Distilleries in Daviess County

[jbutler]

All,
I received this question via private email. Anyone know the answer?

>I'm a member of a trivia team in Friday Harbor Washington.

> Each week we receive a number of questions to research. This week, the
> question "How many distilleries were operating in Daviess County at the
> beginning of the 20th century?" is the tough one.

> It appears that in 1896 (?) the county was the number one producer of sour
> mash in the nation.

> Any chance someone out there can help?

> Miles Crossen
> Friday Harbor, WA

Cheers,

Jim Butler
Straightbourbon.com

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Jim, Sam Cecil lists 17 different distilleries in Daviess County. Now we all know the propensity of distillers to ascribe a seperate distillery to each and very brand regardless of whether or not such a distillery actually ever existed. Shoot those 17 distilleries could easily have been 170 different distilleries on paper. Labels that is. The correct answer then is any number greater than or equal to 17.

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[cowdery]

The only source I have for answering that question is the same one Linn cited. However, the best bet would be to find a general business directory from the period, possibly in the local library. That would give you a good indication of how many distilleries actually were operating at the time, without the dba duplication Linn warned about.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://cowdery.home.netcom.com>--Chuck Cowdery</A>

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Jim,
This joker sent the same email to me at the Filson... as a matter of fact I think he spamed the whole club because it was also forwarded to me by 6 of my co-workers. That information does not exist at the Filson so I could only answer this from home so I will do it here on this forum. In 1883 and 1890 there were 14 distilleries in Daviess County. In 1910 there were 11 in Owensboro and I think another small distillery in the county. I would say there were 14 in 1901, the beginning of the 20th century.

Daviess County was the largest producer of sour mash at that time but it was not because they had a lot of distilleries, but because at that time Glenmore was the largest capacity distillery in the nation. Other counties had mare distilleries but a lot of them (as in Daviess County) were small, 3 barrel per day distilleries.

Mike Veach

[jbutler]

Well if nothing else Mike, the guy knows where to find the right info ;-)

Cheers,

Jim Butler
Straightbourbon.com