Ohio’s Ravens vs. Kentucky’s Crow — and the Winner?

               

As shown here left, the Common Raven (corvus corax) is larger than the American Crow (corvus brachyrhynchos).  When Charles A. Knecht of Cleveland, Ohio, was forced to defend his “Raven Valley” brand of whiskey against a suit by W.A. Gaines, Kentucky maker of “Old Crow,” however, the crow clearly was the biggest bird in the room.  There ensued a high stakes tussle that ended in the U.S. Court of Appeals with a result that may have come as a surprise to both parties.

Charles Knecht was an immigrant from Germany, born in October 1836 in Baden, the son of Martin and Catherine Knecht.  At the age of 16 in 1852, he left his homeland for America, ultimately settling in Cleveland.  While still in his early 20s,  Charles married a women named Charlotte who also had been born in Germany and was just out of her teens when they wed.  The newlyweds lived in Cleveland’s Sixth Ward where they began their family.  Their firstborn was Louis, born in 1861; followed by John in 1864,  Augusta in 1867, and Cora Rose in 1875.

During those early years Knecht apparently was learning the whiskey trade working for one of the many Cleveland retail and wholesale liquor dealers.  He first surfaced in the city directories in 1882 as a partner in Knecht & Canfeld, a liquor wholesaler.  Their business was located at 95 Bank Street, an address that earlier had been a depot for the U.S. Sanitary Commission, a location not far from the Cleveland Armory.

By 1886, Knecht had broken away from Canfield and begun a liquor business on his own, taking with him his son, Louis, now 25 years old.  They called the company “C.A. Knecht & Son” and were located initially at 123 Water Street.  By 1888 the Knechts, likely needing more space for their business, moved to Champlain Street (later Avenue), shown here in 1909.

Like many wholesale liquor dealers, the Knechts were purchasing whiskey from distilleries and “rectifying” it, that is, mixing and blending it to achieve a certain taste and color, then bottling it under their own label and proprietary name.  The father and son combo concentrated on only a single brand, one they called “Raven Valley Whiskey.”  Shown here on an advertising paperweight, the illustration was of three stylized birds, presumably ravens, sitting on a leafy branch.  

C. A. Knecht & Son had been selling this brand for more than a dozen years without trademarking it.  Early on the laws for such were not very effective and many liquor dealers avoided the costly and sometimes lengthy process.  In 1905, however, Congress amended the law to enhance trademark protection.  That development likely spurred the Knechts to apply for registration to the Patent and Trademark Office in April 1905.  As shown below, their application described the mark as “The words ‘Raven Valley,’ beneath which is a representation of three ravens perched upon the branches of tree.”   Although all of this seems straightforward and innocent enough, it would bring down on the Knechts the fury of one of the most powerful distillers in Kentucky,  W. A. Gaines of Frankfort.  

Owned by a cartel of high powered Eastern investors led by Edson Bradley [see my post on Bradley, Sept. 2011], the Gaines company had trademarked “Old Crow” as early as 1882, and again in 1898 and a third time in 1904.  The Kentucky distiller constantly was facing trademark challenges from distillers and whiskey wholesalers, appropriating or approximating the label, hoping to profit on the national popularity of the brand.  Often offenders argued that the name referred not to the bird but to Elijah Crow, the man often given credit for inventing bourbon whiskey, and since no one knew his exact recipe, it was “open season” on the name.  Gaines was featuring the image of a crow on its advertising.   Some representations, as shown here, were crude but recognizable as a crow.

The several ownerships of the Old Crow brand through the years constantly have been in litigation of some kind.  The image above, labeled “The Court Rules Again in Favor of Old Crow,” was part of an 1949 ad that ran major magazines. It also informed the public:  “During the first century of its distinguished history, some 1,800 writs, summons, desists were circulated to prevent the imitation of the Old Crow name and label.”

Even though Gaines had not reached 1,800 legal actions by 1905, it almost always had been successful in court.  When word of the trademark application for “Raven Valley” reached Gaines executives, they took immediate legal action alleging that the name and image violated their trademark.  When the Commissioner of Patents ignored their protest and approved the application, the Old Crow crew appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.

The Gaines legal challenges must have caused a great deal of concern on the part of the Knechts.  Not only did they have the expense of defending Raven Valley Whiskey against a “deep pockets” foe,  but if they lost it would only be a matter of time before they would be served a desist order and their flagship brand would have to be terminated under pain of law.  While this was uncharted territory for the Cleveland company, the Gaines outfit by contrast could count on highly-paid, well-practiced attorneys to handle the case.  Brimming with confidence, its attorneys contended that the ravens would “naturally lead to a confusion and enable the applicants [Knechts] to perpetrate a fraud.”  

In the end, however, the appeals court disagreed and the judges’ opinion stated, in part, “when the words ‘Raven Valley’ are considered they are so different from the words ‘Old Crow’ that any confusion or deception would be very improbable.”  While noting that ravens and crows were both birds, the Court also found no similarity in their depiction on the whiskeys.   When Gaines owners sought to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, the high court denied them a hearing.  Almost improbably, the Knechts had won.  The Ohio raven had triumphed over the Kentucky crow.

Sadly, Charles Knecht did not live long enough to see the favorable outcome of the trial, dying in May 1905 at the age of 69.  With his widow, Catherine, and his four children grieving by his graveside he was interred in Cleveland’s Woodland Cemetery.  His gravestone is shown here.  The company that bore his name continued to do brisk business under the leadership of his son, Louis.  In 1911 at the age of 50  Louis suddenly died, however, and with his death the Knecht wholesale liquor company and “Raven Valley Whiskey” shortly after were terminated as well.

Afterword:  Some further comments seem appropriate on the image of the Old Crow, as it changed over time.  As shown here, in the 1940s the crow became a dandified gent with top hat, bow tie, vest and spats.  A cartoon of that era was headlined “How to distinguish a Raven from a Crow.”  It declares the raven is bigger and takes a swipe at Old Crow and its anthropomorphized corvid.

James Moore: An Irish Whiskey Man in the Deep South

“It is very true…that men of similar views and tastes usually harmonize most rapidly, but neither religion nor politics is bar to any man’s good standing in the community…Some allowance must be made for difference in social customs, which are not the same in all parts of the United States, it need scarcely be said.”  —  “Welcome to Strangers” in a Vicksburg, Mississippi, guide book, 1895.

As will be seen, opinion is divided on how Irish and particularly Catholic Irish were welcomed and treated in the Deep South after the Civil War.   James C. Moore, an Irish Catholic and proprietor of J.C. Moore’s Jug House, a Vicksburg saloon and liquor dealership, seems to have thrived in Mississippi — until the state went dry — described in the local press as a “prominent businessman here, esteemed and respected by all who know him.”

Born in Westmeath, Ireland, in 1842,  and a Roman Catholic, Moore emigrated to the United States in 1869 when he was 29 years old.  One reason he might have been attracted to Vicksburg was its location on the Mississippi River,  perhaps reminding him of the benefits of water transportation.  His native Westmeath owed much of its prosperity on having both Ireland’s Grand Canal and Royal Canal flow through it as well as the River Shannon, all of them avenues of commerce.   Moreover, beginning in 1757 Westmeath had been the scene of a famous whiskey-making enterprise, known today as Kilbeggan Distillery.  Whether Moore had an earlier association with the distillery in unknown, but within several years after his arrival in the states he had established his whiskey business on Vicksburg’s Main Street, shown above as it looked in 1905.

Opinions differ on what kind of attitudes Moore might have found in Vicksburg.  One author has declared that: “Class mattered so much that wealthier white Vicksburgers did not consider the Irish as fully white…Slaveowners called the Irish ‘niggers turned inside out,’  and blacks ‘smoked Irish.’  No wonder white Vicksburgers feared insurrection by both groups.”  A second author insists that many Irish immigrants, both Catholic and Protestant, “brought valued skills to Mississippi, became quite prosperous and…mixed freely in society and in business….”  

Moore called his place a "jug house." In Mississippi that was a saloon that also sold whiskey at retail to take home.   Moore’s company decanted liquor into ceramic jugs from barrels transported from Kentucky and other sites on the Mississippi River.  From the number and variety of such jugs to be found, it appears that Moore did a brisk trade.  Two Moore containers, shown here, are “scratch jugs,”  that is, the label is etched by hand into the surface of a Albany slip brown glaze with a sharp instrument.  This leads to considerable variably in the labeling.  Note that the jug at left gives the name of Moore’s establishment as “Jug House,” while the one at left, in script, renders it as a single word.

The variety carries over to the second grouping of jugs shown here, both with applied underglaze labels.  The jug with the two “ears” known as a bail jug and probably holding a gallon of whiskey is labeled simply “J.C Moore…Fine Liquors…Vicksburg, Miss.”  It is paired with a underglaze labeled jug that bears the most common label:  J. C. Moore’s Jug House Co., Fine Wines , Liquors, Etc.  

A final evolution of Moore’s jugs and their labeling appears here on two Bristol Glaze white containers.  Although the format differs slightly, the emphasis has become the “wholesale” nature of the the Jug House Co.  This indicates that Moore, in addition to his retail trade in drinks across the bar and take-away booze, was furnishing whiskey to other saloons in Vicksburg and its environs.

Meanwhile James Moore was having a personal life.  The 1900 U.S. Census found him living in a house in Vicksburg’s First Ward, his occupation given as “wine merchant.”   He was forty-five years old and still a bachelor — but not for long.  The November 22, 1900, issue of the Vicksburg newspaper reported his marriage to Miss Margaret F. Shean of Boston at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Vicksburg.  The couple apparently had met when Margaret came to Vicksburg to visit her sister who was living there.  Twelve years younger than her husband,  she had been born in Ireland and brought to the U.S. as a child.  As was common in that day the press account was far from objective, opining:  “Miss Sheehan is a refined and educated woman, who will prove an ideal ‘queen of the household’ in her new home.”

Accepted as he apparently was as a respected businessman, Moore appears to have had a sly Irish sense of humor.  Shown above is the photograph of a elderly black man seated on the back of a blinkered mule.  Where it was taken, when and by whom is lost in the mists of time, but Moore used it as the basis of an illustration that graced his ad in the 1895 Vicksburg guide book referenced earlier.  Here the elderly gent is looking out and intoning:  “I lived 108 years, drank  78 barrels of Whiskey, never got sick until I died, and bought my liquors at J.C. Moore’s Jug House, Vicksburg, Mississippi.”  It is the only humorous ad in the entire publication.

Things changed for J. C. Moore in 1908 when Mississippi voted a statewide ban on sales of alcohol.  The brisk trade in whiskey up and down the Mississippi River had made Vicksburg a center of for liquor dealers.  Like some of his colleagues,  Moore simply moved his operation ten miles away, across the river in Louisiana.  He chose the tiny hamlet of Delta, Madison County,  as the site of his transplanted operation.  A mini-jug bearing “Compliments of J. C. Moore Jug House Company” cites the Delta address.  His retail clientele could still access Moore’s whiskey by crossing the river from Vicksburg and stocking up.

Although Louisiana stayed “wet” until the imposition of National Prohibition in 1920,  Moore was not alive to see it.  He died in February 1918 at the age of 74.  He was interred in Vicksburg’s Cedar Hill Cemetery (Division D, Lot 5, Square 96).  His widow installed a large granite monument on the site, with the notation, “May his soul rest in peace.”  With no children to take over the management of Moore’s Louisiana business, my surmise is that it closed its doors.  By bringing valued business skills from Ireland to Mississippi, it is apparent that the Irish Catholic James Moore had achieved "good standing" in Vicksburg, earning him the local press accolade of “esteemed and respected” local businessman.

Note:  The publication quoted at the outset of this post is from an 1895 illustrated booklet entitled “Picturesque Vicksburg and the Yazoo Delta,” celebrating the glories of the city, the State of Mississippi, and the American South. 

Max Friedlander and a Preacher’s Condemnation

 

When a nationally known Protestant evangelist came to preach in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, Max Friedlander, a successful Jewish whiskey dealer there, probably took little notice until the clergyman from the pulpit accused him of being personally responsible for “vice conditions” in the city.  That harsh rhetoric caught Friedlander’s attention — and retaliation — but he may have been surprised by the reaction of townsfolk to the personal attack.

Friedlander had been born in 1868 in Schwetz, Kingdom of Prussia, now part of Poland.  At the age of 15 or 16, he embarked from the port of Hamburg, Germany, for the United States aboard a steamship called the “State of Alabama,” one of a line of ships authorized to convey European emigrants to New York.  After a brief sojourn in New York City, Friedlander went to live in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia.  There in 1888 he became a naturalized American citizen.  In a passport application the adult Max was described as five feet, eleven inches tall, with black hair, dark brown eyes, and a long face.

It would appear that Max learned the liquor trade in Wilkes Barre.  At some point in the early 1990s, he moved thirty miles south to Hazleton where in 1894 he teamed up with a local named Charles Coutine to create a wholesale liquor business, located at 21-23 Wyoming Street.  The next year Friedlander found a wife named Mary.  At the time of their marriage she was 19 and Max was 28.  The 1910 U.S. census found the couple living in Ward Nine of Hazelton, with their two son, George, 14, and Henry, 5.  Friedlander’s occupation was given as “liquor merchant.”  

After a time, Courtine left the firm and Friedlander operated alone for a time but eventually created a partnership with his younger brother, Isadore. They renamed the liquor business, M. Friedlander & Bro., as shown on the letterhead above.  The brothers used the brand names, “Hazle Club,” “Hazle Malt,”  “Lancer Rye,” and “Wyoming Club,”  none of which they bothered to trademark.  They packaged their whiskey in ceramic jugs and issued shot glasses to advertise their brands.  Examples are shown throughout this post.

As Max Friedlander prospered in Hazelton, Henry W. Stough, shown left, was also climbing the latter of success but in an entirely different field.   Born in Ohio in 1870, he attended the Moody Bible Institute and, in 1896 graduated from the Chicago Theological Seminary as the Rev. Mr. Stough.  His big break, came in 1893 when the famous evangelist, Dwight Moody, chose him to preach in the “revival” tents erected during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  

An officer of the Interdenominational Evangelists Association, Stough made his living traveling around the country preaching in tents.  In 1913 the Christian Workers publication credited him with making 4,200 conversions during a revival session at Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania.  Stough was known as a militant evangelist, termed by a Philadephia newspaper as someone who “…Strikes from the shoulder, naming names [to] hammer sin, booze, and the devil.”

Backed by a group of local preachers, Stough came to Hazelton in June 1914 and at a tent revival meeting leveled a personal blast at four men he said were principally responsible for sin and corruption in Hazelton.  Among them was Max Friedlander.  If it were not for that four, the evangelist declared, there would be no houses of prostitution, no saloons open on Sunday, no slot machines, no gambling dens or poker games in the city.  “I lay the moral condition of Hazelton and the vicious things here at the foot of these four.  Let them take up the gauntlet.  I have thrown it down.”

Across the city in his Wyoming Street liquor store, Max must have been astounded at the fierceness of this attack on him in front of thousands of local people, some of them his customers.   He and the other three were quick to retaliate, filing suits for slander, each asking for $50,000 in damages, the equivalent of $1.2 million today. The legal battles that ensued became a three-ring circus.

A year after Stough’s accusations, three arbitrators met to judge the validity of the slander charges.  Their work was disrupted by demonstrations made by the preacher’s followers who crowded a Hazelton courtroom to “hoot and holler” during the taking of testimony.  The trial had to be moved to Wilkes Barre and no one was allowed inside the courtroom except attorneys and “interested parties.”  Nevertheless, the demonstrators followed and continued their loud protests in the courthouse corridors.

In time the arbitrators awarded damages of $2,700 each ($65,000 today) to Max and the others.  This time Stough went to court, appealing the judgment.  His lawyer, a man named Sherwood, explicitly cited the ethnicity of the allegedly slandered four, declaring in court that a Jewish liquor dealer (Max), an Irish councilman, an Italian politician and German brewer together held so much influence over the judges of Luzerne County that Stough could not get a fair trial there.   For that accusation the chief judge of Luzerne County ruled Stough’s lawyer in contempt and disbarred him for six months.

The issue of Sherwood’s disbarment made it to the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court where the attorney was reinstated.  Not until May 1917, however, was the matter of slander and the award considered by the state’s high court.  Although the lawyers for the four had argued that Stough’s mention of prostitution had, in effect, accused the men of fornication and adultery, the court dismissed the argument and the case.  Stough had been within his First Amendment rights and his charges were not slanderous or actionable, it ruled.  No recompense was forthcoming to Max and the others.

But Friedlander had other rewards.  The Hazelton community strongly had rallied around him and not long after clergyman’s diatribe, he was elected president of the Hazelton Board of Trade.  The local newspaper account of Max’s election dismissed Stough as an “itinerant evangelist” and his accusations as “unpleasant.”  Before the legal processes had run their course, Friedlander also had been elected a director of the Markle Banking and Trust Company,  a Hazelton bank with assets equivalent to more than $12 million.

But Preacher Stough and his ilk all over America were tightening the screws on liquor sales, culminating in National Prohibition.  In 1919, Max shut the doors on M. Friedlander & Bro. and bought The Hazelton Brick Company from its previous owners.  The facility was located on a major highway and connected by a siding to the Lehigh Valley Railroad.   According to a news account, Friedlander and his partners were planning to install “considerable” new machinery and add two brick kilns.  Below is an artist’s conception of the Hazelton brick yard.

As he aged, Friedlander retired from business but remained a venerable citizen of Hazelton.  Although he had failed to obtain retribution from the attacking clergyman, this whiskey man had been compensated during his lifetime by the support and esteem expressed by his fellow Hazeltonians.

Jug Progression with Albany’s Winchell & Davis

              

Many whiskey men made use of ceramic jugs to hold their products.  Before the invention of the bottle machine by Mike Owens, wholesale and retail dealers recognized that clay-origin containers were the most economical way to bottle whiskey.  Among them, the firm of Winchell & Davis of Albany, New York, were notable because their containers through the years literally followed a history of progress in the design and manufacture of whiskey jugs. 

The first Winchell & Davis jug shown here was redware pottery with a ginger jar shape and Albany slip brown glaze.  In addition to those characteristics, the label is done by scratching the outer glaze. The cumulative impression is that this item is from an early generation of jugs.  Each container was individually done and thus there was no consistency in the Winchell & Davis “scratch” labels.

The next development in the evolution of the whiskey jug was using stoneware for that purpose.   Unlike redware into which liquids could leach, stoneware almost always has a glassy interior that prevents any leaching.  They were salt glazed, that is, a one point in the kiln process, handfuls of salt were thrown on the fire.  When the salt vaporized, it covered both the outside and interiors of the ceramic.  This surface could be not scratched but was amenable to being labeled by a technique using a cobalt glaze squeezed from a tube like a cake decorator.  This was a time consuming process and, as shown here, the script would differ from jug to jug.  These ceramics did, however, allow for more text, in this case reading, “Wholesale Wines & Liquors.”

Jugs like those above, however, were labor intensive since each had to be individually labeled.  A subsequent advance was the use of stencils to make labels.  This was a simpler process, involving putting a stencil of cardboard or metal on the face of the jug.  Then cobalt glaze was spread on top of the stencil with a special brush.  The process was done in one quick step and then the container was fired again to seal the cobalt.  

Jugs with “bee hive” and other rounded shapes would soon be out of fashion, however, replaced by a “shouldered” jug like that at right, said to make kiln stacking more efficient.  This container has an all-over off-white Bristol glaze.  The application of this label was even simpler than the stencil.  It was applied with a rubberized inked stamp that was rolled over the surface of partially fired clay, then usually covered with a clear glaze and give a final firing.  It insured permanence to the label.

Winchell & Davis also employed other pottery techniques. Shown right is a mini-jug advertising its “OCB Whiskey.”  Here the label has some design features made possible by a more elaborate stamp.  From the evident wear on the surface, however, it appears that that this label was applied without an overlay of clear glaze.  Although the ink was fired subsequent to its application, if unprotected by an overglaze, the wording is susceptible to wear over time.  

The Winchell & Davis liquor operation appears to have begun sometime in the early 1880s and survived for almost forty years.  The partners were William R. Winchell and Jared L. R. Davis. Winchell was a native New Yorker, born in Washington County in 1836.  Also a New York native, Davis was eight years younger.  Winchell initially was a partner in Messenger & Winchell “Importers and Wholesale Dealers in All Kinds of Liquors.”  That house was located at 14 Hudson Avenue in Albany.  By 1881, Davis had joined the firm as a manager.  Within the next several years, Messenger departed and the company of Winchell & Davis was born. Their first address was 504-506 Broadway.

The partners featured a small number of proprietary brands, including “Albany Club,”  “Good Old  O.C.B.” and a whiskey from a Louisville distillery called “Chase Rye.”  They did not package all their goods in ceramic;  for smaller amounts, the partners used glass bottles.  Shown here is an illustration of an Albany Club rounded quart and a strap-sided quart flask with the firm’s name embossed. 

In order to keep up with the competition, Winchell & Davis also provided special customers with giveaway items.  To saloonkeeper and bartenders, they provided shot glasses advertising Albany Club Whiskey.  To retail customers the firm provided attractive trade cards, including one of a shapely barmaid carrying a tray with a bottle of Chase’s Pure Barley Malt Whisky.  The tag line is “Ask for It.”  That appears to be why the dog appears to be begging for a sip.  

Both men participated in Albany community activities.  Winchell was an officer in his local Fish and Game Association and a representative to the national body.  He also participated in Masonic orders.  In 1890 when the Masonic Veteran Association of Albany was formed, an assemblage of long term lodge members, Winchell was elected its first president.  Davis was the Albany director of the Greenbush and Nassau Electric Railway Company. 

With the success of their business in 1904 the partners filed papers of incorporation with the State of New York.  Organized to “import and deal in wines, liquors and mineral waters,”  the new company was capitalized at $30,000 (equivalent to $750,000 today) with $10,000 in cash on hand. Unfortunately, in April of that same year, William Winchell died at the age of 67.  His death was followed shortly by Jared Davis in November, 1904.  He was only 59.

At this point it appears that Joseph A. Burkart undertook the management of the firm, keeping its name intact.  He advertised frequently in Albany and vicinity publications.  As shown below, its ads made a point of claiming to have “the largest, neatest and cleanest Liquor Store in Albany.”  The firm also opened a second outlet at 25 James Street.

In 1915, possibly outgrowing the old space, the company built a new store down the street at 380-382 Broadway.  Designed by Rochester architect F. Ray Scherer, the headquarters was constructed of brick and featured a metal skylight.  The company was destined to occupy this building only for only a short time, however, until National Prohibition in 1919 required that the liquor dealership be shut down after almost 40 years in business.

The demise of both Winchell and Davis in the same year — one in which they had incorporated their wholesale liquor firm — seems highly unusual. Both apparently had been active recently in their business and other activities in Albany.   As a legacy, however, they left us a progression of containers that graphically demonstrate the technical improvements to whiskey jugs over time.

Addendum:  After an elapse of almost five years since I posted this article, Dave Cheadle, a major trade card collector, brought to my attention an advertising card from Winchell & Davis celebrating the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893.  The image is so striking as to warrant adding it to the post and I thank him for it.  

The Starks of Missouri: Success in Wine and Whiskey

 When George Stark (sometimes “Starck), first viewed the shores of America in 1866 at age twenty-three, he could hardly have imagined that he would create a family empire responsible for making Missouri the largest producer of wine in the Nation before moving on to distilling and selling whiskey.  

Shown here in maturity, Stark was born in Rhine-Hessen, Germany, in October, 1845, and may have had some experience in the Rhenish wine industry as a youth.  A later passport application gave a description of the youthful Starks.  He measured five feet, ten inches tall, and was recorded having an oval face marked by a “florid” complexion, brown hair and a brown beard.  After arriving in the U.S., Stark lived in New York City for about six months, before moving to Hermann, Missouri.  As shown below, the lands surrounding this city in the Missouri River valley had characteristics similar to the German wine lands and German immigrants established vineyards and wineries on both sides of the river.

When Stark arrived in Missouri he found an already robust wine industry at Hermann and went to work for a local wine company located on a hill at the southern end of the town.  He worked his way up in the firm over time and by the late 1870s had become a manager. In 1883, Stark and a partner bought the winery and re-named it the Stone Hill Wine Company.  After working ten years under this arrangement, the partner left and George became the sole proprietor.

Under Stark’s leadership, Stone Hill became the second largest winery in America and reputed to be the third largest in the world, producing an estimated million gallons of wine annually, with a total capacity of 1.5 million gallons.  In addition to wine, the company distilled brandy and operated a bottling plant in St. Louis.  By virtue of Stark’s efforts Missouri in the mid-1880 was producing more wine by volume than any other state.

Meanwhile George was having a personal life.  In 1872 he married Laura Feldmann, the daughter of Dr. John Feldmann, a Hermann physician.  At the time of their nuptials, he was 27 and Laura was 18.  Their marriage resulted in the birth of four children:  Ottmar George, Laura, Olinda and Louis John.   In 1885, their father had achieved sufficient wealth to build a large brick mansion on an estate at the outskirts of Hermann.  Two stories with a French mansard roof, the house, accounted the most expensive in the county, was heated by steam and lighted by gas manufactured on the premises.

Stark’s wealth also allowed him to provide his children with advanced educations.  After attending local Hermann public schools, Ottmar was sent to the Toenfeldt Educational Institute in St. Louis and then to the Bryant & Stratton Business College there;  Louis was sent to the Christian Brothers College in St. Louis and then to the same business school.  Both sons were being groomed to take management roles in the Stone Hill Wine Company.  When Stark incorporated his company in 1898, Ottmar and Louis became officers and directors.

Apparently seeking another outlet for his wine Starks about 1894 established a new company, locating it at 14 North Fourth Street in St. Louis, initially calling it the "Great Western Wine Company." George was the president and Ottmar was a vice president.  This company was a wine wholesaler.  Not long after the end of the Spanish American war that firm issued a serving tray honoring the hero of Manila Bay, Admiral Dewey.

About 1900 — perhaps under the impetus of the sons — the name became the Great Western Wine and Liquor Company and the company moved to the southwest corner of Fourth and Market Streets.  From an illustration of the building, it appears that the Starks had an extensive first floor store.  With the move into liquor,  the family created their own brand of whiskey, calling it “Old Stark Whiskey,” trademarking the name in 1906.  The label for this brand was marked by a star and a “K,” a play on the family name. 

 

By going into the hard stuff, the Starks soon recognized a problem faced by many liquor wholesalers — lack of supplies.  Changing the name of Great Western to the Stark Distilling Company, they bought an interest in the Tom Moore distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky,  to provide them with a steady flow of bourbon and rye.   

The investment also allowed the Starks to feature a number of proprietary brands, including "Aero Club,” “Ashwood,” "Belle of Ozark,” “Gasconade,” “Hahatonka Rye,” ”Marshall,” "Old Gobbler,” and "Stone Hill."  In 1915, the Starks trademarked Old Gobbler, Hahatonka, and Gasconade, the last a reference to the county in which the city of Hermann was located.  They also featured their own brand of gin, “Lord Salisbury.”  Like other wholesalers, the Starks issued shot glasses and other giveaways to favored customers featuring their brands. 

By this time George Stark was aging and had cut back on his business activities.  Ottmar was the president and secretary of Stark Distillery Company and Louis was vice president and treasurer.  Both also held executive positions in the Stone Hill Wine Company.  In 1901 Ottmar had married Helen A. Hahn and the couple would have six children.  Louis married in 1908, to a St. Louis girl named Mae Ralwond.  No children were cited in Louis’ biography published in 1919.

By that year both senior Starks had passed.  Mother Laura had died in 1916 and George a year later.  The “founding father” of the Stark wine and liquor empire was seventy-two years old.  The couple were buried in the Hermann Cemetery in the shadow of a large monument that featured a mourning figure.  It stands over a gravestone where George Stark is remembered “as our dear Papa.”

By dying when he did, George was spared the blows of fortune that were to befall his legacy. Not so his sons. Soon after his death anti-German sentiment aroused by World War One caused a decline of business at the winery.  The coming of National Prohibition in 1920 forced termination of both the Stark Distilling Company and the winery.  During this same period disease struck the Starks’ vineyards; Ottmar and Louis ordered them destroyed and then sold the land.  By 1923, the Stone Hill cellars were being used for mushroom cultivation.

In summary, the major contribution of George Stark and his sons was not in whiskey.  The family was only one of a number of St. Louis liquor wholesalers and their brands never reached wide national attention.  In wine, however, the Starks can be credited with making Missouri the Nation’s second largest wine-producing state.   Moreover, as a result of winning awards at the 1873 World Exposition in Vienna,  the family was instrumental in American vintages gaining global recognition.