Author name: Jack Sullivan

 

  In 1864, as the American Civil War was winding down, an immigrant wholesale liquor dealer named Louis Livingston opened a wholesale liquor house and grocery in San Francisco at 221 California Street with a business strategy, while not unique, was unusual.  He imported top grade whiskeys from major Eastern distillers, paying the transcontinental shipping costs and advertising vigorously his premium liquor.

After forming a partnership with three San Francisco locals in 1876, Livingston abruptly sold out to them several years later and returned to his native Germany.  The new owners, Issac Levy, Abram P. Wiiiams, and Joseph May wisely kept Livingston’s name on the door and maintained his business strategy. The founder, however, apparently never returned. 

With May as president, the three inheritors found that whiskey men beyond the Rocky Mountains were more than eager to help Livingston & Co. import their brands for the West Coast, claiming to be sole West Coast distributors and sharing bottle space with their name.  A key supplier was the  W.A. Gaines Co. of Frankfort, Kentucky and its Hermitage Distllery, named for Andrew Jackson’s home place.

Bradley quickly saw to the incorporation of W. A. Gaines with all assets and trademarks officially under company ownership.  He also determined that those liquor houses selling Old Crow bourbon should not be self-selected chaos, but chosen to represent the brand targeting specific markets.  In New York City Bradley wisely anointed the H.B. Kirk Company.  In San Francisco he selected Livingston & Co.  The result was the exclusive right to sell Gaines whiskey on the West Coast and to advertise Livingston & Co. as its sole agent.  The company name appeared prominently on every quart.

The management of Livingston & Co. was not willing to stop, however, with engaging just one Eastern whiskey producer.  It also made an exclusive agreement with Cook & Bernheimer headquartered in New York City.  Founded in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, the liquor house experienced a burst of energy in the late 1800s attributed to the addition of Financier George Carragan.  The company began operating from an imposing building at 144-150 Franklin Street, shown here, and in 1897-1898 opened offices or arranged for other local partners in Chicago, Cincinnati, and Terre Haute, Indiana.

Cook & Bernheimer also reached out across America to San Francisco and arranged collaboration with Livingston& Co.  Among the New York brands chosen was AAA/Old Valley Whiskey.  The label announced it this way:  “WE HAVE APPOINTED MESSRS. LIVINGSTON & CO. 220 & 222 CALIFORNIA ST. SAN FRANCISCO SOLE AGENTS FOR THE PACIFIC COAST, AND HAVE GIVEN THEM EXCLUSIVE CONTROL OF THIS MAKE OF BOURBON. COOK & BERNHEIMER NEW YORK”.  Shown below are Livingston & Co. “Old Valley” bottles, left a  flask and right a labeled quart.

A third distillery providing whiskey to Livingston & Co., although apparently not exclusively in the San Francisco area,  was the Sunny Brook Distillery, owned by the Rosenfield family of Chicago.  By 1904, Sunny Brook had declared itself to be the largest producer of  whiskey in the world — and may have been right.    Its distilling capacity had been expanded to 20,000 gallons daily and warehouses held 10 million gallons of aging liquor.  After several business moves in Chicago, the Rosenfields established their main offices at 174 Randolph Street and opened a New York City office. For a time they also had a Philadelphia branch at the city’s Bourse.  The Rosenfields were also picking up awards.  At the St. Louis Exposition and World’s Fair their Sunny Brook Whiskey was given both a gold medal and grand prize.

The image here implies that Livingston & Co. also had an outlet in Covington, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from the important whiskey hub of Cincinnati.  The reference is a sham.  The location given is “SE Corner Front and Scott Streets.” I have found at least other 15 other companies at the same address, many of them purporting to be distillers.  This was a common practice in the liquor industry.  A legitimate distiller would lease a small amount of space to a whiskey dealer to store whatever he wished and then allow him to claim a Kentucky distilling address for his company.  Begun in 1900 the “Covington sham” was phased out after 1906.

Throughout the growth of Livingston & Co, Joseph May guided its fortunes, making agreements with Eastern whiskey sources that brought nationally known brands to the West Coast.  He also promoted an exclusive company brand called “Pride of Kentucky” shown here in amber quarts.  Needing more space for his growing liquor business, May moved to a four-story building  at 206-208 Davis Street that provided substantially more space for expansion.  The structure is shown above on an 1890 letterhead. 

Unfortunately, the building would be in the path of the Great San Francisco fire and destroyed.  May and his colleages had sufficient resources to surmount the monetary losses from the fire, moving the company initially to 3443-3445 17th Street.  The final move of the liquor house was in 1911 to 639 Howard Street. In the interim, Joseph May died, replaced, it is said, by his wife as chief operating officer.

 

Livingston & Co doors closed for good in 1917, likely anticipating the imposition of National Prohibition.  The liquor house Louis Livingston had founded — and left behind — had survived for more than a half century.   During that period a major development had taken place, linking Eastern whiskey producers more closely with Western liquor dealers.  Despite the founder’s departure to Europe, Livingston & Co. proved to be one of the major beneficiaries.

Note:  The story of Livingston & Co. was developed from a number of sources.  Among them were prior posts on this website:  Edson Bradley, September 19, 1011; Cook & Bernheimer, November  7, 2016, and the Rosenfelds, September 4, 2013.

Special Notice:  Given my age (90) and infirmities,  I have suspended adding additional posts to this blog, this being #1201 in the series.  Instead I will be reviewing previous posts for accuracy, spelling, and typos and responding as necessary  to comments.  Thanks to all my loyal bloggers for their continued patronage.

 

Foreword:  The “Wild West” chiefly has been thought of as a man’s domain, one where the male of the species could express himself without the undue strictures of Eastern America.  Yet for a few women the West afforded opportunities that would have been difficult to achieve elsewhere.  Recited here are vignettes of three women of the West who found their fortunes there.

Sarah Bowman became a legendary figure for her size, strength, and exploits as a participant in affirming American military control in the Great Southwest.  Reputed to be the first woman commissioned as a U.S. Army officer and buried with military honors, Sarah brought liquor, food, water, “comfort” and, upon occasion, a gun to the task, as shown here in an artist’s view.

Sarah often was called “The Great Western,” a reference to her height, estimated at over six feet tall, at the time taller than most men, and her weight, well over 200 pounds. At the beginning of the conflict with Mexico, General Zachary Taylor ordered Sarah and other women cooks to Fort Brown, Texas. When Mexican forces mounted a siege of the fort, The Great Western came to the fore for her bravery in providing food, drink, and other assistance to the soldiers. By the time Taylor’s troops relieved the garrison, Sarah’s legend was made.

Subsequently she met a newly discharged soldier named Paddy Graydon, an Irish immigrant, who was running a hotel and bar on the banks of the Sonora River.  The pistol-packing Sarah took over running the saloon and hotel, able keep order among the tough gun-toting clientele that mixed desperadoes with soldiers — and women.  After military adventures and dalliances with men, she opened a saloon and hotel in Fort Yuma, California, adopting several children and caring for them.

Sarah died in Yuma in December 1866 at the age of 53, reputedly from the bite of a poisonous spider.  A Catholic priest, Fr. Paul Figueroa, in his memoirs of Yuma wrote this eulogy about Sarah: “Mrs. S. Bowman was a good hearted woman, good souled old lady of great experience, spoke the Spanish language fluently…opened the first restaurant and kept it until she died.”  

Josephine Airey.  During her relatively short life, she was known by multiple other names:  Mary Welch, “Chicago Joe,” Mrs. James Hensley, and the “Richest Woman in Helena. Montana.”  She perhaps is best remembered today for her career as a saloonkeeper and brothel madam of the Old West.

No amount of controversy seemed to impede Josephine’s upward trajectory in Helena.  When a fire in 1874 damaged buildings owned by residents who lacked the resource to rebuild, she bought up the properties, refurbished them and rented out the space. As a result, she became one of the largest—and richest— landowners in Helena.  By this time she also opened the largest brothel in town, shown below, located at the corner of State and Joliet Streets.  Josephine called it the “Grand,” a building that stood until torn down in the 1970s.

Josephine continued her ascent in Helena. She built and opened the Red Light Saloon and a large variety theatre, costing $30,000 to construct.  (That is equivalent to just short of $1 million today.)  she called it “The Coliseum.”  The venue was a success with its fancy furnishings, beautiful girls who performed — and an adjoining brothel.

A crushing financial blow for came for Josephine, however, with the Financial Panic of 1893. The effects of stock crash on Wall Street reached Helena where Josephine found herself highly leveraged and her creditors demanding payment. She watched as one by one her large property holdings were lost. Left virtually penniless, except for the Red Light Saloon, she was forced to live in small quarters above the drinking establishment. In October 1899 Josephine was struck down by pneumonia at the age of about 55. The glory of her early days in Helena was no more.

Kitty Leroy. During her abbreviated life, Kitty Leroy (sometimes given as LeRoy) was by turns a dancer,  faro dealer, gambler, sharpshooter, and finally saloon owner.  Shown here, Kitty blazed a trail from Michigan to Texas to California to Deadwood, South Dakota, where she became proprietor of the Mint Gambling Saloon.  In her wake were five husbands, one of whom she shot and killed, another who shot and killed her. Women like Kitty Leroy make Western legends. 

With her drive and ambition, Kitty in another day, another time, might have been a nationally known American entertainer, perhaps with her shooting skills, another Annie Oakley.   Of her early life little is known.  She was born in 1850, but opinions differ on where.  My guess is Michigan where she first attracted attention as a 10-year-old performer in dance halls and saloons. There, as one writer has observed, “…She either picked up or augmented an innate ability to manipulate, along with gambling and weaponry skills that would serve her well for most of her life.”

Within a few months Kitty had earned sufficient money to open her own “watering hole.”  She called it Leroy’s Mint Gambling Saloon. The Mint proved to be successful.  In addition to the booze available, Kitty provided gambling, entertainment and women, a combination that the prospectors and other fortune seekers found highly attractive. 

On June 11, 1877, Kitty married 35-year-old Samuel R. Curley, a Deadwood gambler and card shark. This time she had picked a husband besotted with her and a very jealous man.  Curley learned that Kitty had never divorced one or more of her earlier spouses and heard rumors of her having affairs other men.  After a stormy confrontation with Kitty, he stomped out of the Mint Saloon, moving to Cheyenne where he dealt faro in a saloon. Learning that Kitty had taken a new lover, Curley swore revenge on the couple and returned in a rage to Deadwood.  Kitty agreed to see him in her rooms. Curley was waiting for her, drew his revolver, and fired once. The bullet killed Kitty instantly.   Curley then fatally turned the gun on himself.

Note:  The foregoing are short summaries of three women each of whom made her mark in the West.  This website has posts on each one that tell a more complete story and also may be of interest:  Sarah Bowman, December 4, 2024;  Josephine Airy, September 27, 2024, and Kitty Leroy, June 18, 2023.

 

After a brief mention of John H. Sheehan for this blog on February 28, 1913, I had notanticipated visiting this Irish immigrant again 12 years later.  My main subject then was Peter Vidvard, a Utica liquor dealer,  Sheehan had married his daughter, joined in a brief partnership with Vidvard, and later left to open a drug store.  But not, however, to give up selling spiritous beverages.  

Sheehan offered a highly alcoholic remedy he called “Dandelion Bitters” calling it The Great Herb Blood Remedy.  He boasted that his nostrum was a “Rapid and Sure Cure For Loss of  Appetite, Habitual Costiveness [Constipation],  Nervous and General Depression, Indigestion, Biliousness, Sleeplessness, Rheumatism, Kidney Complaints, and General Debility.”  To advertise this broad spectrum remedy Sheehan issued a series of trade cards that deserve attention because these artifacts reflect elements of the late 19th and early 20th Century in American.

The first set of Dandelion Bitters trade cards shown here have much the same theme, cards based around pictures of early telephones. In 1881 the American Bell Telephone Company,  working from the invention of Alexander Graham Bell,

registered profits of $200,000 (6 Million equivalent today) from the virtual telephone monopoly it owned.  It leased telephones to customers and retained ownership of the instruments it owned.  Although these trade cards all find something humorous to convey,  the telephonic instruments employed differ in size and appearance, indicating a beginning of some variety.

The Bufford firm, celebrated for its drawings of trade cards and celebrated in my post of February 5, 2025, was the enterprise of John Henry Bufford.  Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Bufford apprenticed in Boston and by 1835 briefly moved to New York, where he opened a lithography business. Five years later he returned to Boston and formed a partnership with his brother-in-law in a new lithographic printing firm, for which he did most of the drawing. The business thrived for the next forty years.  The message below was typical of the flip side of such cards.

The following two trade cards aparently were products of other (unnamed) print shops that provided Sheehan with two pictures of attractive children to advertise his bitters panacea:  a winsome little girl who appears to be wearing a large flower on her head as a hat and and a sturdy little chap in a sailor suit with his dog. The message on the flip side tells us that Dandelion Bitters prevents “The usual Lassitude of approaching warm weather…By keeping the system in good order, the wastes of the body are freely carried off which keeps the Blood pure, preventing and curing Rheumatism.”   Obviously knowledge of human biology was not a Sheehan strong point.

One last  trade card, also with an unidentified artist and publisher, is not a bitters ad.  It advertises “John N.  Sheehan…Druggists, Utica, N.Y.”  This image is billed as a “souvenir” and depict a weeping youngster dressed in what I believe is a South American musician’s costume.  Although I have not seen a similar item I suspect the card may be part of a series of children in foreign costumes, meant to be collected.

Note: This short (extra) post would not have been possible without the Peachridge Glass website publication of the trade cards , dated February 3, 2015.  The author is Ferdinand Weber, former president of the Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors, who graciously has allowed me to publish the Sheehan images. The Vidvard artcle was published February 28, 2013.

Addendum:   In researching the Sheehan story, I found evidence that the druggist also apparently had a line of whiskeys that the proprietor sold in elaborately decorated ceramic jugs.  I had never seen them before and think they also deserve attention.

                   The Weilers of Lehigh County— Sheriffs and Their Shots

The Weilers, father Nathan and son John F., both served terms as sheriff in one of Pennsylvania’s most populous jurisdictions, Lehigh Country, including the city of Allentown.  Known for their skill with firearms, the Weilers’ most lucrative shots, however, came from elsewhere —  bottles of whiskey. 

Nathan Weiler was born in April 1810 in Longswamp   Twp., Berks County , Pennsylvania, the son of John and Maria Weiler.  Early in his youth Nathan was apprenticed to a blacksmith.  Although he learned the craft, he disliked the wprk and quit to work for a tobacco dealer.  At age 23, he married Maria Fogel.  The couple would have six children, of whom four would live to maturity, including one son, John F. Weiler, born in December 1847.

Changing occupations once again, Nathan, with wife, moved to Fogelsville, Pennsylvania, to work in a hotel.  That job led to his taking over management of a hostelry in neighboring Siegersville.  Active in Democratic politics, his activities brought him to the notice of prominent party members.   Nathan was nominated and elected sheriff of populous Lehigh County.   The demands of office caused him to move to Allentown, Pennsylvania, with his family.  The city became his permanent home.

Still looking for a more permanent occupation, at the end of his term as sheriff Nathan joined John P. Dillinger in the Allentown liquor trade.  After several years learning the business, Nathan bought out his partner’s share and continued to operate the liquor house until his death in January 1881 at just shy of 71 years old.  The cause was said to be pneumonia complicated by a kidney ailment.

Nathan was  buried in the family plot in Allentown’s Union West-End Cemetery. His gravestone is shown here. Citing Nathan as “a very well-off man,” the local newspaper in its obituary also commented:  “He ever was a well disposed citizen, simple in his tastes and habits and unobtrusive in his demeanor.”

John Weiler immediately took over management of the liquor house, located at 14 North Seventh Street and Center Square with its towering Civil War Monument, shown above. Now 34 years old, John had worked for his father in the liquor house since achieving maturity except while serving a term in Nathan’s footsteps as sheriff of Lehigh County.  By this time John, shown left, was married, his spouse, Ellimina “Ellen” Hass, a woman approximately the same age.  They would have four children, Edward, born 1870; Jennie, 1876, John Jr., 1885, and Marie, 1891.

After changing the name of the liquor house to his own, over the next 39 years, John F. made a number of important innovations.   Among them was containing his wholesale liquor in ceramic jugs with his name written on them in cobalt script.  Because each container was done by hand,  every label has a distinct character and is slightly different from the others, as shown here. 

 

John also packaged his wholesale whiskeys in less ornate jugs, as shown right.  For his retail customers, John provided liquor in glass bottles.  Left is a quart container with elaborate embossing that contains his name and address in large letters.  My assumption is that this bottle would have had a paper label naming the contents that long ago had been washed away and lost.  That renders Weiler’s Jamaica Rum bottle, right below, more interesting for an intact label that is more than a century old.

 

Following John’s term as sheriff, he co-sponsored an annual trap shooting meet as founder of the John F. Weiler Gun Club.  The tournament was held at a site on the grounds of the Duck Farm Hotel, located in a valley surrounded by sloping hills.  A local news story described the scene.  “A famous trout stream runs through the grounds just in the rear of the traps….The traps faced almost due north, and the targets being thrown against a hill background, made them made them more difficult to see—more particularly when thrown toward that part of the hill under cultivation.”  Nevertheless, trap shooters competed and prizes were awarded.  They frequently were won by gunners named Weiler.

John Weiler also was active in the fraternal organization known as the “Improved Order of Redmen.”  Established in 1934, Redmen rituals and regalia were modeled loosely after Native American traditions (as interpreted by white men.)  At its peak in 1935 the organization claimed half a million members before dwindling sharply in subsequent years.   In addition to providing a hall for fraternity meetings, John held the rank of chief of the Allentown “Lecha Wonka Tribe” also known as “The Keeper of Bundles.” 

John Weiler retired in 1917 after some 36 years operating the liquor house begun by his father.   His son, John Junior., took over the business.  Apparently seeing the coming of National Prohibition this third generation of Weilers converted the liquor store into a drug store and confectionary.

John Senior died in 1922 and was buried in the Allentown’s Union-West End Cemetery, on a site adjacent to Nathan’s resting place.  The Weiler monument is shown below.  In his obituary, the sheriff cum liquor dealer was remembered as an “enthusiastic sportsman, with special interest in live bird shoots and clay pigeon shooting.” 

Note:  The story of the The Weilers of Allentown was gathered from a number of sources, including genealogical sites.  My hope is that some alert reader will be able to provide a photo of Nathan Weiler

 

 

 

 

 Considered by many as Milwaukee’s oldest standing building, the Marble Hall wrote a distinctive story as the city’s premier saloon, gambling house, and political center of the 1800s.   Located at 625 N. Broadway, the building also is associated with two major disasters, both involving significant loss of life.

Shown above is a photo of Marble Hall.   Standing outside are three men, all of whom played important roles in the development of this landmark structure.   At left is Fred Snyder, a Milwaukee native who is credited with establishing the venue.  Standing together above are the Pawinskis, Fred at right wearing a white apron and brother Peter.  The Pawinskis began by working for Snyder at his saloon, eventually bought him out, and guided Marble Hall into the 20th Century.

Snyder, a Milwaukee liquor dealer living at 103 Seventh Street, long had looked for a place to house his dream of a high class saloon and gambling parlor.  A newly constructed four story building in downtown Milwaukee had the right kind of almosphere Snyder was seeking.  He moved in and quickly created the city’s premier “watering hole,”  known city-wide for his famed marble bar, shown below. 

It was not just the bar itself, however, but also marble and slate tiles on the floor and other orate features that drew customers.  Following a fire in 2001, repairs revealed a large skylight at the rear of the saloon, decorated on the glass with pictures of plants and flowers. Also uncovered were a large pair of paintings that had flanked the bar. Indeed, Marble Hall had been a swanky drinking establishment.

Although strictly speaking a saloon, albeit one with a reputation for serving good food,Marble Hall was the name applied to the entire building.  This included rooms on the second floor, a Milwaukee center for local gambling and a Wisconsin political hotspot.  As one newspaper reported:  “Governors and mayors rubbed elbows there…Marble Hall gambling was ‘big league.’  Huge wagers were made on every election — national, state and local.  No odds were official until Marble Hall set its own.”   It was the saloon downstairs, however, where political deals were made.  There the fates of judges, mayors, councilmen, even governors, might be determined — and the results toasted with some of Fred Snyders’ “Old Crow “ whiskey.

Marble Hall also could be the scene of local hijinks.  It was reported that a Milwaukee mayor once walked into the saloon leading a cab horse that had transported him there.  Instead of displaying the typical nude over the bar,  Snyder installed the portrait of a United States Senator, Matthew Hale Carpenter of Wisconsin, shown here.  A gifted orator, known as the “Daniel Webster” of the West” Carpenter was a frequent patron of Marble Hall.

Marble Hall also knew its share of tragedy and sorrow.  In September 1860, amid the unrest preceding the Civil War, the city experienced the greatest disaster in its history.  Returning to Milwaukee from an excursion on Lake Michigan to Chicago, the steamship Lady Elgin was rammed by a fishing boat and sank.  An estimated 300 passengers perished.    Afterward survivors, relatives and others gathered annually at Marble Hall to commemorate the disaster.

he brothers operated their saloon well into the 1900s until closed by the advent of national Prohibition.  And then beyond.  As described by Milwaukee collector Henry Hecker: “ Fred W. Pawinski, got a little more publicity in 1921. He was indicted and convicted in Federal Court for illegally selling whiskey and sentenced to 11 years in Federal Prison. He was sixty-six years old at the time. Likely owing to his long association with many politicians, some highly placed, a petition was quickly circulated and presented to then President Harding. President Harding issued Fred a pardon.” 

The 13 years of Prohibition were not kind to Marble Hall.  A fire in 1933 required demolition of the two top floors.  The saloon was closed as were the gambling spaces upstairs during and after America’s effort to go “dry.”  The building subsequently held Ianelli’s upholstery shop.  The address was changed to 654 Broadway.  Few who pass the old building today know that it once held Milwaukee’s most elegant saloon and the center of local and state politics.

Foreword:  Readers of this blog are aware that from time to time I feature other writers who treat similar subjects.  Recently I was researching Baltimore’s Stewart Distillery when I came across an Internet article on that subject by Mike Cavanaugh, a resident of Long Island, New York, and ask his permission to reprint it.  He graciously agreed.  Mike’s blog, baybottles.com, features some 300 posts.  I am pleased to bring his excellent research and information to a new audience and recommend his website.

The Stewart Distilling Company was in business from 1909 until the mid-1920’s but the company’s roots date back much earlier to an Irish immigrant named Robert Stewart. According to 1900 census records, Stewart was born in 1836 in County Antrim, Ireland and immigrated to the United States in 1854. His July 10, 1901 obituary in the Baltimore Sun stated:   When a lad of 18 years he came to this country and settled in Baltimore. In 1886 he started a distillery in Highlandtown.

Between 1887 and 1894 Robert Stewart was listed with the occupation “distiller” in the Baltimore city directories. His distillery was located at the southeast corner of Bank and 5th and the office was at 32 S Holliday.  In 1894 his business incorporated under the name “Robert Stewart Distilling Company” The incorporation notice was printed in the January 15, 1894 edition of the Baltimore Sun:

 Certificate of the incorporation of the Robert Stewart Distilling Company was put on record in the clerk’s office at Towson. The company is formed to continue the distilling business already established by Robert Stewart at Canton. The capital stock is $125,000, in shares of $100 each, and the directors are Robert Stewart, Benjamin Bell, Isaac W. Mohier, Jr., Diedrich Wischhusen and Thos. W. Donaldson.

During this period, the distillery produced a whiskey called “Robert Stewart Rye.” Their agent, at least in New York, was the well established firm of H.B. Kirk who included their brand in several of their advertisements between 1893 and 1895. This December 6, 1893 advertisement in the New York Times stated that it was “bottled at the distillery,” and referred to it as the “Best Eastern Rye.”

Robert Stewart continued to run the business until December, 1897 when he sold the business and retired. The December 31, 1897 edition of the Baltimore Sun ran a story announcing the sale.

                                     A Highlandtown Distillery Sold

The Robert Stewart Distilling Company have transferred to Daniel H. Carstairs and J. Haseltine Carstairs, of Philadelphia, the plant and equipment of their distilling business and three lots of ground on Bank Street and Eastern Avenue. The price paid is not stated. A mortgage for $40,000 for part of the purchase money has been given.

Another story, this one in the January 14, 1898 edition of the Baltimore Sun provided some additional information:    The distillery has a capacity of 1,200 or 1,500 gallons of whisky daily, which will be increased to about 3,000 gallons daily by an addition to the plant now in course of construction.

The Carstairs Brothers served as proprietors of the distillery between 1898 and 1908 which was still listed at Bank and 5th in the Baltimore directories. Many of their early 1900’s advertisements included an aerial view of the distillery, which I assume by this time included the additions mentioned in the 1898 story above.

At the same time the Carstairs Brothers were managing the distillery they were also managing the firm of Carstairs, McCall & Co., a business that their family had been connected with as far back as the late 1700’s. Headquartered in Philadelphia, the company was heavily involved in the wine and liquor trade as importers, exporters and wholesale dealers.

A story on Carstairs & McCall in the October 6, 1908 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer described the early history of the business:  The present firm style was adopted in 1867, in which year the late James Carstairs and John C. McCall associated themselves as general partners. They were both recognized as imminently enterprising and progressive men of affairs, and under their aggressive management the interests of the house were considerably broadened and extended. The death of Mr. Carstairs, in 1893, was followed by that of Mr. McCall, in 1894, since which time the business has been conducted under the management of Messrs. Daniel H. Carstairs and J. Haseltine Carstairs, sons of the late James Carstairs, who entered the firm in 1885, and representatives of the fourth generation of the Carstairs family in continuous connection with the house.

The Philadelphia headquarters of the firm were located at 222 South Front Street for many years, but were removed in September, 1904, to the commodious and modernly equipped four-story and basement double building now occupied at 254-256 South Third Street. New York offices are maintained in the Park Row Building.

The story went on to say that while the distillery of the firm was located in Highlandtown, the business was done altogether in Philadelphia. This leads me to believe that while they may have been separate business entities, Carstairs Brothers and Carstairs & McCall were in effect operating as one. During this period they called their whisky “Stewart” Pure Rye Whisky.” A January 12, 1905 item printed in the “Wine & Spirit Bulletin” described it like this:

                                 Carstairs Bros. – A Fine Whisky

The absolutely essential elements for a fine blending whisky are a heavy body and strong character and flavor. The same characteristics are equally attractive, after proper aging, in a fine bar whisky.  Among the best in this line either for blending or bar use or for bottling in bond is the “Stewart” pure rye whisky, made by Carstairs Brothers, of Philadelphia Pa., at their distillery at Highlandtown, a suburb of Baltimore Md.

    The Carstairs Brothers are gentlemen of a remarkably high order of intelligence and ability and character. They, as well as their goods, are thoroughly reliable, which fact will be attested by the trade at large wherever they have had dealings and that covers nearly every section of the country where fine rye whiskies predominate.

The 1908 Philadelphia Inquirer story called Stewart Pure Rye Whiskey their oldest and most well known product and demonstrated that it had grown quite a bit since being acquired by Carstairs:   It has a production of over 15,000 barrels per year and is sold all over the United States. A market for it abroad has rapidly increased of late years and many barrels are forwarded to London, Paris and Bremen every year.

Sometime in early 1909 a newly formed company called the Stewart Distilling Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania to consolidate the operation of Carstairs Brothers’ Stewart Distillery and the business of Carstairs, McCall & Co. A story in the April 25, 1909 edition of the Baltimore Sun covered the new corporation’s acquisition of the distillery:

The Stewart Distilling Company, of Pennsylvania, has purchased from Messers. Daniel H. Carstairs and J Haseltine Carstairs, of Philadelphia, trading as Carstairs Brothers, the distillery at Highlandtown, located on Eastern Avenue and Bank Street. The conveyance was recorded yesterday at Towson. The deed transfers 13 lots, 10 in fee and 3 leasehold: also the entire plant, machinery, tools, etc., office fixtures, furniture, whisky brands and trademarks known as “Stewart” brands, formerly owned by the Robert Stewart Distilling Company.

Four days later the Philadelphia Inquirer covered the acquisition of the facilities owned by Carstairs, McCall & Co.:  The two buildings at 254-56 South Third Street have been conveyed by J Haseltine Carstairs to the Stewart Distilling Company for a consideration recited as nominal. On a combined lot 50.10 x 180 feet the buildings are four-story brick structures assessed at $30,000.

 The new corporation remained under control of the Carstairs brothers with Daniel serving as president and J. Haseltine serving as vice president and treasurer.  The company remained listed at the former Carstairs, McCall & Co., South Third Street address through 1918, changing their Philadelphia address to 301 Bellevue Court Blvd. in 1919. In New York their address was listed as 21 Park Row in 1909 and 1910 and 2 Rector Street from 1911 to 1919.

The brand I see advertised the most during this period was called “Carstairs Rye.” A series of advertisements printed in several of the NYC newspapers over the course of 1911 mention that its “the oldest American Whiskey,” dating back to 1788, which is certainly a reference to the first generation of Carstairs.  A labeled bottle found on the internet confirms that they continued to produce the Stewart brand as well, now called “Stewart Pure Old Rye”

By 1921 the Stewart Distilling Company was no longer listed in Philadelphia but the distillery in Baltimore survived for several more years.  On April 22, 1919, a “liquidation sale” was held at the distillery to dispose of the entire plant, including real estate and equipment as well as the trade name of “Stewart Pure Rye.” Notices announcing the sale were printed in several April editions of the Baltimore Sun.

The day after the sale a story in the Baltimore Sun announced that J. Haseltine Carstairs had purchased the plant in an effort to protect his own interests.

                       Philadelphian Buys Plant to Protect Interests

J. H. Carstairs, of Philadelphia, was the purchaser of the plant of the Stewart Distilling Company, Eastern Avenue and Fifth Street, at Highlandtown, at public auction yesterday afternoon for a consideration said to have been $125,000. The property has said to have been acquired by Mr. Carstairs to protect his own interest, the transfer involving no immediate solution to the future of the big plant. The property includes four blocks of ground, with nine bonded and free warehouses, , besides the equipment, and is said to have been appraised at $1,150,000 before adverse legislation closed its doors.

 Edward Brooks, Jr. attorney for the Stewart Company, said yesterday that after July 1, should the Prohibition law go into effect, a portion of the floor space will continue to be devoted to the storage of liquor now on hand. It is possible, he said, that the remaining buildings will be torn down to make room for improvements for some other line of business.

Sometime in 1921 it appears that the business was reorganized and the Carstairs were no longer involved. In 1922, the Stewart Distilling Company was listed in the Baltimore directories with Arthur Benhoff named as president. A year later in 1923, Robert Pennington and Vincent Flacomio were listed as president and secretary-treasurer respectively.

During this time the distillery may have been producing whisky for medicinal purposes but it was certainly storing liquor in their warehouses. This was evidenced by an incident that occurred in February, 1923 that was covered in newspapers across the country. A condensed version of the story was printed in the February 8, 1923 edition of the New York Daily News:

Discovery that bootleggers have got at least 100 barrels of whisky by tunneling from an unoccupied house to the Stewart Distillery was made today when a bootlegger had bared the plot to authorities. The tunnel is 150 feet long and large enough for a man to crawl through. Barrels in the distillery warehouse were tapped and the liquor pumped through a one and a half inch hose to containers in the unoccupied house.

The Baltimore Sun covered the story in much greater detail and actually provided a sketch associated with the theft:

According to a story in the April 18, 1924 edition of the Reading (Pa.) Times this wasn’t the only whisky vanishing from the Baltimore distillery:

Indictments charging two distillery officials with illegal sale of liquor were returned by a special federal grand jury here today.The men indicted were Jacob Katz, vice president and manager of the local warehouse of the Stewart Distillery, Baltimore, and Morris G. Waxler, local manager of the Sherwood Distillery.  The indictment against Katz contains thirteen counts alleging illegal sale of 3,000 cases of whisky and twenty-five barrels in September 1922 and with maintaining a nuisance where the whisky was stored…

Ultimately the end of the distillery came in the mid-1920’s. A story in the August 5, 1925 edition of the Baltimore Sun, stated the distillery property changed hands again:  Title to the old Stewart Distillery property on Bank Street between Fifth and Seventh Streets was conveyed by the Stewart Distilling Company to W. Guy Crowther, Jacob Ott and Herbert A. Megrow, through the Title Guarantee and Trust Company. The consideration was $75,000.

A month later, this advertisement in the September 6, 1925 edition of the Baltimore Sun announced that the distillery was being dismantled and that much of its contents and equipment was for sale.  Finally a June 15, 1927 Baltimore Sun article stated that the distillery property had been sold sold to the Crown Oil and Wax Company:

The former Stewart Distillery property on Bank Street, including eighteen two-story leasehold brick dwellings at 3804 – 3838 Bank Street and machinery, equipment, lumber, etc., was acquired at public auction yesterday by the Crown Oil and Wax Company. The consideration was $25,000 subject to mortgages totaling $54,566.22. Purchase was from Henry Goldstone, trustee, through Sam W. Pattison & Co., auctioneers. No plans for the property have been made by the purchasing Company, it is said.

The last listing I can find for the Stewart Distilling Company was in the 1926 Baltimore City Directory. As far as I can tell, their corporate charter was ultimately forfeited for failure to pay franchise taxes in 1925 and 1926.

Toward the end of Prohibition several different organizations were planning to revive some of the well-known Carstairs trade names. One, actually calling themselves the “Stewart Distilling Company,” was chartered June 14, 1933, and another calling themselves the “American-Stewart Distilling Company,” was a revival of the previously forfeited Stewart corporate charter.  D.H. and J.L. Carstairs brought suit to restrain them and two other companies, the “Carstairs Rye Distilleries, Inc.,” and the “Maryland Stewart Distillery Company” from using the Carstairs trade name.

An article in the March 15, 1934 edition of the (Allentown Pa.) Morning Call announced that the U. S. District Court of Maryland had ruled in favor of Carstairs in the case against Carstairs Rye Distilleries. I have to assume that they ultimately came down with similar rulings against the other companies as well because all three were included on a list of delinquent corporations that had forfeited their charters that was printed in the February 11, 1937 edition of Baltimore Sun.

The Morning Call article summarized the situation like this:  Carstairs rye whiskey, a favorite with drinkers since colonial times, is off the market unless the famous Philadelphia family bearing the name decides to re-enter the liquor business.

Based on this advertisement for Carstairs Rye, “Back In Baltimore Again,” that appeared in the September 6, 1934 edition of the Baltimore Sun  the family did re-enter the liquor business as Carstairs Bros. Distilling Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There’s no mention of Stewart.

The bottle I found (that opens this post) is machine made with what looks like a double ring lip. It’s embossed with this rather awkward phrase in small letters  around the shoulder:  “LICENSED ONLY FOR USE ON PATENTED VALVE MECHANISM HERE OF BOTTLES WHEN FILLED BY US. RE-USE PROHIBITED. STEWART DISTILLING CO. ONE FIFTH GAL.”

The bottle is consistent with the non-refillable bottle that the company introduced in 1914 calling it “The Supreme Achievement of Standardized Quality, insuring delivery of contents unchanged to the purchaser.”  This most likely dates the bottle no earlier than 1914 and and no later than 1919 and the start of Prohibition.

Note:  Mike Cavanaugh’s use of newspaper and other resources has done a  marvelous job of tracing the history of this distillery, its ownership and brands.  It is just one of some 300 posts he has written for baybottles.com and I recommend his blog to all those interested in whiskey bottles, other artifacts, and history.