Here's the latest information I have on my Grandfather who worked in the spirits industry from 1928 through 1977, much of it in KY with bourbon. The information I have here is based on two phone conversations with my Grandmother, the first in July 2002 and the second the other night, April 30, 2003. I can't claim that all of it is completely accurate. As time goes on, I will make corrections and add more details.
My grandfather's name was Thomas Holman Bryant; he went by his middle name. He was born on 1/1/11. I remember that he had referred to his birthday as the Five Aces. In his latter childhood, up until he graduated from high school, he lived at 1945 Deerwood Avenue in L'ville. I mention this because I found out from our own Bettye Jo Boone that her grandparents, Harry Milburn Beam and Josephine Rogers Beam, lived at 1832 Deerwood, apparently for part of the same time and that they attended the same church, St. James. (Small world, huh?)
My grandfather graduated from high school in 1928 and went to work for Frankfort Distillers. In 1933, he was sent to Baltimore, MD, to open a plant. He returned in 1936 to marry my Grandmother, Carolyn Klapheke (born 11/5/15). My Mom, Mary Barbara (aka Babs), was their first born in 1937.
After the Frankfort Distillery was bought by Seagrams (1940 something), my Grandfather went to work for Cummins-Collins in L'ville. After the death of Mr. Collins (year?), Cummin-Collins was dissolved (?). Mr. Cummins started the Louisville Distillery on 15th Street and my Grandfather began to work there.
After Mr. Collins died (year?), my Grandfather worked at a couple short jobs before he began to work for Old Joe Distillery (now Four Roses) in Lawrenceburg, KY. At first, my Grandfather commuted weekly to Lawrenceburg, but in the summer of 1952, he moved his family from L'ville to L'burg. If I heard my Grandmother correctly, my Grandfather was the plant manager at Old Joe.
My Grandfather worked for Old Joe for a few years before moving over to JTS Brown on Versailles Parkway (US 62), which I believe is now the Wild Turkey Distillery (I will verify this later).
In the summer of 1955, my Mom moved back to L'ville to work and lived with an Aunt/Uncle. She married my Dad, Donald G. Logsdon, in July 1960, in that same St. James church near Deerwood Avenue. I was their first born in April 1961.
In November 1961, my grandfather moved to Philadelphia to work for JA Daugherty & Sons in Philadelphia. In March 1962, JA Daugherty & Sons was sold in a silent auction won by Publicker Industries. A court battle ensued for some reason and lasted 15 months, during which my Grandfather went to work each day not knowing if he would have a job or not. In 1966, Publicker moved the bottling facility to Linfield, PA. My Grandfather was the manager of this bottling plant.
I lived with my Grandparents for a few months in Linfied in 1967 with my Dad who had just started a job with RCA in Camdem, NJ. I started 1st grade in Linfield. I do remember the school bus dropping me off at the entrance to the bottling plant at the guard house. The guards would call my grandmother to come pick me up. My grandparents lived in a house behind the plant on the Schuykill River. The house was a historic house built in 1740 and served as a post office in Revolutionary days.
After my parents' house in Ft. Mitchell, KY, sold, my Mom and my three younger brothers moved to Linfield in December 1967. In February 1968, my family moved to Cherry Hill, NJ. Side note: Though we were in a middle class neighborhood, my next door neighbor was Big Cherry (aka Cherry Hill Fats), a semi-famous swindler (Sylvan Scolnick) who weighed over 700 lbs. and was in jail at the time. Around the corner, about three houses away, was a house built and owned by Al Martino (remember Johnny Fontane in The Godfather?).
In an interview, Al said Muhammad Ali was so in love with the house that he tried to buy it away from Al.
Ok, ok, back to my Grandfather. He continued to work at Publicker until he retired in 1977. My Grandparents moved back to Louisville to the house where my Grandmother still lives. My Grandfather passed away passed away in August 1998. But, before then, I was old enough to go to the liquor store on Hikes Lane and buy him some Very Old Barton. :-)
After my Grandfather's death, my Grandmother donated several items to the Getz. (I just found out about this this past week.) In the coming weeks, I will get the list of donated items from her. Our own brendaj (Beej, as Bobby calls her!) has offered to see if any of them are on display at the Getz and take a photo to post here at SB.com.
