on his way to five straight terms as a state representative and later as a Massachusetts state senator

Mass. Legislature

Seemingly happy living the bachelor’s life, Patrick had caught the attention of Mary Augusta Hickey, also in her late twenties who may have been thought destined for  spinsterhood.  Shown here, Mary was simply choosey.  Seeing Patrick frequently walk past her East Boston home on his way to the legislature, she decided he was the man to marry and actively pursued the up-and-coming legislator.  They were wed in November 1887.  As Mother Bridget’s health faltered, Mary became his strong helpmate, actively participating in Patrick’s business and political affairs.  Called “very firm and very severe,” by a granddaughter, Mary rapidly gained a reputation as “the power behind the throne.”

Their first child of four, a son, was born nine months after their honeymoon .  While Patrick reputedly might have wanted a “Junior,” Mary preferred a less Irish-sounding name and so the boy became Joseph, himself later a figure in American history as ambassador to the United Kingdom and father of what became known as “The Kennedy Clan.”

Now firmly a family man, Patrick continued to push forward on both the political and business fronts.  A light drinker himself he used his position as a saloonkeeper to political advantage, becoming the acknowledged Democratic boss for Boston’s heavily Irish Ward Two.  As did others in his trade, Patrick loaned money, went bail for jailed constituents, and donated booze for weddings and other special occasions.  Increasingly becoming recognized as a “comer” in Democratic Party circles, despite being a mediocre speaker, Patrick was chosen to give a seconding speech for Grover Cleveland at the 1888 Democratic Convention in St. Louis.  (Cleveland went on to win the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College.)

Patrick also was pushing forward in  the liquor trade, apparently discovering that doing business as a liquor importer and wholesaler was more profitable than selling it drink by drink over the bar.  Shown above is a P. J. Kennedy & Co. letterhead from 1909 in which he advertised a proprietary brand, “Kennedy Malt Whiskey,” likely “rectified” (blended) on premises to achieve a desired color, taste, smoothness and alcohol content.  He also advertised well-known imported and domestic brands of whiskey, like “Ramsay Scotch” and Kentucky-made “Van Hook Whiskey.”

This “whiskey man” cum political boss, was also enjoying family life.  A fascinating photo exists of the Kennedys of an evening playing cards in their highly decorated “lace curtain” home with eight friends and two onlookers, some of the men likely political cronies.  Patrick is seated second from left while Mary sits like a “guardian angel” higher and to her husband’s right.  It is a picture of domestic tranquility in an affluent Boston Irish home of the early 1900s.

The future, however, would bring setbacks.  The coming of National Prohibition in 1920 meant that Patrick was forced to shut down his saloons and liquor wholesale operation.  By that time 62 years old, he had diversified his holdings and was a part owner of a coal company and large stockholder in a bank, the Columbia Trust Company.  A bigger blow was to come three years later with the death of Mary, his strong companion of 46 years.  Patrick’s solace likely was in the large and growing family of grandchildren that their son, Joseph and his wife Rose were producing.

In his later years Patrick developed a degenerative liver disease. He was admitted to Boston’s Deaconess Hospital  in April 1929 and died there on May 21. A funeral Mass, attended by many Boston dignitaries, was held at St. John the Evangelist Church in Winthrop, Massachusetts.  According to the Boston press, hundreds of mourners lined the streets as his funeral cortege passed by on its way to Holy Cross Cemetery in nearby Malden.  Some businesses closed for the day in his honor.  Patrick was buried next to Mary, their monument bearing a simple cross. 

The family patriarch was never to know that his grandsons would become three of the most important political figures of post-World War II American history:  President John F. Kennedy; Attorney General, Senator and Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy, and Senator and Presidential Candidate Theodore “Teddy” Kennedy.  As one observer has noted wryly about the heritage received from Grandfather Patrick:  Thus, the Kennedy dynasty, it could be said, was born in a bar.”

Notes:  A number of Internet references to Patrick J. Kennedy exist on line, but one that particularly emphasizes the influence of Patrick’s mother and later his wife is an article by Neal Thompson from Town and Country magazine adapted from his 2022 book, “The First Kennedys:  The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty.”

How Distilling Carved a Society from a Wilderness

 Foreword:  Much of the history of the early American whiskey trade is being brought to light by initiatives from the nation’s expanding distilling industry.  I recently became aware of Cincinnati Distilling, a company that has reconstructed the history of the Waldschmidt-Kugler family, beginning in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, whose premises it now occupies.  Drawing on that resource  and adding supplemental information, this post presents 75 years of early American development in which distilling played a major role.

Christian Waldschmidt, a veteran of the Revolutionary War with the mind of a pioneer, in 1794 crossed the Allegheny Mountains and traveled down the Ohio River on a flatboat until he reached the mouth of the Little Miami River where a friend had a primitive frontier tavern.  Stopping there he saw the possibilities for development.  Proceeding to near present day Cincinnati, Waldschmidt bought 1,240 acres of land.

Joined by 20 other families, Waldschmidt directed the settlers at clearing the trees to  build a church, school, general store, grist mill, saw mill, woolen mill, blacksmith shop, and the first paper mill in Ohio.  Important among the enterprises was a distillery, owned and operated by Waldschmidt. He called the community “New Germany” and built an impressive stone home, below, in which to house his growing family.

Enter Mathias Kugler who reached the settlement at age 17 in 1874, barefoot in a rowboat.  Born in hard-scrabble surroundings, Mathias’ only hat blew off down river as the boy waded ashore.  Waldschmidt hired him as a mill hand and was unhappy when not long after Mathias began to court his eldest daughter, Katherine. Within a year they were married.  The family disapproved of her wedding a simple mill worker.  They seriously had underestimated their new son-in-law.

Over the next 16 years Waldschmidt built a business empire in the Southwestern Ohio wilderness of astounding proportions.  When he died in 1814 during a flu epidemic, he was accounted one of the richest men in Ohio.  Waldschmidt had lived to be 59 years and 7 days old, as accounted by his marker in a family graveyard.  He left no will and his sons proved unable or unwilling  to take over their father’s many enterprises.  In stepped Mathias Kugler.  Somehow he had accrued the resources necessary to own and manage the properties.

Mathias rapidly built on the success of his father-in law, including continuing emphasis on a distillery.  A rustic facility, likely similar to the one shown above, it produced a cash flow that helped facilitate the other enterprises in New Germany.  Moreover, it assisted area farmers by the constant need for grain to mash and distill.  The first 14 years of Mathias’ direction continued the community’s  growth until 1828 when fire destroyed many of the enterprises, including the distillery, but spared the prosperous paper mill.

By this time Mathias’ and Katherine’s son, John, had reached maturity and became a full partner in the family business.  The Kuglers had sufficient funds to rebuild after the fire.  They also expand operations into the nearby town of Milford, Ohio, buying a bankrupt mill, a tannery and a cobbler’s shop.  More important they purchased a Milford distillery, shown here, to augment their newly rebuilt New Germany plant.   As nearby Cincinnati developed, so did  the market for their whiskey.

The next few years found the Kuglers flourishing.  John moved to Milford with his wife, Matilda, to look after the properties there. The Kuglers were also involved with the meat packing industry.  John raised pigs on his farms outside Milford, riding into town frequently to supervise the shops and whiskey-making.  He eventually was appointed postmaster and a trustee of Milford.  Meanwhile Mathias had become a major stockholder and director of the Little Miami Railroad.

In 1843, John built a second distillery in Milford at 220 Mill Street.  It consumed so much corn that he built a warehouse next door, shown here.  Five years later the complex burned down, believed to be arson.  Undeterred, John quickly rebuilt, indicating how important whiskey was to the Kuglers. Leaving John to pilot the many family businesses, Mathias died in 1854 and was buried in the Waldschmidt family cemetery.  His monument is shown below.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Southern Ohio was a hotbed of Confederate sympathizers.  The Lincoln government was very interested in establishing a military presence in the vicinity.  A strong Unionist, John permitted Ohio troops use a major portion of the New Germany settlement as a training grounds and camp.  The installation became known as Camp Dennison, large enough to house 12,000 troops at a given time.

The war also meant a boom time for Kugler distilling.  By 1862 distilling capacity reached a peak, producing 3,814 barrels of whiskey annually.  Responding to the demand, John added a two-story stone building to the Milford complex. The bottom floor provided additional space for storing and aging whiskey; the top floor was a cooperage where the barrels were made.  The buildings were virtually across the street from the Kugler mansion home, shown below, that John commissioned to house his family. 

In January 1868, John died and was buried in the Milford Cemetery. His grave is marked by a large obelisk.  Well known throughout Southern Ohio for his many businesses and numerous land holdings, at his death this Kugler was accounted the wealthiest man in Claremont County.  With his passing, the business empire that Waldschmidt and the Kuglers had built over almost 75 years came to an abrupt halt.  With no real plan for succession, virtually all operations, including the distilleries, stopped.  Dozens lost their jobs and Milford underwent a severe depression.  Only the paper mill, run by a nephew, survived for a few more years.

Unlike inspiring pioneer stories that have been lost in the mists of time, the Waldschmidt-Kugler saga has been kept alive by two developments.  First, at what is now known as Camp Dennison, Ohio, the Ohio Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution own and maintain a museum in the stone Waldschmidt homestead, conducting docent-led tours of the house and grounds.  The women have installed a plaque on the building that briefly recounts the history of the site. Unfortunately, it carries no mention of the distilleries.

That omission was filled by the second development.  The Waldschmidt home is only a 2.5 mile trip to Milford where an outfit called Cincinnati Distilling has preserved the Kugler Mansion as part of its whiskey-making complex.  It also has documented the family’s distilling history in detail that made possible this post.  Under the general name of “Milcroft” it markets a variety of whiskeys, including “Milford Bourbon” and “Small Batch American Whiskey.” the latter’s label depicting the Kugler homestead.

Notes:  This post draws heavily on information provided by the Cincinnati Distillery Company online site, supplemented by newspaper articles and the “find a grave” website.  Additionally, this website just passed 400 in people who regularly follow it and are notified about a new post.  I am grateful to them for their patronage.