Five Women Found Success in Whiskey

Foreword:  The history of the liquor industry in the United States traditionally has been dominated by men, particularly in the era before National Prohibition was imposed in 1920.  Over time as I have profiled more than five hundred “pre-pro” distillers, whiskey wholesalers and saloonkeepers, I have found five women whose careers in whiskey were truly outstanding and deserve special recognition.  In keeping with my effort to bring a more analytic perspective to groups in the whiskey trade, I present these women:

Mary Dowling from Anderson County, Kentucky, not only owned and ran major distillery, shown here, she found a way to stay in the liquor business after 1920 and, in effect, thumbed her nose at Prohibition.  Kentucky-born to Irish immigrant parents, at seventeen she married a distiller at least 17 years her senior who saw her intelligence and brought her into the business.  When he died, she inherited his interest in the Waterfill & Frazier distillery, bought out his partners, and ran it successful for two decades.

Her success, however, came to screeching halt with the imposition of National Prohibition.   Federal records shown her withdrawing large quantities of whiskey from her bonded warehouse in the run up to the ban on alcohol.   Some of this whiskey she is reported to have sold to those Kentucky distillers fortunate enough to be licensed to sell liquor for “medicinal purposes.”   Other stocks, she successfully “bootlegged” for four years until Federal agents arrested her. 

After authorities were unable to convict her, Mary Dowling hatched a new -- and more successful -- business plan.  About 1926 she hired Joseph Beam, one of Kentucky’s premier distillers but now out of work, to dismantle the distillery, transport the pieces to Juarez, Mexico, reassemble it there, and resume making whiskey.  Mexico had no prohibition so the liquor production was completely legal.  Using several strategies to get her whiskey legally over the border to American consumers, she continued to operate until she died, four years short of Repeal.

Mary Jane Blair also was a Kentuckian who in 1907 inherited her late husband’s share of a distillery, this one in Marion County, shown below. She promptly bought out his partners and changed the name 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, one that 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, a well known Marion County whiskey man.

For the next seven years, with the help of a son, Mary Jane Blair operated the distillery, considerably expanding its capacity.  By 1912  the plant had the mashing capacity of 118 bushels per day and four warehouses able to hold 9,000 barrels.  The Blairs produced whiskey sold under several labels; the flagship was “Old Saxon,”  as illustrated here by a back-of-the-bar bottle.  About 1914 the family sold the facility.  Mary Jane Blair died in 1922 at the age of 76.

Lovisa McCullough was a strong women’s rights advocate who successfully ran a liquor wholesale business in Pittsburgh following the death of her husband, John.  A 1888 Pittsburgh directory under the heading “Liquors, Wholesale,” lists forty-nine such establishments in the city.  All of them save one are readily identifiable as male-run companies.  The exception is “McCullough, Louisa C., 523 Liberty Av.”    That same year Lovisa became a delegate from Pittsburgh to the historic founding meeting of the International Council of Women (ICW) devoted to women’s suffrage.  It is a safe bet that she was the only liquor dealer at the convention. 

Obviously a woman of great energy, Lovisa McCullough threw herself into other causes.  A lover of animals, she was a longtime member of the Humane Society and served on the board of the Pittsburgh chapter.  She also was among women who worked toward buying up and preserving the grounds and structures at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where Gen. George Washington and his troops passed the winter.  A true “Daughter of the American Revolution,”  Lovisa’s grandfather may have been among those soldiers.

In 1893, after more than a half century of operation, the McCullough liquor dealership disappeared from Pittsburgh business directories.  Its demise cannot be explained by National Prohibition that still was years away and Pennsylvania was “wet” until the end.  Lovisa may have found her passion for feminist and other causes eclipsed her ardor for keeping alive the liquor enterprise.  Or it may have been advancing age.  Lovisa died in 1917, about 82 years old, and was buried beside her late husband in Allegheny Cemetery.  

Mary Moll, living in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, earned this tribute from a local newspaper: Mrs. Moll, when she took possession of the business, had many obstacles to overcome but, being a woman of wonderful business tact, she bravely fought the many unpleasant features connected with the business and successfully built up a trade far superior to any in this country.”  

Like the other women here, after her husband died in 1891 Mary inherited his wholesale whiskey trade but also his three daughters from a prior marriage.  They are shown at the family home, Mary at far right.  Rejecting advice by friends to sell the business, she set out not only to run the liquor dealership, but also to expand it.  Her first instinct was to go on the road as a “drummer,”  and give customers and potential customers her personal attention to make sales.  The strategy worked and she was credited with ultimately tripling the business.   After three years, however, Mary tired of traveling.  Looking at the costs-benefits she concluded she could build her trade more effectively by staying home and working to keep prices low.

Eventually,  Mary Moll was selling three hundred barrels of whiskey a year.  Although not a rectifier, that is a dealer mixing and blending her own brands, she was decanting the barrels into her own embossed glass containers, shown left.  Those barrels would have resulted in her selling 53,400 quarts of whiskey, an impressive number for any liquor house.  Mary Moll died in 1910 while still running her business. She was 64.

When her husband died in 1912, Catherine Klausman was left with five minor children, a saloon, a liquor store, and a small hotel, together known as “The German House,”  shown here.  She hesitated not a moment in taking over their management.  As a result, “Mrs. Klausman” as she was respectfully known in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania, put her mark on selling whiskey.  With the help of her bartender, Mrs. Klausman not only kept all the businesses open, she prospered by selling both at wholesale and retail her own brands of whiskey.   

Taking a leaf from the liquor wholesalers and rectifiers of the time, she bought whiskey from both Pennsylvania and Kentucky, sometimes blending the spirits, bottling them and then applying her own labels.   My favorite is Mrs. Klausman’s “Corn Whiskey,” with its predominantly yellow label showing a rural distillery and a shock of corn, a design worthy of one of the big liquor outfits.

In 1920, however, National Prohibition brought a close to the thriving business she was doing in whiskey sales.  Moreover, the hotel bar no longer could serve alcohol.  Regardless of these setbacks, she persevered in running the German House through the 1930s.  No evidence exists that after repeal of National Prohibition in 1934, she went back to liquor sales.  When Catherine died in 1963, at the age of 88, she was buried next to her late husband in the St. Marys Cemetery.  The German House remains standing today as part of the town’s historic district on Railroad Street. 

These five women helped pave the way for the many women who have engaged in  the whiskey trade since Prohibition and today fill some of the top spots in the Nation’s liquor industry.  

Note:  Author Fred Minnick has written an interesting book on “Whiskey Women,” detailing the effects that women, past and present, have had on the American distilled spirits business.  It was through his writing that I came upon Mary Jane Blair.  Minnick failed, however, to pick up on his radar the other four.  I am hopeful that this piece will bring these other outstanding “whiskey women” the attention they also justly deserve.   For those interested in reading my fuller biographies of each woman, they are:   Blair, June 2, 2014;  Dowling, January 22, 2014; Klausman, Dec. 12, 2015;  McCulloch, Jan. 14, 2017; and Moll, Oct 28, 2015

  

  

When Mrs. Klausman Inherited The German House

When her husband died in 1912, leaving her with several minor children and a saloon, a liquor store, and a small hotel, together known as “The German House,”  Catherine Klausman hesitated for not a moment in taking over their management.  As a result, “Mrs. Klausman” as she was respectfully known in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, put her own mark in selling whiskey.  

Catherine Klausman (nee Kronenwetter) was born St. Marys in 1875.  She was the daughter of Nicholas Kronenwetter, an immigrant from Wurtemburg, Germany, and Barbara Bindel Kronenwetter, a native Pennsylvanian.  She had one sister who later became a nun.  Although Catherine could read and write, her schooling appears to have been limited.   By the age of 22 she had met and married William Aloysius Klausman, who was four years older and likewise had been born in St. Mary’s.

Their home town, shown above in an 1895 map, had been founded by devout Bavarian Roman Catholics in 1842 originally as “Marienstadt,” (Mary’s City).  It is situated in North Central, Pennsylvania, in Elk County, so called because it is the center of the state’s elk country.  The Klausman’s home town was nestled within a wooded region with some agriculture and mining of coal and other minerals.

At an early point William became the proprietor of “The German House,”  a saloon, liquor store and small hotel located on Railroad Street, not far from the depot where trains disgorged their passengers.  Shown here is a photo of the German House, taken in 1906.  The man with a hat standing to the right in the photo is believed to be William Klausman.  The other figure is that of Charlie (aka Henry) Groll, the bartender.  Note that St. Marys still had wooden sidewalks.  The door on the left with white curtains was the ladies’ entrance.  A passageway took women around the bar and back to the hotel restaurant.

The German House was one of the more ornate buildings in town and had a pressed metal facade, a common architectural feature of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.  This one was made by the Mesker Brothers Iron Works of St. Louis, a well-known manufacturer and designer of ornamental sheet-metal facades and cast iron storefronts.  The design had been selected by perusing Mesker’s catalogue of facings, taking measurements and ordering by mail.  The hotel still stands, part of the St. Marys Historical District, with the ironwork intact and a plaque attached by the Meskers.  A photo of the interior of the barroom, below, showing patrons hoisting beers, was also appears to be well-designed space.  Groll is identified as the man standing behind the bar.

By this time, William and Catherine Klausman had a family.  Son Karl was born in 1899 when she was 22,  followed by Albert (1902), Gertrude (1906) and Helen Marie (1909).  The 1910 census found the family living at 22 Railroad Street, the German House.  In addition to their hotel guests, most of them construction workers, Groll, the hotel cook, a waitress and a porter all were living on the premises.

In 1912, the Klausman’s last child, William, was born.  That same year his father, William, suddenly died at the young age of 41.  As his family grieved at his gravesite, he was buried in Saint Marys Cemetery, a place where both his own and his wife’s parents were interred.  Catherine was left with an infant, a toddler, and three other children under ten.  Many women quickly would have sold the German House.  Catherine Klausman, however, was made of strong stuff — like the iron facade on the hotel.  With the help of Bartender Groll, she kept the place open and prospered by selling both at wholesale and retail her own brands of whiskey.

Shown here are some of the colorful labels that bear either her name or that of the German House or both.  Taking a leaf from the liquor wholesalers and whiskey rectifiers of the time, she was buying product of  both Pennsylvania and Kentucky and sometimes blending the spirits, bottling them and then applying her own labels.   My favorite is Mrs. Klausman’s “Corn Whiskey,” with its predominantly yellow label showing a rural distillery and a shock of corn, a design worthy of one of the big urban liquor outfits. 

Another outstanding label was the German House bottled “Beech Grove Whiskey.”  This a brand from a Boston wholesaler named C.H. Graves. The red seal in the center shows two colonial types with the motto “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.”  “Kentucky Dew,” despite its name was a Pennsylvania product, from 23rd Revenue District, one that contained no fewer than 80 individual distilleries from which these supplies might have been drawn.  

Mrs. Klausman also apparently was bottling — or arranging bottling under the German House (or alternatively “German Hotel”) name, of nationally known brands.  “Boston League” whiskey was the product of a Cincinnati wholesaler/rectifier, Ferdinand Westheimer, who was obtaining his supplies in Kentucky.  Two Sam Thompson labels are shown below, one that accompanied a quart bottle and the other a half-pint flask.  Thompson’s was a well known “Monongahela Rye” straight whiskey, distilled on the shores of the river near Brownsville, Pennsylvania.  Mrs. Klausman clearly had good taste in whiskey.

By 1920, however, National Prohibition had brought a close to the thriving business she was doing with whiskey sales.  Moreover, the hotel bar no longer could serve alcohol.  Regardless of these setbacks, however, she persevered in running the hotel  The 1920 census found her still living at the German House, a widow, with her five children still with her.  Karl was an adult of 21 and helping in the hotel, as were the other children down to seven-year-old William.  At the time of the 1930 census, Catherine, now 54, was continuing to run the hotel.  Her two youngest children were still with her.  Mrs. Klausman operated the German House as a hotel through the 1930s, but there is no evidence that after repeal of National Prohibition in 1934, she went back to liquor sales.  

When she died in 1963, at the age of 88, she was buried next to William in the St. Marys Cemetery.  As noted earlier, the German House building remains standing as part of the town’s historic district on Railroad Street.  A 2010 photo below shows the iron facade — the structure with the street light in front —but it appears that  the building may have been boarded up.

Including Mary Dowling and Mary Moll, I have profiled three women on this blog who inherited a whiskey-related business from a deceased husband.  Among the three, however, Catherine Klausman is unique.  She continued to run the German House and expanded operations to include bottling and wholesaling of both her own and other brands of whiskey, while bearing the simultaneous responsibility of raising five minor children.  Little wonder the name “Mrs. Klausman” was uttered with respect on the streets of St. Marys.

Note:  Both Ferd Westheimer and Sam Thompson, referenced on labels above, have been subjects of my prior posts:  Westheimer in May 2014, and  Thompson in September 2012.  My post on Mary Dowling was January 2014 and on Mary Moll, October 2015.