Foreword: Several years ago I was contacted by a semi-retired employee of the Jim Beam-Suntory Co. asking me to do some research on the early years of the distillery with an emphasis on Jacob Beam, the founding father. My efforts yielded some material but little new except for an article in German on Jacob’s origins. Nonetheless, over time I have gather sufficient details to attempt to tell the story of the three early family members who set Beam bourbon on course to become America’s favorite.
Jacob Beam — The Founding Father. The Beam story begins with a family named Boehm, a reasonably common German name found in Europe and the United States. This family had its roots in Protestantism, although the denominational identity is debated. I belief the family were Mennonites, a religious body that was discriminated against in Germany. barred from Medieval craft guilds for their beliefs. A significant number of adherents turned to the distilling and selling liquor. In some places the terms “Mennonite” and “tavern” are said to have become synonymous.
Facing discrimination in their homeland, many Mennonites in the 1700s emigrated to the American colonies. Known for their hard work and rigorous deportment, the Quaker leader, William Penn, welcomed these immigrants to Pennsylvania. Extant data indicates that Jacob Böhm (ca. 1693-1781) was a Mennonite for his entire adult life. He was listed as an elder/deacon in the Mennonite church as early as 1755.
One observer points out: “The migration of Mennonites from Europe to Pennsylvania in the early 1700s occurred for several reasons, including: increasing religious persecution in Europe, destruction of property and starvation due to the continual warfare among the dominant European powers of that day, the availability of land in Pennsylvania, and the sympathy of the English Quaker, William Penn.” Among these Mennonites was Nicholas Boehm who arrived about 1752, about 20 years old. He was accompanied by a wife, Margaretha Myers, and one or two children. Early marriages were common among the Mennonites.
The family settled in Berks County. There Nicholas is credited with changing the family name to “Beam” to “Americanize it. Presumably a farmer, Nicholas also proved to be a prolific progenitor, fathering ten children. Jacob was the fifth in line, born in 1760. Five years later his father, only age 29, died leaving his widow with a household full of minor children.
Upon the invitation of Jost Myers, a close relative Margaretha moved to Frederick, Maryland, with her brood, living at Myer’s large plantation where her children grew up learning farming skills. Says one source: It was in Frederick, Maryland, that Jacob Beam learned how to ferment grapes into wine, apples into hard cider and rye whiskey as a teenager. Apparently too young for service in the Revolutionary War, Jacob stayed at farming. In 1785 he married a local girl named Catherine (called “Mary”) Eagle. Over the next 19 years, the couple would have ten children, four boys and six girls.
During the war, Jost Myers had provided important service to the American army.Because of his advanced age, my assumption is that Myers’ contribution was in the form of provisions for the troops. In 1875 the new government under George Washington paid Myers back by giving him an 800 acre tract in the newly opened land of Kentucky. When he died two years later, Jacob Beam laid claim to a slice of that land, subsequently divided into eight parcels of 100 acres each. Jacob received one.
The thought of having his own land, even though unseen, fired Jacob Beam’s pioneer spirit. Packing up his family, in 1788 Jacob set out for Kentucky. Covering most of the journey on foot, the young family navigated the Cumberland Pass through the Appalachian Mountains, traveling 550 miles to their destination in Kentucky. It has been suggested that Jacob brought with them a pot still for making whiskey. The Beans settled in Nelson County, whose seat was and is Bardstown.
Jacob found much to like in his new setting, although clearing the land involved back-breaking work. According to a Beam family account, the Mennonite farmer on his arrival found that a group of fifty Catholic families from Baltimore, led by Basil Hayden, many of them distillers, were his welcoming neighbors. They were willing to share their knowledge.“The Beams…learned more about distilling whiskey. After three years of bumper crops of corn and other grain products, Jacob began to distill his first whiskey in 1795. After the whiskey he produced became popular in his home county (Nelson) and another next door (Washington), he started buying the other seven 100 acre tracts of land from his relatives. By 1810 Jacob owned all 800 acres and sent his first barrel of whiskey to New Orleans. They liked it so much that they started ordering more whiskey on a monthly basis.” Thus the Beam family dynasty was born with whiskey labeled “Old Jake Beam Sour Mash.”
Shown here in old age, Jacob died in October 1843 at the age of 83. He could hardly have imagined the nationally popular whiskey he had engendered. Jacob’s body was returned to Pennsylvania where he is buried in Honey Brook Cemetery, Chester County. His weathered tombstone is shown above.
David Beam — The Innovator. As Jacob aged, three of his sons engaged in the whiskey making. They were Jacob Beam Jr.,(1787-1844) who as an infant had made the arduous trip over the mountains, and two younger brothers, John Beam (1798-1834) and David Beam (1802-1854), born in Kentucky. They were among the first children born in the newly formed Commonwealth of Kentucky. When Jacob retired at age 60 in 1820 he singled out 18-year old David as his successor.
Said to be ‘as smart as a whip,” David Beam was highly conscious of the industrial advances going on around him. After Jacob named him the “distillery manager” in 1820. David is said to have: “Expanded the distillery from a modest family business into a good sized factory, naming it the “Old Tub Distillery.” David also had the distillery transition from pot stills to column stills, becoming one of the first companies to use column stills in 1820.” A column still can sustain a constant process of distillation. This, along with the ability to produce a higher concentration of alcohol in the final distillate, is its main advantage over a pot still, only able to work in batches.
During the 1830’s David began employing steamboats to transport Beam whiskey to major cities throughout the Mid-West including; Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and points south, including Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans. Throughout the 1840’s, David also used the newly emerging railroads to send his bourbon to many major and medium cities throughout the Midwest, Northeast and spreading out across the eastern half of the United States.
In 1824 David married Elizabeth Settle and they produced nine children. After the death of Elizabeth, David married a woman named Elizabeth Cheatham and had two more children. Three of David’s four sons went on to become master distillers. Joseph B. Beam, John H. “Jack” Beam, and David M.Beam all followed their father David and went into making bourbon as a career. In contrast with his long-lived father, David died in 1854 at the age of 52.
Davd M. Beam — The Consolidator. David’s third son, David M. would continue the family business and become president with his father’s death. At this point the name chosen for the operation was “The Old Tub Distillery” although, strictly speaking, the tubs had been retired in favor of the column still. The name symbolized the bourbon tradition and that suited the Beams.
According to a Beam website David M., “instilled hard work at the distillery.” It fell to him to guide the family enterprise through the tumultuous years immediately leading up to the outbreak of the Civil War and through that wrenching conflict. Kentucky was fractured with many of its young men fighting for the Confederacy and others for the Union. Some Kentucky distilleries shut their doors during those years. David M., by determined effort, was able to continue making whiskey during the conflict.
David M. “navigated the uncertainty of the times” by moving the distillery closer to Bardstown and better access to railroad lines for more reliable shipping. The move opened opportunities to reach many parts of the Nation after the cessation of the fighting. The reputation of Beam bourbon whiskey was beginning to be recognized throughout America. David took the opportunity to add new brands to the distillery offerings. They were “Pebble-Ford,” “Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey,” “Belle of Kentucky, Blended Whiskey,” and “Clear Springs Bourbon.”
David M. was the father of James Beauregard “Jim” Beam, born in 1864 while the Civil War raged on. His middle name, that of a Confederate general, indicates where his father’s sympathies lay in the conflict. Jim was destined to take the distillery into the 20th Century and subsequently to have the whiskey named for him. But that is another story for a later time.
Note: This post draws from several websites maintained by the current ownership of the Jim Beam bourbon brand. The post also makes use of my research done earlier for a Beam company historian.
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