George Berry, Where did he work?

[BSS]

The other day I walked around a place called Berry Hill Mansion in Frankfort. http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/finance/attract/berryhl.htm

The man that had it built was George Berry, it says that he was a distiller in the area. Which distillery did he own or work for?

[BSS]

Here's another picture of it. This is a really nice place.

http://members.iglou.com/perkins/newkpf/2003_07/home3529.htm

[cowdery]

Berry wasn't a distiller in the hands-on, actually making the whiskey sense. He was a distillery owner--part owner, actually--but it seems to have been enough to make him wealthy. The distillery was Old Crow. His father, Hiram, was one of the original partners in the company formed to continue the brand after James Crow's death. That firm, a partnership, was incorporated in 1887 as W. A. Gaines and Co. George F. Berry was its vice-president. The president was Edson Bradley of New York so Berry, a Frankfort resident, likely was the principal local executive. The involvement of W.A. Gaines and Co. in the whiskey industry essentially ended with Prohibition. National Distillers, which owned the distillery and brand from the end of Prohibition until 1987, continued to use the W.A. Gaines and Co. name. Jim Beam bought National in 1987. The Gaines name may still be on the labels. I don't have a bottle handy to check.