Peter McGowan: "Dean" of American Distillers

Peter McGovern spent a lifetime building liquor distilleries in the United States, Canada, Mexico and South America, never skipping a beat even during National Prohibition. Seen by some as “The Dean of American Distillers,” McGowan's record stands as one likely never to be broken.

Born in New York City in 1869 McGowan came from a noted Northern Irish distilling family founded by a grandfather.  His father was Dominic McGowan, the inventor of a “continuous” whiskey distilling process who had come from Ireland to New York City after the Civil War.  The family lived there for the next decade until Dominic in the early 1880s decided that Cincinnati offered him better prospects.

Dominic’s choice of the Ohio city was a canny one.  At the time Cincinnati was the center of America’s whiskey industry.  Its proximity to booming Kentucky distilling, the many whiskey “rectifiers” (blenders) in town, and city’s centrality to major population centers, made it an ideal location for an expert whiskey-maker like Dominic.  Under his father’s tutelage, Peter learned quickly.

The youth’s first job was down river from Cincinnati at Aurora, Indiana, working for J.W. Gaff’s Mill Creek Distilling Co. [See post on Gaff, July 8, 2018]. Shown above is the distillery, occupying sixteen acres where Mill Creek empties into the Ohio River.  The facility could turn out as much as 16,000 gallons of whiskey a day.  When working at full capacity it annually generated federal taxes of $172,800 — more than one-fortieth of the entire revenue yearly collected by the United States.

Peter would find a bride in Cincinnati.  Also of Irish heritage, she was Anna Haney, daughter of James and Mary Haney, both native Ohioans. Peter was 25, Anna was 21.  After marrying Peter in 1894, she would bear him seven children during ensuing years.  The couple is shown here in a wedding portrait.

Peter was one of his father’s distilling team.  A highly sought-after distillery builder, Dominic was widely employed by whiskey makers.  Working with his father meant considerable travel to construction sites throughout the country.  Often bringing along his growing family, Peter was required to move frequently to assist with the assignments at hand.  

After his father’s death in 1907 in Cincinnati, Peter, carrying on the family tradition and reputation, continued to travel widely to design and supervise the construction of distilleries.   Over the next few years, the McGowans were recorded living for short periods in Vincennes, a center for Indiana distilling, and Louisville, Kentucky.  Their home base remained Cincinnati. 

McGowan’s work in the United States terminated in 1920 as a result of National Prohibition.  Distilleries were shut down and sometimes torn down, not built during the fourteen “dry “ years.  That did not deter the Irishman.  In Canada new distilleries were springing up to seize American markets and, oh yes, to feed  bootlegger needs in the United States.  His services were in demand there and in Mexico and South America.

During Prohibition McGowan is credited with designing, building from scratch and equipping nine distilleries in Mexico.  Many of those plants likely were turning out spirits like tequila, mescal and rum.  One or more of McGowan’s Mexican projects, I believe, was producing whiskey.  Whiskey guru Fred Minnick has singled out two distilleries in Juarez, just across the border from the U.S., as major facilities.  One was a plant created by Mary Dowling with help from the Beam family. [See my post on Dowling, Jan. 22, 2014.]  The other might well have been the work of Peter McGowan.  

Shown above, the D.M. Distillery was the largest in Mexico, owned by J.M. Gomes, a Mexican national, and F. A. Mackay, a Tucson, Arizona, businessman.  My identification of McGowan with this distillery is based on a rare piece of movie short footage that features the distillery.  Several frames of that film, including one shown here, depict a man directing activities that resembles McGowan.

 As Minnick pointed out: “…In the grand scheme of overall liquor production, Juarez was free to produce whiskey and even “bourbon.” No laws regulated the Mexican producers from labeling their whiskey bourbon, as it did not become a U.S.-only product until 1964.”  Called “Juarez Whiskey” it was advertised as “straight American” and “Bourbon…aged in wood.”  Americans visiting Mexico legally could bring a quantity home with them but much of Juarez whiskey is said to have found its way into the United States through illicit channels.  

In 1932 Anna McGowan died.  She had been stricken with tuberculosis about two years earlier and although every effort was expended to halt the disease she passed away in May of that year.   Anna was buried in St. Joseph New Cemetery in Cincinnati.  After her death and the end of National Prohibition in 1934, McGowan moved where the distilling action was — Louisville.

Before National Prohibition the Bonnie Bros. Distillery of Louisville had been one of Kentucky’s largest and most successful. [See my post on the Bonnies, April 29, 2014.]   Like other distilleries, the plant had been forced to close for the duration.  After Repeal family members attempted to restart the operation but ultimately were not successful. They sold out  to Wright and Taylor, now managed by a group of Louisville businessmen who kept the original name.  Over time the facility had been allowed to deteriorate and the new owners built an entirely new plant, likely under McGowan’s direction, and hired him to run it.  

Terming him “The Dean of Kentucky Distillers,” the new management made Peter the centerpiece of a promotional booklet that featured the new facility.  One photo showed him inspecting the weighing process as clean grain from the storage bins was being conveyed to the mills on the floor below to be ground for the mash.  A second featured McGowan “about to test the fermenting mixture.”  According to the booklet, he was demonstrating that:  “Eternal vigilance and strict supervision are part of the price of fine whiskey.”

By this time McGowan was approaching his late sixties after a lifetime of constant activity.  He retired from Bonnie Bros. and returned to Cincinnati where siblings and some of his children lived.  As he aged Peter suffer from a bad heart and kidney failure.  In July 1945 he died at the age of 76, the proximate cause pneumonia.  He was buried in St. Joseph’s cemetery next to Anna.  Their joint gravestone is shown below.

When he died Peter McGowan left behind him a legacy of distilleries that are believed to be unmatched in their numbers.  Thus it was quite fitting that his death certificate contained this information:  “11. Usual occupation: Distiller; 12. Industry or Business:  Distillery.”  To which one can only add:  Indeed!

Notes:  My attention to Peter McGowan was drawn by the promotional brochure:  “All Aboard for Louisville:  The Home of Bonnie Bros. Distillery,” undated but circa 1938.  Entitled “Cross Border Bourbon,”  the article by Fred Minnick appeared in a publication called “Places.”  Other data came from ancestry.com and similar Internet sources.  As can be seen from the comment below from Bill Breitenbach, a great grandson of Peter McGowan, the information from Ancestry, that I had assumed came from from family members, was wrong on several counts. Bill has done me the favor of correcting those mistakes and I have made the required changes.  He also has added other interesting information about Peter that I urge be read.