Harford Kirk Gave Wings to the Old Crow

Beginning in 1853, Harford Bradford Kirk, age 23, opened a wine and liquors importing business in New York City that by virtue of his merchandising genius proved to be highly profitable over the years.  Meanwhile out in Frankfort, Kentucky, the W. A. Gaines distillers were selling their “Old Crow” whiskey by the barrel, allowing customers to bottle it as they chose.  With the arrival of East Coast investors at Gaines, the game changed.  Now regional bottlers were being chosen for their marketing moxie.  Among them was the H.B. Kirk Company.  Kirk pivoted to whiskey and his talents gave an old brand a new look and new life.

Kirk was born on Christmas Day in 1831, in Henniker, New Hampshire, a small Merrimack County town that had been incorporated before the Revolutionary War. The son of Thomas and Elizabeth Kirk, as a boy he received the kind of education that a one room school house could provide.  Demonstrating unusual intelligence and ambition, from an early age Kirk appears to have gravitated to the wine and liquor trade with emphasis on imported spirits.

Shown above is an 1860 ad for the H.B. Kirk & Co. at its first location at 68 Fulton Street in New York City.  Note the emphasis on imported brands.  In these early days of his enterprise, the emphasis was on wines and imported liquors.  Shown here is green ceramic jug that once held Scotch whiskey from the famous Glenlivet District of Scotland that bears Kirk’s name and his New York location.  For almost the next two decades the young Kirk would be gaining a reputation for his ability to import and merchandise alcoholic beverages.  His success required opening a second outlet on Broadway at 27th Street.

Then Kirk made a pivotal decision.  According to a New York Times report: “In 1872, 19 years after his business was established, H.B. Kirk placed a sample order of 200 barrels with W.A. Gaines & Co. When it came to maturity, Kirk was delighted with its quality, and placed a large order….”   From then on whiskey, would be his focus.

Meanwhile, out in Frankfort, Kentucky, the W. A. Gaines Company, had been distilling and selling Old Crow, named for the master distiller James Crow, exclusively in bulk in 40-gallon barrels for a flat $3.50 a gallon. Liquor houses around the country could bottle it and slap whatever label on it they wished.  Brand identification and quality control by W. A. Gaines was virtually impossible. With the arrival of a group of New York investors from Paris, Allen & Co., headed by Edson Bradley, shown here, things changed drastically. [See  my post on Bradley, Sept. 19, 2011.]  

Bradley quickly saw to the incorporation of W. A. Gaines with all the assets and trademarks under its ownership.  He also determined that those liquor houses selling Old Crow bourbon should not be self-selected chaos, but chosen to represent the brand exclusively in specific markets.  In New York City he wisely anointed the H.B. Kirk Company.

Initially W. A. Gaines had designed a label that depicted an aerial view of the Old Crow distillery.  Kirk, however, had seen the benefit of using the black bird as the symbol of the brand, as shown in the image that opens this post.  Bradley, now president of W.A. Gaines Co., was quick to recognize the power of the crow symbol Kirk had initiated. He ditched the drawing of the distillery buildings, and decreed that henceforth on all bottles of the whiskey “James Crow would become species Corvis,” a bird with a stalk of grain in its mouth while standing on sheaths of bundled grain.

This image quickly was trademarked.  The result was a proliferation of copyright infringements as wholesalers who lost distribution rights or others who wanted to capitalize on the brand’s reputation copied or passed-off ersatz whiskey as Old Crow. By 1900, over 1,800 trademark infringement notices had been issued by W A. Gaines & Company.  Countering imitation would become a frequent theme of Kirk advertising.

Kirk took full advantage of his status as the sole bottler and distributor of Old Crow in the largest market in America.  While continuing his wine and imported liquor trade, he moved wholeheartedly behind merchandising the brand.  That included using humor.  Shown below are two Kirk ads, one equating George Washington with Old Crow.  The second one bears a highly unusual headline for a whiskey ad:  “It Kills Them Quickly.”  It purports to tell the story of a Mr. Lynch of Muncie, Indiana, “who for many years took in heavy jags of Old Crow Rye” and died at 120 years old.  “He was in hard luck,  We hope his premature demise will not deter others from using it.”

 

As W.A. Gaines in time experimented with other renderings of the crow, Kirk moved to his own distinctive label.  While keeping the crow involved, he featured a most unusual design for his labels.  It consists of intertwined heads, one of a white woman, a second of a black man, and a third of what appears to be a Native American.  The three are tied together by a ribbon held by a clover-shaped clasp with a “K,” presumably for Kirk.  Unable to find any source to describe the meaning of the symbol, I conclude that it is an effort to depict a unity of the American people.  Below is Kirk’s Old Crow quart bottled in amber glass, along with an unusual embossing of the three faces.

In telling the story of how Harford Kirk helped make a black bird an enduring symbol and the Nation’s bestselling pre-Prohibition whiskey, I have neglected Kirk the man.  Although unable to find a photo of this leading liquor dealer, we have two descriptions of him from passport applications when he was 59 and 68.  Although they differ on some particulars they agree that he was five feet, ten inches tall, had blue eyes, a full and open face, and gray hair.  In 1891 he sported a chin beard and “mutton chop” sideburns.  By 1900 those apparently were gone.

In 1871 Kirk married Mary Sears Cowles, a woman 19 years younger than he.  She had been born in 1850 in Claremont, New Hampshire, the daughter of Sarah Stilson and Timothy Cowles, a merchant.  Their nuptials took place in Weston, Massachusetts.  They would have two girls, Josepha, born 1874, and Lucy, 1879.

The 1880 Census found them living in New York City.  They were attended by two housemaids and a male servant.  By the time of the 1905 New York State Census the serving staff had grown to four, to include a nurse, cook, waitress and gardener.  

More important to the Kirk flourishing liquor business was the presence in the home of Ralph L. Spotts, 29, who had married the Kirks’ daughter, Josepha, and given them a grandson, Ralph K.  Although he had no sons, Kirk now had a son-in-law to assist him in his business.  Shown here, Spotts was working in the liquor trade, according to census records, as a “merchant, wines.” Spott also was a director of the Kirk Company. The presence of a family member in his liquor business allowed Kirk to undertake other activities.  Among them was as president of the Harlem Bridge, Morrisania and Fordham Railway Company.  Unfortunately, the activities of this incorporated business have faded into the mists of history.

In 1902, H. B. Kirk Co. placed the following announcement in the New York Tribune:  This year marks the close of a half century during which we have transacted business on Fulton Street.  After April 21st we will occupy the spacious seven story building, No. 156 Franklin Street, as our present quarters are wholly inadequate for our steadily increasing business.  Shown here, the building, rented by the company, added the seventh story just before Kirk moved in.  The structure is unusual on the block for having the fire escape in front.

As the 20th Century began, Kirk, now in his 70s, began to experience ill heath.  He was troubled by repeated bladder infections and chronic weakness.  He retired from the firm.  By this time, H. B. Kirk Company had incorporated and  Spotts, a member of the board, took over as president.  In July 1907 at the age of 76, Kirk died in his home in New York.  He was buried in Trinity Cemetery, Cornish, New Hampshire, 40 miles from where he was born.

During his lifetime as an important result of his creativity and marketing skills, Harford Kirk had seen Old Crow grow from among the many brands emanating from Kentucky during the late 19th Century into becoming the most popular whiskey in America.  Ralph Spotts, whose story will be told in a subsequent post, carried on Kirk’s efforts until National Prohibition.  

Note:  This post was researched from a wide variety of sources.  Key among them was a article entitled “The Whiskey Wash”  by Chris Middleton dated December 17, 2020 and available on the web.  The photos of the amber bottles are from the online Virtual Museum of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors (FOHBC), an exciting new venue for viewing rare American glass containers.  This post lacks a photo of Kirk, an omission I am hopeful some alert reader will remedy. Ralph Spotts is featured in a post of April 27, 2022.

 

  

Mort Field of Owensboro Jousted with the “Whisky Trust”

In the era when the infamous “Whiskey Trust” was pressuring Kentucky distillers to join its monopolistic efforts to corner whiskey production and thereby hike prices, J. W. Morton Field in Owensboro, Daviess County, instead took the perpetrators to court and during his lifetime won a judgment against the Trust today worth the equivalent of $1.25 million.

Field (sometimes incorrectly given as “Fields,”) was a native Kentuckian, born in 1844 in Daviess County to Thomas A. and Arabella Morton Field. His father, a farmer, died at the age of 42 when Mort was only three.   With his help and that of another son as they grew to maturity, Arabella stayed on the farm and managed its affairs skillfully and profitably.  The adult Mort moved to Owensboro, the county seat, and likely went to work for one of the many distillers who made their headquarters there, learning the trade.  

In 1867 he found a wife there, Elizabeth Angeline Hanning, known throughout her life as “Nannie,” the name that was chiseled into her gravestone shown below. She was the daughter of John F. Hanning, a distillery owner in Daviess County.   At the time of their marriage Mort was 22 and Nannie, 21.  They would have three children, Maybelle, born in 1868;  Robert William, 1870; and John Edward, 1873.

It may have been the impetus of a growing family and its needs that caused Field to strike out on his own as a distiller in 1873.  He bought the Old Reed Distillery in Reed, Kentucky, and moved it outside of Owensboro.  He chose a site on a grassy Kentucky slope overlooking a graceful bend in the Ohio River, shown above as it looks today.  At first, Field’s output was small, only about two and one-half bushels of grain mashed daily.  Over time capacity would grow to 250 bushels as the owner added to the facility.  It is shown below as it looked about 1900.

According to insurance records the property included three warehouses.  Warehouse A was frame with a metal or slate roof, located 104 feet north of the still.  Of similar construction, Warehouse B was located just north of A.  Both were bonded. A third warehouse was “free” with a frame and shingle construction located 180 feet northeast of the still.  A fourth frame and shingle warehouse ultimately was torn down.  Field’s property also housed cattle being fed from spent distillery mash.  The cows were sheltered in sheds on the west side of the still house.

As his sons, Robert William and John Edward, matured, Field took them into the business, changing the name of his firm to J.W.M. Field & Sons.  He advertised his firm as “Wholesale Dealers in Pure Kentucky Sour Mash Whiskey. ”  Field was selling his product to saloons and restaurants in a series of ceramic jugs, from quart to several gallon sizes.  Over the almost four decades the distillery was in business, a variety of designs were employed, as shown by those displayed throughout this post.  Field also provided customers with giveaway smaller containers, including mini-jugs holding just a swallow or two of whiskey and a half pint with an Celtic cross design.  Those would be gifted to saloonkeepers, bartenders and other favored patrons.

Field rapidly gained a reputation for producing good whiskey.  The Louisville Courier-Journal, a respected newspaper, hailed him as a distiller solidly in the tradition of the best Kentucky whiskey.  “J.W.M. Field is not a ‘progressive’ distiller,” the paper stated, “that is, he knows absolutely nothing of the modern processes by which the quantity of the yield is vastly multiplied…”  — at the expense of quality.  Field’s marketing reflected that old fashioned approach, advertising that he featured only one brand and that he made only “straight goods” — no mixing or blending as rectifiers did.

While Field was making whiskey in the traditional mode, however, the industry rapidly was changing around him.  Big moneyed interests from the East were taking a serious look at the distilling industry as a lucrative investment.  Among them were the Paris, Allen Co., located at 45 Broadway in New York City.  Originally importers of wines and liquors from abroad, company executives began to look to Kentucky for business opportunities.

In 1887 the New York firm bought a controlling interest in W. A. Gaines and Company, a Kentucky distillery that had originated in the 1860s and was producing well-known brands “Old Crow” and “Old Hermitage.”  While retaining some Kentucky whiskey men as directors, Allen became president and another wealthy investor, Edson Bradley, became vice president [see my post of Sept. 2011 on Bradley].  Almost immediately upon joining the distillery Bradley became the principal spokesman for the New York money men and represented their interests on Wall Street and in the halls of Congress.

Before long Eastern investors realized that because distilleries had proliferated in Kentucky and nearby states, resulting in vigorous cost competition, their ability to realize a windfall profit on whiskey was in peril.  This was still the era of monopolies and the money boys at Paris, Allen decided that the best way to increase liquor prices was significantly to control and reduce production.  Traditional distillers almost certainly were unaware of the ultimate intentions of the New Yorkers.  As a result when Paris, Allen in 1899 offered Field what turned out to be  “a devil’s bargain” he took it.

This was the deal:  The New Yorkers agreed that they would contract to buy 3,000 barrels of whiskey from J.W. M. Field & Sons over the next five years and then, under specified conditions, an additional 5,000 barrels annually over the next ten years.  In addition to this contracted production, Field could produce only 500 barrels more for his own use and sale.  If Field exceeded that amount, he would have to pay Paris, Allen a penalty of $5 per barrel.  Believing that there would be a great advantage in having a guaranteed customer for his whiskey for 15 years,  the Owensboro distiller agreed.

Field initially failed to recognize that Paris, Allen’s pact with him was part of a larger scheme to corner the Kentucky whiskey market, reduce production markedly and hoist prices.  It did not take long, however, before he realized that something was afoot.  When Field about 1901 decided to incorporate, Paris, Allen strongly objected, apparently fearing that the move would put his distillery out of their control.  By this time the Easterners had moved toward creating their “Whiskey Trust,” an organization they called the “Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Company.”  Despite the prior failure of a Peoria-based trust, Paris, Allen moved aggressively to rope in Kentucky distillers to their scheme, often offering them stock in exchange for shutting their plants down.  As a result, the Trust soon controlled a considerable number of distilleries and brand names.

Some Kentucky distillers began to balk at the idea of this whiskey monopoly.  Field was among them.  When Paris, Allen demanded he agree to transferring his contract to the Kentucky trust, he said an emphatic NO.  There ensued a year of correspondence that a court later characterized as showing “the Kentucky Company, taking advantage of trivial and technical mistakes”  and not dealing with the root of the contract.  In other words, the men behind the Trust were acting in bad faith and fully intending to keep Field’s whiskey out of the marketplace.  

Moreover, in retaliation for Field not signing up with the Kentucky Company, Paris, Allen refused to take any more of his production, leaving the Owensboro outfit “high and dry.”  The mastermind behind this strategy likely was George H. Allen, a man hailed by some for his “native shrewdness and energy” and excoriated by others for his ruthless business practices.  Seemingly left no other choice, Field sued in 1902. 

 

In the fight he had the wisdom to hire as his attorney, William Lindsay, a former chief justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, shown left.  Although the suit was filed in the U.S. Circuit Court in New York, not in Kentucky, Lindsay persuaded the jury to give the distiller a judgment for damages against Paris, Allen in the amount of $50,000 (equiv. $1.25 million today).

Although J.W. M. Field & Co had won, the joy of victory was short-lived for Mort Field.  In August of 1903, he died at the age of 58.  With his widow and children grieving at his graveside he was buried in a Daviess County cemetery.  His and Nannie’s monument is shown below. Moreover,  family elation at having beaten the Whiskey Trust was short-lived when Paris, Allen appealed the decision to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.  This time Lindsay was not as effective. That panel decided that the whiskey that Field could not sell and had stored in his warehouses actually was an asset, gaining value as it aged.  Thus no damage had been done to the Owensboro distiller.  The court nixed the payment and called for a new trial.  There is no evidence that it ever occurred. 

The distillery Field had founded survived his passing, managed by family members.  The officers became sons Robert W. as president and John Edwin as vice president, with other relatives in corporate roles.  By 1915, John Edwin had advanced to the presidency of the company.  He ran it until closed by National Prohibition.  Meanwhile, the Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Company was continuing to operate out of Louisville.  Never able to establish the desired monopoly and drive up Kentucky whiskey prices as dreamed of by Paris, Allen, the hollow shell of the Trust nonetheless survived until Prohibition.  Neither whiskey company reopened after Repeal.