A Maysville Corner Was Milton Russell’s Own

In 1859 when the youthful Milton Culbertson Russell went to work at the grocery store at Third and Market Streets in Maysville, Kentucky, no one could have predicted that he would develop an obsession with this street corner that eventually would lead to his buying the building, tearing it down, and constructing an even finer edifice to house his liquor dealership.

Russell, shown right in adulthood, as a youth probably excited little or no interest among the citizens of Maysville.  Born in April 1844, he was the son of Christopher, a British-born bricklayer, who had emigrated to the U.S. and settled in town about 1830.  Nor was his mother, Mary (Maule) Russell, to be considered local gentry.  Before moving to Maysville, seen below, she had lived in Cincinnati and was accounted as the first woman ever to work in one of that city’s mercantile establishments.   At the time many would have seen such employment as scandalous.

Russell himself had only limited formal education, quitting school and going to work at the age of 15 as a clerk in a wholesale grocery owned by John Richeson,  located at the northeast corner of Third and Market Streets in Maysville.   Five years later D. A. Richardson took over the business.   A grocer bent on selling liquor, Richardson kept Russell on as a salesman.  A biographer says of the young man during this period:  “He eventually made himself an indispensable factor in connection with the business, as he throughly familiarized himself with all details thereof and showed marked discrimination and executive ability.”  In the 1880 census Russell gave his position with Richardson as “bookkeeper.”

Milton also was having a personal life. At the age of 21 in April 1865, he married Elexene Porter Johnson, a woman of about his own age who had been born in Germantown, Kentucky, the daughter of a pioneer family in the state.  She was known as “Woody” to friends and family.  The couple would  have three sons, J. Barbour, born in 1866; Christopher, 1868, and Thomas J., 1872.  

In 1881 Russell, now a mature 37 years old, bought a financial interest in the store at the corner of Third and Market Streets and five years later became sole owner.  The original structure where the teenaged Milton had worked has been described as “an ordinary three-story brick building.”  In 1892 Russell decided to tear it down and “replace it will one more in conformity with modern ideas and especially adapted to the use to which it was to be put.”

The resulting construction, shown right, was five stories tall with a spacious basement.  At the time it was considered the largest mercantile building in Maysville.  Bedford limestone columns provided base ornamentals for the structure and the cornerstone carried Russell’s initials, MCR.  Two angels held the building date and flanked the name, Russell Building, on its south side.  It was estimated to cost $20,000.  Considered a major beautiful addition to downtown Maysville, it was featured on a postcard providing a vista of Third Street looking east.  Offsite Russell maintained two large warehouses to store surplus stock.

Although Russell’s enterprise sold wholesale groceries, liquor was its principal product as indicated by a local newspaper story:  “The company…handle Grand Dad and other leading brands of whiskies, and also carry a full line of wines, gins and brandies of the highest grade.”  The Russell marketed his liquor and other goods far outside Maysville, employing a large corp of traveling salesmen.

Russell also was making a name for himself as a public spirited businessman. He held the offices of secretary and treasurer of the local fire company, working to transform it from a volunteer force into a professional metropolitan service.  He was secretary of the Mason County Building and Loan Association; a member of the Masons, Knights of Pythias, Elks and Odd Fellows fraternal organizations, and a staunch Republican who never sought office.  A biographer characterized him as “…A man of broad mental ken and most insistent civic loyalty, and he did all in his power to further the social and industrial progress of his home city, whose welfare ever lay close to his heart.”

While pursuing broader community activities, Russell never forgot the little corner of the world that had given him his start and continued to be the site of his business enterprise.  Scattered throughout this post are a number of whiskey jugs he issued. They vary in size from quarts to five gallon ceramic containers. Virtually all have a two-toned glazes and an attractive underglaze label. Note that all of them contain the message: “COR 3rd & MARKET STS.” 

In 1890 he brought his eldest son, J. Barbour Russell into the business as a partner and the company became M.C. Russell & Son.  His growing prosperity also allowed Milton the purchase of a Maysville mansion to house his family.  Still standing, it was built in 1886 and features spacious rooms on the lower floors with massive woodwork and large openings between twin parlors on the ground floor.  Called “unique and unforgettable,” the manse was noted for its stain-glass windows and inlaid stone.  It featured broad grounds where Exelene Russell fostered a garden where flowers were said to “grow in great profusion.”

As he aged, Russell was plagued with health problems, likely including diabetes causing gangrenous feet, kidney failure and heart problems.  He retired from active control of his business about 1901 but as his obituary noted:  “Whenever his health would permit, however, and often when not physically able, was found at his place of business up to the last, assisting in the management of its affairs.”

In July 1902, at the age of 58, Milton Russell succumbed to his ailments and died.  The end apparently came suddenly, according to the Marysville Evening Bulletin.  His funeral was conducted at the Russell home, with religious services conducted by an elder of the Christian Church where the family had been adherents.  The Oddfellows were in charge of the procession to the graveyard but other lodges to which Russell belonged joined in.  Milton was interred at Oval Lot 2 in the Maysville Cemetery.  His grave is shown here,

With his father’s death, J. Barbour Russell became president, changing the name to “M. C. Russell Co.”  He was assisted in running the operation by his younger brother, Thomas.  Both men, according to a local history, were “…Numbered among the reliable, progressive and essentially representative business men of their native city where they are well upholding the prestige of the honored name which they bear.”  J. Barbour, remembered as a flamboyant figure around Maysville, continued to sell liquor from the wholesale grocery until National Prohibition. In 1930 he also conceived and financed building the Russell Theatre, a structure rehabilitated more recently, located near the family mansion. 

Elexene “Woody” Russell remained in the family home, cited as “…Long a center of generous and refined hospitality….She…has been a valued and popular factor in connection with the best social activities of Maysville….”  When she died in 1922 at age 76 after 20 years as a widow, she was buried next to her late husband at Maysville Cemetery.

After his passing, many praises were lavished on Milton Russell.  I have chosen one from his obituary in the Maysville Evening Bulletin that helps elucidate his character and personality:  “A man of genial disposition, with a smile and pleasant word for all and was ever ready to lend a helping hand.  He loved this city and any move looking to its welfare always received his encouragement.”  To that I would add that Milton Russell demonstrated a particular love — perhaps even obsession — for the northeast corner of 3rd and Market Streets where his highly successful career began.

Note:  Much of the information and all the direct quotes in this post were obtained from two sources:  “A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians” by E. Polk Johnson, undated, and the Maysville Evening Bulletin of July 22, 1902. 

The Sunsteins Shone Brightly in Pittsburgh

According to family lore Cass Sunstein,shown right, escaped to the United States from his native region on the Polish-Lithuanian border by being smuggled out in a stack of hay.  After settling in Pittsburgh, neither Cass, nor later his son Abraham, ever sought to avoid detection.  Rather, as Pennsylvania whiskey wholesalers and distillers, the Sunsteins became bright lights of the trade.

Cass Sunstein was born in 1843 in Sulwalki, a town in northeastern Poland that was an area of constant struggle between the forces of Russia, Lithuania, and Poland.  He came from a distinguished Jewish family and was a descendant of Vilna Goan, shown left, a famous rabbi who was a leader of non-hasidic Jewry and known as “the saintly genius from Vilnius.”  Cass’s parents were Edith (Silverman) and Noah Sunstein  As he grew up, Sunstein shared the resistance among the youth of Sulwalki against being conscripted into the Russian Imperial Army.  He determined to leave and was smuggled out by friends. 

After his arrival in Pittsburgh in 1866 or 1867, Sunstein may have found work in one of the many liquor houses in that city.  During this period he also took time to become a naturalized citizen of the United States.  Still in his 20s he first surfaced in business directories in 1870 as a liquor dealer on Pittsburgh’s Main Street.  A photograph shows a young man, likely Cass, beneath a sign that says C. Sunstein and the address “121.”   Note the advertising signs, several labeled “Monongahela.”  Sunstein strongly featured Pennsylvania rye whiskeys throughout his career. 

Among Cass’s incentives to succeed was the need to bring his wife, Tillie (Shapiro) Sunstein — also related to Vilna Goan — to the United States, along with their four children, Abraham, Meyer, Solomon and Nellie.  The family was recorded arriving in 1870.  The Sunsteins lived briefly on Wylie Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Hill District before settling in what is now the West End.  Shortly after that move Tillie Sunstein died.  Likely wanting a mother for his children, Cass married soon again.  She was Rose Fink, a woman 13 years his junior and, like him, an immigrant from Sulwalki.  Cass and Rose would have four children of their own, Daisy, Elias, Leon, and a child who died in infancy.   The couple is shown here in their later years. 

As his business grew, Sunstein moved his liquor house several times, usually on or close to Main Street.  Shown here is one of the locations, prominently advertising Pennsylvania rye whiskey.  The store was configured as a wholesale liquor outlet with direct openings to the street, allowing wagons easy loading and unloading of liquor barrels.  The figure at right in the doorway appears to be Sunstein himself.  The young boy with the bowler hat to his right may be his son Abraham, known as A.J.  He is said to have worked for his father from childhood.  As they matured other sons were taken into the business and in 1897 the name of the firm became “C. Sunstein & Sons.”

In addition to being whiskey wholesalers, the Sunsteins were rectifiers, that is, mixing and blending whiskeys to achieve a particular taste and color.  Among their proprietary brands, were "Aliquippa Pure Rye,” "Bald Eagle,” "Golden Crest Rye,” "Old Yough Rye,” and "Unexcelled Pure Rye.”  None of them were ever trademarked.

Like many rectifiers, the Sunsteins likely had difficulty finding raw product.  The “Whiskey Trust” attempt at monopoly had reduced supplies and raised prices. They looked around for a distillery of their own. The opportunity came in 1889 when the Sam Thompson distillery near West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, along the Monongahela River, came up for sale.  The owner had found mining coal  more interesting than making whiskey.  [See my post on Thompson, September 2012.]

Shown above, the facilities Sunstein bought consisted of three large brick warehouses, one of them eight stories high, the distillery itself, and several out buildings.  The plant had the capacity to produce fifty barrels of whiskey a day. Warehouses, ventilated and heated by steam, held 36,000 barrels for aging.  An adjacent storage house had capacity for 50,000 bushels of grain.  Sunstein subsequently added a drying house where the spent mash could be prepared for animal feed.

Thompson had employed a master distiller named Doheny whom the family wisely kept as the plant supervisor.  Under the leadership of Abraham, known as A. J., the Sunsteins earned a national reputation and clientele for Sam Thompson Pure Rye.  Attaching attractive labels, they sold it at retail in flask and quart sizes.  

Eventually the increased business demanded even larger space for their Pittsburgh offices and the company made its final move in 1895 to 317-319 First Avenue.  Shown here, the building boasted eight stories and a giant painted sign announcing C. Sunstein & Sons.

As he aged, Sunstein ceded more and more authority to his sons, particularly to A. J. who rapidly gained a reputation for himself as a whiskey man.  Another son Meyer worked as a clerk in the operation.  In April 1913, Cass died at age 70, the cause given as acute pneumonia.  With his widow, Rose, and his children gathered at the gravesite he was buried in Pittsburgh’s West View Cemetery.  The family monument is shown here.  Cass’s gravestone is fourth from the left.

Meanwhile A.J. Sunstein was making his mark.  In 1887 he married Nora Oppenheimer, the daughter of an early settler in Pittsburgh.  They had two children, Tillie and Alexander.  Recognition of his business acumen led to A.J.’s election in 1901 and 1902 as president of the National Association of Distillers and Wholesale Dealers, afterward serving on its executive committee. He also had multiple terms as president of the Distillers Association of Pennsylvania. 

Out of this experience A. J., shown here, was selected as the spokesman for the rectifiers of America when challenged by the bourbon and straight rye distillers of Kentucky and elsewhere.  With the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 those forces had gained an ally in Dr. Wiley, chief administrator of the Act, for the argument that rectified whiskey should be labeled “artificial.”  When a Whiskey Commission was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, Sunstein was chosen to put the case for the rectifiers.  While balking at the notion of “artificial,” he was willing to allow such liquor to be branded as “redistilled whiskey,” “recified whiskey” or “neutral whiskey.”  In the end no compromise was necessary:  all whiskey remained simply whiskey.

Although A. J. Sunstein opposed National Prohibition, he seems to have understood its inevitably.  Two years before it was imposed, he shut down the liquor house his father had founded 48 years earlier and turned his attention fulltime to philanthropy.  He was particularly active in Jewish charitable causes including serving as president of the Montefiore Hospital in Pittsburgh and trustee of the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives in Denver, Colorado.  He died in December, 1926, and was interred in a mausoleum not far from the Sunstein family plot.

Thus ended a family saga that began with the descendant of a famous rabbi leaving his family and being smuggled out of Poland to a New World of opportunity where the Sunsteins could demonstrate their brilliance as whiskey men.

When the Shoemaker’s Son Came to Kansas City

                                                    Arriving in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1868 at the age of 26, Edward Lowe Martin, son of a Kentucky shoemaker, found a wide canvas for his manifold talents.  Shown here in maturity, during his career Martin created a distillery, co-founded a railroad, established financial institutions, served as a Kansas City mayor and councilman, spent years on the city’s school board, and developed his own suburb, one that still bears his name.  Moreover, it is said that out of his own pocket he once saved Kansas City from bankruptcy by paying off municipal bonds in danger of default.

Martin was born in March 1842 in Maysville, Kentucky. He was the fourth in a line of six children from William and Margaret Martin, both immigrants from Ireland who had settled for a time in Pennsylvania before making their way to Kentucky.  The 1860 census found them living in Maysville where William and his eldest son, John, were engaged in the shoemaker’s trade.  Edward’s occupation was listed as “clerk.”  He married at only 20 years, his bride the 19-year-old Mary Elizabeth Ricketts, a native Kentuckian.  They would have two children, Lulu, born in 1865 and Edward R., 1867.

In 1863, with Mary Elizabeth, Martin left Maysville, and headed 650 miles west through Kentucky and Missouri to Kansas City.  He must have been strongly motivated because at that stage of the Civil War armed conflict was frequent in both states, with danger from “bushwackers” common in Missouri.  A year later the Battle of Westport was fought at Kansas City, a pivotal conflict that ended the last major Confederate offensive west of the Mississippi River.  Martin’s occupation during those early years has gone unrecorded but his subsequent activities suggest he was working in the whiskey trade, likely for one of the Kansas City’s several liquor houses.

In 1868, Martin struck out on his own, listed in local business directories as the proprietor of E. L. Martin & Co., Wholesale Liquor Dealers.  He had as a partner a friend from Maysville, J. A. Loughbridge.  His early address was at 404 Delaware Street, near West Fourth, the latter street shown here as it looked at that time.  The post-Civil War period brought population growth and general economic good times to Kansas City, including a proliferation of saloons needing supplies.  Early letterheads from the company emphasized that the partners were “late of Maysville, Ky.” thereby suggesting ties to Kentucky whiskey quality.  The 1870 federal census found  Edward living in Ward 2 of Kansas City with his family, his occupation given as “liquor merchant.”  Living with the Martins was a younger brother, George Martin, who was clerking in his store.

Even as he was building his business, Martin was becoming increasingly recognized in local commercial circles as a “comer.”  In 1871, at the age of 29 he was elected as secretary of the city’s Board of Trade, the building shown here.  That provided a political springboard and as a Democrat he was elected a councilman and in 1873 mayor of Kansas City.  His year in that office proved to be an active one that included enlarging the city limits, reorganizing the ward system, establishing free mail delivery, constructing the water works, and creating a horse-drawn trolley line.  The quality of his service was such that two years later Martin was elected to the Kansas City Board of Education where he served from 1875 to 1896 — twenty-one years.

Those activities do not appear to have affected his business growth.  Likely seeing a need for more management help, in 1872 Marin hired a local, C. G. Perrin, and two years later made him a partner, Loughbridge having left the firm earlier.  The company name became Martin, Perrin & Co.  Eventually Edward would bring in as a third partner T. E. Gaines, possibly from the Gaines distilling family, who had married his daughter, Lulu.  

As his business grew, Martin moved regularly to larger quarters, initially along Delaware Avenue but in the mid-1880s to 300-302 W. Sixth Street.  Shown right, it was a four-story building that allowed him to operate as a “rectifier.” blending, bottling and marketing his own brands of whiskey.  They included “Martin 4X,”  “Martin’s Old Standard.” “Martin’s Private Stock,” “Martin's Special Reserve.” ”Martin's XX,” "Martin's XXX,” "Martin's XXXX” and other labels.  As its founder and president Martin called this operation the Kansas City Distilling Co., as shown on a trade card here.

Martin also claimed ownership of Crystal Springs Distillery, even advertising it on the side of his building.  This facility was one of two independent distilleries that operated on the same site on the east side of First Street at Magnolia Avenue in Louisville, Kentucky.  Insurance records indicate that the distillery was of frame construction with a metal or slate roof, with at least three warehouses, one of brick constructions.  Records do not indicate Martin’s ownership but he may well have had a strong financial interest and a guaranteed supply of Crystal Springs whiskey.

By 1888 Martin, Perrin & Co. was being attested in a “History of Kansas City”  as its oldest liquor house and credited with pushing the city’s trade into new locales:  “It has a large corps of travelers covering the entire territory and makes consignments to Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming and Dakota.” 

With his growing wealth and others to run his liquor interests, Martin turned increasingly to the role of financier.  It was there that he met Arthur E. Stillwell, shown right, who was head of a trust company in Kansas City, the second only in Missouri.  A investor and director was Edward Martin, whom Stillwell hailed as “a man who saved the city’s credit by paying out of his pocket the interest on the city’s bonds when it had no funds to meet it.”   Although I have not been able to uncover dates or details of this transaction, records show city school bonds in payment arrears in the 1880s while Martin was serving on the school board.

In 1887 Martin told Stillwell that he had a franchise for building a belt railroad around Kansas City but could not raise the financing and the franchise would run out in less than a week.  Stillwell, from a railroad family, took the whiskey man in tow,  immediately setting out for Philadelphia and the money men there.  The two formed a syndicate, raised the money and began work on the line before the deadline.  The suburban line was the nucleus of what would become the Kansas City Southern Railway, extending into Mexico.  Today it is the smallest and third-oldest Class I railroad line in America.   An early engine of the line is illustrated below.

Perhaps heartened by this success, the same year, Martin plunged into land development.  He purchased acreage immediately along the Missouri and Kansas border adjacent to Kansas City, platted it with John Lipscomb, and sold off the lots.  Shown here, the community originally was named Tilden, for the Democratic presidential candidate narrowly defeated in the election of 1876.  Because another town in Missouri also was named Tilden, the name reverted to the founder — Edward L. Martin.  This unincorporated town was annexed to the Kansas City in 1963.  The neighborhood is still known as Martin City.

Although Martin’s liquor business appears to have survived until 1917, he increasingly was turning to other pursuits.  By 1900 he was being identified as a banker by the census and in city directories as president of the Guardian Trust Company.  In 1905 those directories indicate that he and son, Edward R., had their offices in Room 551 of the Gibraltar Building while operating the Eli Mining & Land Company.  

In 1912 Edward L. Martin died at age 70 and was buried in Elmwood Cemetery.   His monument is shown here.  His widow, Mary Elizabeth, would join him there in 1933.  In the community he created, each year a race is held in March that I assume is in honor of this remarkable shoemaker’s son, public-spirited citizen, and liquor dealer.  It is called the “Martin City Whiskey Run.”

How Fists Won the West — Or At Least Pueblo, Colorado

 No, not a bare-knuckles fist fight.  The reference is to the Fists, German Jewish immigrants who found their way to Pueblo, Colorado, shown above as it looked in 1888.  While selling liquor in Pueblo the Fist family found a welcoming home and considerable prosperity.  

The family founder was Julius Fist, likely born “Feis,” in July 1852 in Sotern, Sankt Wendel, Saarland, Germany.  His parents were David and Babet “Yetta” Levy Feis/Fist.  Educated in German schools, Julius emigrated from his homeland to the United States about 1864.  He likely came with other family members, including older brothers Emanuel and Israel.  Their part of Germany frequently was inhospitable to Jews and the youthful Fists may have sought to escape discrimination for a land of greater opportunity.

According to the census, by 1870 Julius was working as a clerk in Atchison, Kansas, living there with a family named Kline.  His brothers were not mentioned.   By 1888 a directory located the three Fists together in Pueblo, Colorado, where they had established a liquor house.  They called it “Julius Fist & Company,” with both Julius and Emanuel listed as officers.  A letterhead identified the firm as selling wholesale liquor and cigars as well as imported wines and liquors.

As wholesalers, the Fists were bringing whiskey in barrels by railroad from distilleries in states like Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Missouri and selling it to the dozens of saloons that lined the streets of Pueblo and other Colorado towns.  Their containers of choice were ceramic jugs, likely procured from area potteries.  The first one shown here is particularly interesting since it appears to have been formed from a redware sewer pipe.  The glaze on the cylindrical body was typically used on tiles used to drain ditches.  The Fist name has been stenciled on.  Despite its primitive look, this jug recently sold at auction for $405. 

Later company jugs exhibit more sophistication.  A second example here is  stoneware, a ceramic harder than redware, with an overall whitish “Bristol glaze.” This jug shows a network of lines over the surface of the body generally called “crazing.”  Crazing occurs when a glaze cools more quickly or more slowly than the body of clay.  Either way surface tension is created causing the cracks.   Crazing may suggest a container was a product of a relatively primitive pottery.

With time the sophistication of the Fists’ jugs increased.  Two shown here, the one on the left a gallon container; the one on the right, two gallons.  They have attained a “two-toned” exterior, with a brown “Albany slip” top and a Bristol glaze body with a cobalt blue label.  Those would have been decanted into smaller containers at the saloons and served up as individual drinks to the faces across the bar.  The jugs would have been returned to the Fists for refilling.

Throughout their careers in Pueblo, the Fists sited their business on Santa Fe Avenue, illustrated above.  A 1889 directory found Julius and Emanuel living together several blocks away on that street, along with Israel.  Another brother, Herman, lived nearby.  All were working at the liquor house.  At that point all apparently were still bachelors.

That would change.  Julius Fist soon married a woman named Jennie, last name May, who had been born in Missouri in 1873 but had spent much of her life in Nebraska. She was some 21 years younger than her husband.  There were no indication of children. According to census data, Emanuel wed Regina, a woman who also was a German immigrant and 18 years younger than her husband.  They would have eight children, five of whom lived to maturity, including sons who furnished the second generation of Fists in the Pueblo liquor trade.

Julius Fist was the “face” of the company, traveling throughout Colorado and adjacent states selling liquor and wine.  For example, the Salida Mail in November, 1893, noted the arrival of Julius “supplying the wants of his trade.”  Several years later the Wet Mountain Tribune reported Fist had come to town on business, terming him “the popular wholesale liquor dealer.”  As Author Marni Davis has pointed out in her book “Jews and Booze,”  Jewish whiskey men in the West faced far less prejudice than in the East. The Fists were evidence of that more tolerant attitude.

Additional evidence was the willingness of the Wm. J. Lemp Brewing Company to make the Fists exclusive agents for its beer in and around Colorado.  Established in St. Louis in 1840 by a German immigrant, Johann Lemp, and carried on by his son, William, the brewery pursued a vigorous marketing strategy that included placing distribution depots strategically around the Western U.S.  That they chose Pueblo for one of these facilities and trusted the Fists with the merchandising was a tribute to the family’s reputation.

The prosperity that these immigrants had found in America translated into their being able to afford substantial housing for their families.  Julius’ home at 32 Carlile Place was and still is in full view of passersby.

By contrast, Emanuel’s home at 128 Jackson Street, above, also still standing, was a large residence away from the street and heavily surrounded by trees and bushes.  Living with him and wife Regina were many of their sons, three of them working for Julius Fist Wholesale Liquor.  City directories listed Milton J. as a “city salesman,”  A. Edward as “traveling salesman,” and Ferdinand simply as “salesman.”  This second generation of Fists would be brought into company management roles as the 20th Century wore on. 

 

In October 1913 Emanuel died at the age of 65.  Julius continued to guide the fortunes of the liquor house that bore his name, assisted by his deceased brother’s sons.  He passed away in November 1920, age 68.  Funeral services for the brothers were held at Temple Emanuel, a synagogue they had helped to build. Shown here, it was the second Jewish house of worship in Colorado and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

  

Both Fists were buried in Pueblo’s Roselawn Cemetery under a family monument.  They would be joined there later by their widows and, in the case of Emanuel, their children and children’s spouses.  Today a total of 16 Fists lie in that burying ground.

The liquor business the Fist brothers built was forced to close its doors after 1916 when Colorado voted statewide prohibition.  Lemp beer sales also were terminated — financial blows received four years before National Prohibition. Emanuel’s sons went on to other pursuits.  Nevertheless, over a 28 year period the family had built a thriving business and gained respect among their fellow Coloradans— proving repeatedly that Fists could win in the West.