Elijah Craig

[luv2hunt]

We all know the story of Elijah Craig and the origin of bourbon, but today a medical student who did his undergrad at Georgetown KY, tells me that rumor has it that one of Elijah Craigs barrels of whiskey is hidden in the walls of a building on campus Really?? Campus rumor or truth??

I'll ask him again tomorrow.........but there is a Georgetown College in KY!!

[squire]

The Getz has dibs!

Squire

[barturtle]

Looking at the Georgetown College history it seems unlikely. Craig Died in 1808 the first permanent building on campus(Giddings Hall) was built sometime between 1840 and 1849...if a barrel of his whiskey was put in there it was pretty much dry when it was placed.

However it is a nice myth

[cowdery]

Georgetown College is in Georgetown Kentucky, county seat of Scott County, which is where Elijah Craig had a distillery, "at the fulling mill at the Royal Spring." Today the spring feeds a pond in the center of town and a period cabin marks the site. The quote above is from Richard Collins 1874 History of Kentucky, which is the original source for the myth that Craig invented bourbon. Craig didn't invent bourbon, but he was a distiller, cloth maker, shipping operator, and all-around frontier entrepreneur. He also was a Baptist minister who founded one of the predecessor institutions to Georgetown College. Craig's group was actually a breakaway sect that came to Kentucky after they were chased out of Virginia, but they were very industrious and successful in their Kentucky home. Craig did a lot of notable things, but he didn't invent bourbon, and he didn't hide any whiskey in the walls of a school building, although both are nice stories.

[Jono]

Blog snippet found shows just how a EC's Bourbon drinking Baptist sect was ahead of its time:

http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/ta...ts_and_al.html

"Is the battle of drinking alcohol among Baptists tippling over? Are they spiking up their reasons to drink? Or, as the Baptist Standard put it in today's article, have Baptists watered down their objections to alcohol?

I think yes. In the various Baptist emerging churches i have spent time with in USA, my observation is that the majority drink alcohol, but are cool with those who choose not to. Even in the traditional model churches, I find that young people generally enjoy a beer or wine but there are many older people that will not.

One quote from the article by abstinence teacher W.A. Criswell caught my attention:
"Criswell countered the argument that Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding in Cana by insisting Christ made a divinely different drink. “It was the celestial drink that we shall share together when we sit down to the table of the Lord at the marriage supper of the Lamb, some glorious and final day,” Criswell said.

Now that makes me wonder - Why is everything literal in hell but figurative in heaven? Can someone tell me that?"

[cowdery]

I don't believe Craig's problems in Virginia had anything to do with alcohol. Baptists in the late 18th century had not yet discovered the Lord's opposition to drink.

[squire]

Jesus drank wine and so do I. Praise the Lord.

Squire

[luv2hunt]

I don't believe Craig's problems in Virginia had anything to do with alcohol. Baptists in the late 18th century had not yet discovered the Lord's opposition to drink.

Jesus drank wine and so do I. Praise the Lord.

Squire

I'm not intending to start a debate, but......the opposition in the bible is not to alcohol. It's to "Drunkeness"! So......don't get drunk, and the alcohol is fine.

[squire]

Well, Dawn, if you don't want to start a debate then don't start one. Jesus changed the water into wine so that the guests at the wedding could celebrate the event by, among other consumables presumably, also drink alcohol in the form of wine. Were not the alcohol quotient involved he would have simply left it as water. That was my point.

Regards,
Squire

[cowdery]

I wasn't engaging in a debate, just stating historical fact. As Dawn says, ministers in the 17th and 18th centuries preached against drunkenness but regarded alcohol itself as a gift from God, and there were few abstainers. In the mid-19th century, many people of faith came to regard alcohol as coming more from the devil and sought Prohibition. Craig had theological differences with his church in Virginia, nothing to do with alcohol. In the 19th century, certain denominations, such as the Methodists, came to be closely associated with the Prohibitionist movement, but many other Protestant Christians never stopped believing that moderate alcohol consumption was consistent with a good Christian life. In fact, the legend about Craig as the inventor of bourbon was promoted by people who wanted to say, "look, this Baptist preacher was a whiskey-maker" during the period when many were advocating Prohibition and, as do-gooders always do, asserting that God agreed with them.