Whiskey Men Who Died in Auto Accidents

Foreword:   As a police reporter on an Ohio daily newspaper years ago I was regularly on the site of automobile accidents.  Often drinking was involved and occasionally there was a fatality.  As a result I can understand it might be thought ironic by some people that liquor dealers themselves have been killed in car crashes.  Presented here are vignettes of three such whiskey men who under very different circumstances lost their lives in motor vehicles. 

In an 1866 letter, Mark Twain called Sacramento the “City of Saloons,” claiming they were so numerous that: “You can just shut your eyes, march into the first door you come to and call for a drink, and the chances are that you will get it.”  George Wissemann ran one of those establishments and also sold whiskey to others saloons with significant  success — until his untimely end.  

A 20-year-old immigrant from Germany, Wissemann spent three years in an Ohio quarry digging rocks before heading to California where he found employment in a Sacramento saloon.  Showing a real talent for the whiskey trade, he eventually owned a prosperous liquor house and a number of saloons.  Financial success brought him social recognition as a leading member of the local Masons and Elks Lodge.  Shown here, Wissemann was an active Republican, engaged in both local and state politics although never seeking office himself. 

Wissemann was a member of the Canvasback Gun Club, about 12 miles from Sacramento.  In early November 1909 he decided to ride out to the club with his son for some duck shooting.  His wife Mary advised against it, worried that their son was ill;  George thought the fresh air would do the boy good.  They hitched up the horse and buggy and set off.  Wissemann is shown here with a team of horses in front of his establishment.

As they approached the gun club, a friend who may just have bought his first automobile, urged them to leave the buggy and join him in the motor car.  The driver lost control somewhere on or near the club grounds and crashed, throwing both Wissemanns out of the vehicle.  George may have been killed instantly.   His body, badly bruised and cut, was taken to the club headquarters where, at the age of 52, he formally was declared to be dead.  George Jr. was rendered comatose for several days but recovered.  

Call it the ultimate irony: A saloonkeeper killed by a drunken driver. Sadly, that was the fate of Martin Lynch of Bristol, Virginia and Tennessee, shown left, a man who owned two saloons in that dual-state city and was the source of regionally popular whiskey brands. He first surfaced with his own establishment about 1908, at age 31 owning and operating a saloon on Bristol’s Front Street, the first of several.  

Lynch also became a “rectifier,” that is, blending raw whiskeys and perhaps other ingredients in back room in order to achieve desired taste, color and smoothness.  He bottled this liquor under his own labels and marketed it regionally through mail order sales. Among Lynch brands were “Green Spring Corn,” “Blue Diamond Corn,” and “Parkwood,” the last sold as a bourbon but likely was a blend.  His flagship brand was “Cherokee Corn.”

When Virginia went “dry” in 1916, with profits from his liquor trade, Lynch purchased a large farm just off U.S. 11 where he produced dairy and beef cattle, opening a market in Bristol.  The photo right of Martin as a proud grandparent may have been taken only shortly before his death. In August 1953, Lynch, now about 75 years old, was driving onto the highway near his farm when he was struck by a speeding automobile.  Rushed to Bristol Memorial Hospital, he was declared dead, the cause a “concussion of the brain.” The other driver was found to be intoxicated.  

A Southerner whose life revolved around the “deep water” of the Gulf of Mexico, Harry Hoyle was a successful liquor merchant, who persisted in selling liquor in the face of prohibitionary forces that forced him from Mississippi to Louisiana.  In New Orleans Hoyle found tolerance and success for his whiskey trade but suffered an untimely fate that ultimately orphaned his children.  

By 1910, Hoyle was recorded in New Orleans business directories operating saloons and liquor stores at 326 Magazine and 174 Rampart Streets and an outlet in Slidell, Louisiana, from which he was sending liquor legally by railway express back to his old customers in Mississippi.  His flagship brand was "Deep Water Route Whiskey." He also bought a major share of the National Brewery of New Orleans and became a director.

Events would soon change everything for Hoyle and his family.  In mid-February 1914, after attending a party where alcohol likely was served, Harry with three friends was taking what the press called an after-midnight “joy ride” on the Chef Menteur Road along a New Orleans bayou.  Hoyle was in the rear “rumble seat” when the car went out of control, hit the incline of the canal and turned over.  Although others were only slightly injured in the crash, Hoyle was killed. 

According to a press account:  “The men who had been extricated managed to draw the body of Harry Hoyle out from under the machine.  As they pulled it out the head fell loosely about the shoulders and they feared the worse….It is the opinion of the medical authorities that he died instantly when the heavy back of the machine pinned his neck to the ground.”   The whiskey man was only 34 years old.  

The newspapers noted Hoyle left six children, all under 14 years old.  Moreover,  his widow was pregnant with twins, born the June after her husband died.  Tragedy followed tragedy.   In mid-January 1919, one of the twins died.  Four days later the baby girl was followed in death by her mother, leaving the Hoyle children orphaned, the youngest only two.  An email from Hoyle’s great-granddaughter indicates that the surviving seven children were taken into the homes of aunts and uncles who raised them.

Note:  These incidents were drawn from more extensive biographies of each of the men that previously have appeared on this blog:  George Wissemann, July 18, 2016;  John Lynch, October 12, 2015; and Harry Hoyle, June 26, 2019.

George Wissemann in Sacramento,”City of Saloons”

  

In an 1866 letter, Mark Twain called Sacramento the “City of Saloons,” claiming they were so numerous that “you can just shut your eyes, march into the first door you come to and call for a drink, and the chances are that you will get it.”  George Wissemann ran one of those establishments and also sold whiskey to others saloons with significant  success — until his untimely end.  

Shown below, Wissemann was born in September 1857 in southern Germany, the son of George ans Mary (Wolf) Wissemann.  He received his early education in local German schools but quit formal instruction at the age of 14 to work on his father's farm.  A biographer noted:  "He was thus engaged until 1877 when he had determined to try his fortune in America, having heard good reports."

His initial employment was not in business, however, but running a stationary engine in a stone quarry near Cleveland, Ohio, where he settled after arriving by ship in New York City.  After three years of digging rocks, now age 23 and seeing more opportunity in the West, Wissemann, shown right, headed to California in 1880 where he located in Sacramento.  There he found employment in a saloon located at 1020 Fourth Street, operated by two other German immigrants, Edward Klebitz and Robert Green, for whom he worked as a bartender.  In 1884 the owners sold the building lease and fixtures to him and the establishment became the Wissemann Saloon.

Before long George decided that selling liquor over the bar was less advantageous than wholesaling it to the hundreds of other saloons located in and around Sacramento.  His first venture about 1900 was with a local whiskey man, Michael Cronan.  They located  their business at 230 K Street in a two-story structure known as the Apollo Building.  Shown above as it looked before it was razed, the location provided them with sufficient storage for their wholesale trade.  After about two years of their partnership at each man went his own way.  Wissemann stayed at the K Street address.

Wissemann contracted with a variety of distillers for his signature brands, “California Favorite,” and “O.K. Kentucky Standard,” never bothering to trademark either label.  He likely was contracting with area distillers for his products and rectifying (blending) the whiskeys to meet standards of taste and color.  His liquor was packaged in amber and clear glass bottles with embossing, including a monogram of his initials. 

While prospering in the liquor trade, George also was having a personal life.  In 1889, at the age of 32, he wed Mary Harms-Bower, like him born in Germany.  She had come to California with her parents as a child, settling in Sacramento.  They would have a family of three children, George, Ruth and Walter.  The family made its home at 817 O Street in Sacramento.

Wissemann often acted as his own salesman, traveling over large areas of Northern California promoting his proprietary brands.  As many whiskey wholesalers did, he also merchandised by using advertising giveaways to customers and prospective clients.  He specialized in a wide range of shot glasses that marketed his "O.K. Kentucky Standard" and "California Favorite" brands.  Examples are shown throughout this post.   

Within a decade, Wissemann had expanded his proprietorship of the saloon and the wholesale house into an operation that included owning the “Restaurant de France” at 427-429 K Street in Sacramento, a second saloon, and a minority share in two other drinking establishments. He also had been awarded the distributorship for Pabst Beer in Northern California and Nevada.  

A biographer commented:  “He found the in the business conditions of the New World the opportunities he sought for…and in his trade interests he has prospered, being now the possessor of a comfortable competence.”  Financial success brought him social recognition as an member of the local Masons and Elks Lodge.  He was a active Republican, engaged in both local and state politics although never seeking office himself.

George also was finding that the liquor business had certain hazards. In March 1892, a man who had been drinking heavily elsewhere walked into the Wissemann’s saloon with a revolver in his pocket, apparently looking for someone he considered an enemy.  That gent was sitting in a corner reading a newspaper when the drunk fired two shots and apparently missed.  The target tried to run but three more shots brought him down.  The shooter was arrested inside Wissemann’s saloon and charged with murder.

Years later came another calamity.  Wissemann was a member of the Canvasback Gun Club, about 12 miles from Sacramento.  In early November 1909 he decided to ride out to the club with his son for some duck shooting.  His wife Mary advised against it, worried that their son was ill;  George thought the fresh air would do the boy good.  They hitched up the horse and buggy and set off.  At  some point they entered an automobile driven by a friend. He lost control somewhere on or near the club grounds and crashed, throwing both Wissemanns out of the car.  George may have been killed instantly.   His body, badly bruised and cut, was taken to the club headquarters where, at the age of 52, he formally was declared to be dead.  George Jr. was rendered comatose for several days but recovered.

Despite the father’s untimely passing, the family pressed on with the liquor business, operating for a time as the “Estate of George Wissemann.”  Mary Wissemann, as her husband’s heir, subsequently became president of the wholesale wine and liquor business with George Jr., as vice president in charge of day to day operations.  In 1919, the Wissemann’s, anticipating National Prohibition, closed down the business that George Sr. had built.

A final word on this whiskey man comes from the accident story in the Sacramento Union daily:  “Mr. Wissemann…is credited with having amassed a fortune without having made an enemy or stained his reputation for integrity and liberality.”   Presuming the validity of those sentiments, we are left with another  heartening story of an immigrant boy who did very, very well in America despite dying much too early in the "City of Saloons."

Note:  The photo of George that opens this post is from the Wissemann Photo Collection as presented by Steve Abbott in his article "California Favorite:  George Wissemann Company," that appeared in the March-April edition of Bottles & Extras. The article contains additional information and images related to the subject.