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My Memories of Kinsey Distilling


dave ziegler
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Jono while Publicker owned the Plant everything was kept up, and even back in the Early 1980's when they were leasing The Bottling House and tankage and some other buildings after they sold it, it was all still kept up. When they sold their Plants in Phila and quit the Alcohol Bussiness the Guy from new York that had bought the Kinsey Plant saying he was going to make a industrial Park out of the rest of it, Just locked it up a week or so after Continental Left. Shut down the Boilers turned the power off and left it rot. The Sad part was in 1986 all the Old Buildings were still in good shape the House Down back had a new roof and There was power to all the Old Buildings till the man whose Last Name is Ostricker who still owns it just got rid of all the people who worked in storage for him and the Boiler rooms in the Plant for him and shut it all down and walked away.

Now it is in Ruin if only someone would have steped in and saved all the front buildings including old #12 they could have made a great History Museum of it and made the Warehouses into Condo's and called it the Condo's At Kinsey Distillery Museum! Everything was shut off in fall 1986. And time has taken its toll and Kids have done their share too!

I guess he just pays the taxes and writes it off.

Sometimes I swear I hear Jake Kinsey saying How can this Be! All of the Old Buildings on Page 25 that I just posted this morning all had power till fall 1986.

One last thing the New Nikon Camera is Amazing the shots I took in the 1966 Bottle House were in total Darkness and they look like the lights are on there.

Dave Z

________________________________________

It Seems All The Nicest people Drink Old Hickory

America's Most magnificent Bourbon

________________________________________

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Here are some more shots from Sunday to add to the ones back on the page before.

Pictures are

1. thru 6. Colapsed Racks in Old 1892 Kinsey Warehouse A & B

7. Looking out from the #10 Rye barn

8. & 9. Walls of Warehouses A & B

10. Looking across from old #12 Still site to Warehouses F & G across where the Train used to come in across our Bridge

11. Back wall Of #10 Rye Barn Dsp-Pa-10

12.Looking From Where The Top of The Still was to the Bottom

13. & 14. Grain Buildings

15. The Plant Maintance Barn

16. Piles Of Bricks lay where the Old Plant Office once stood Mr Harold Reinert, Plant Manager, Ruth Harrington and Linda letter used to work inthere Plus Walter Beeber.

I will post the last of the Pictures tomorrow and there are some great ones of the Old Bottling house plus others

Dave Z

________________________________________

It Seems All the Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

________________________________________

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Yes Jono I have seen that one and I even e mailed them to tell them some of my Inside Information but they have never responded to me! I was not happy when they speculated that they did not know if Old #12 had been used ever by Continental. I wanted to tell them Yes till Spring 1951 but they never answered me back. I just wanted to share some of my information with them for their site for History Sake which is very nice and informative but it never happened! So I put it here and Let people enjoy it, and as Long as I can talk to the Old Guys I will continue.

By The way on this page the Pictures of Brick & Wood Warehouses A & B Which Kinsey built right after He founded the Place 1892 are the Ones I mentioned That Ludy Said they used a Y Shaped Chain with two hooks on one end to put on each side of the barrel Head and one hook to put on the Lift above on the inside of the roof. Sounded very Dangerous lowering the Full barrels that way But Ludy said they never Had one pop loose and fall so guess it worked the way it should!

Dave Z

______________________________________

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

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here are some more of the Pictures i took at Kinsey on Sunday with my New Camera!

1.thru 4./ Kinsey Dsp-Pa- 10 Rye barn

5. & 6.Alley between Warehouse D & E and Old Bottle House

7. Alley between Back #10 Barn and Bottling house which was built in the early 1930's Before prohibition they used the #10 barn Which was Built in 1892

8. Back side room in Old Kinsey Bottling house and the two front rooms which ran 3 lines 1930's and in the 1940's when Continental ran it for a while for whiskeys 3 shifts as Ludy told me! The Whole Building was then used for the making of Liqours such as Caffe Lolita and Peanut Lolita. Note the old Blending Tank might even be one Ludy used back when He blended whiskey in there for Labels such as Maywood Blended! Also the Cathonic & Anonic Tanks and filter tank! Old Stairs to the tops floor rooms, Take note of the Red Painted spots on walls and Posts they had fire extinguers mounted where ever there is a red Spot.

I will Post some more tomorrow or Late today Here!

Dave Z

______________________________________________

It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's most magnificent Bourbon

______________________________________________

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Here are some more shots from my trip to Kinsey Last week!

1. You can still read Warehouse D on this Old Kinsey warehouse built at the turn of the Century.

2. The Building put on Warehouse D to put the Fire Mains when Continental Bought Kinsey

3. Set of Rails to put on big rails to take in or out Barrels going into Warehouse D

4. Stenciled writting with Union Local on there

5. Kinsey Rye stenciled

6. Kinsey Stenciled

7. Joe 44 stamped with the old time Barrel marker that they used to stamp barrels back in the old days. Joe would Have Been My Old friend Joe Machukas

8. & 9. More stenciling from back in the 1940's

Dave Z

__________________________________________

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

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Here are 3 more pictures from out front of the House George Dill a Kinsey Company man lived in and also the company Nurse that drank Bourbon and Coffee had her office on the first floor of this old House. Another note about this house Ludy told me at the end before Jacob Kinsey went Bankrupt He moved in this house from the house down back. Around 1937,1938.

Dave Z

_______________________________

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

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What the photos clearly demonstrate is how nature takes back within a very short period of time.....sapplings become trees and trees will break wood and brick structures over time....roots uplift, branches intertwine and push in....just like those jungle covered Mayan cities....you would never know they were there unless you did aerial surveillance or stumbled upon some stonework.

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Here are the last of the Pictures I took at Kinsey last Sunday

It sadly is as you said Jono Trees and weeds and abandonment have taken their toll on Kinsey in these Last 22 yrs since it closed forever! Some Kid walking there one day said to me, did they make Wine here He did not have a clue

1. Old Home made Light Stand with Explosion Proof Light that went sideways

2.Where the Wall of Old Warehouse D and Kinsey Dsp-Pa-10 meet to form one wall

3. Looking toward the Old Bottle House and Barn from the Maintaince Barn

4. & 5. Attic of Maintaince Barn was always used for storing New Electrical stuff

6. 2nd floor of the Maintaince barn used to keep machines back in the day

7. Old Ladder in #10 Barn

8. looking over from the Maintaince Barn at the 1966 Bottling house the Docks

9. Sign on Building M

Dave Z

_________________________________________

It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's most Magnificent Bourbon

__________________________________________

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What is ridiculous is that there appears to be a tremendous amount of heavy timber that could be reclaimed and sold at a profit....rather than let rot away.

Same for the metal....sad as it is....either recycle it or watch it rust away.

The bricks have value too.....

Fools....but I am sure there is some "rational" economic reason to just abandon it.....isn't there a local government interest in the property?

I am surprised it has not been taken over by meth labs, crack house operations, homeless squaters etc.

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One of the things that really made me mad was in around 2002 a group said they were going to make a propane electric Power plant there so they got a option to buy from the guy who ownes it in NY.

Well no one wanted that who lived near there so the whole time they were there all they did was steal metal while saying they were restoring it to people around here. They are the rats that tore down old #12 just to get copper and stuff. And all the heat pipe lines and any Whiskey that was still there. A friend of mine talked to one of the people that worked for them back then and he bragged that he got all kinds of Whiskey in bottles there.

Then he said I thought since it was old it would be no good and he tossed it! They were in there for about 1 3/4 yrs and stole all they could then gave back their option and went on their way leaving Kinsey in more ruin!

Dave Z

_______________________________________

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

_______________________________________

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Cold days like this take me back to working on the yard gang at Kinsey. On a cold Day like this morning I would get in and John Zuber our boss would say we have Box cars of Coal coming today and then we would be climbing up into coal cars knocking the coal that was stuck loose. They would run the coal cars right behind the Grain Building and we would unload coal for days but then we would be good for a fairly long time.

It was one job I did hate very much but it had to be done as every building had heat piped by Asbertos covered pipes on steel uprights from the out front boilers all the way to the very back of the plant to the last warehouse #38 just before the steer pens and even to the Fire pump room I found a couple of weeks ago out in the woods. The pipes kept the Maintaince busy making sure they did not leak. Miles of Heat pipes to everything from the New bottle house to the scale house out back.

And even in the winter once they started taking the barrel racks out we would also be doing that year round.

We would also haul broken Bottles ruined card board boxes and junk down to the dump also. The Old Tractor and wagon 8 -N Ford and the old 1951 Ford Pickup would be running every day hauling stuff.

Dave Z

______________________________________________

It seems All The Nicest People Drink old Hickory

America's Most magnificent Bourbon

_______________________________________________

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When I first started writting about Kinsey I had spoken about the Plant Nurse and that she always had coffee with Bourbon every day. A couple of Months ago I saw and remembered her name and that she had passed on. She lived to be in her very Late 80's so she did good. She was really a very nice Person but she sure was funny after around 2:00-PM and she had drank her Coffee out of a big cup with a couple of shots of Bourbon. After talking to Ludy I remembered that her Office was in the Yellow and white house out front which I posted pictures the other day of. She was on the first floor and my old friend George Dill company man for 30 yrs+ lived on the second floor as his wife died years before. Kinsey Had this kind of family thing about it with 3 company Homes in which one lived in the House to the far front George in the Yellow House and down at the old Kinsey House near the river the Company had made it into to large family apartments for Mr Thomas Holman Bryant second floor and Mr Ed Zuka on the first floor. My Old Friend Milton Shantz I worked with when I started there told me untill they made Warehouse U the new bottling house into a Bottle House there had been another company home where the Big Black tanks sit behind the Bottle House and it had to be torn down to put them there. When I worked there with so many People you would always see someone to say hello to and Kinsey people were very friendly down to earth people. People from all over up state Pa like the coal regions had moved down there to work at Kinsey. Most People that lived in Linfield walked to work and worked there. For 94 Years Kinsey Distillery was the biggest Employer in all of Limerick Township. And It is sad for me to see it sit forgotten just a memeory from the Past but back in those days 600 People depended on making a very good living there!

Dave Z

___________________________________________

It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most magnificent bourbon

_____________________________________________

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In 1986 People went home from work at Continental in Linfield Called Publicker Packaging then do to bottling Chemicals and Antifreeze instead of Whiskey and the next day they came in found it closed forever! However any long term Employee got a call the next day telling them they would get their Pension and All of them got a call about severence Pay. So even in the end they did their best to do what was right. There are so many times I wish even though it closed yrs later that I would never have left. After leaving The Job the neighbor taked me into was terrible and after that I made way less money for many years. But you can't go back. Everytime I walk through there I find something new or Memories come back to me. And to this day those Living that worked there remain friends. Kinsey was always a great place to work and the money for those times was very good. When I show people my pay stub for Dec 1969 they can't believe it. It never fails someone will say Dam you made good money! I had a nice car, nice clothes and was doing good there. And the Boss's were all very nice people no rotten boss's there.

My Job of 18 yrs was just a whole different story one day severence pay walked out due to down sizing one month before 18 yrs and Boss's that treated you like trash! So to anyone who is young and really has a good job you like stick to it the other side of the street is never as good most times. If you have a job you Like stay with it theres so much to be said for liking what you do.

I am very lucky that these last 9 yrs and 3 months I have worked at a great place that like Kinsey is wonderful to work for. And I enjoy going in just like I did back then. My First Boss at Kinsey John Zuber was a great guy and never pushed you to do anything but what was needed to get things done. In the Warehouse my Lead man Jack Rayser was a great person and all my Lead man boss's treated us good. Work was fun and pay was swell!

And I worked with great people Like my Friend Ludy!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dave Z

______________________________________________

It seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

_______________________________________________

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Here are some Pictures I got outside and inside in total darkness of the 1966 Continental Bottling house.

Pictures 1 thru 3 are of the two foot ball field length dock

Picture 4 is almost the side of the Building I was standing way back and still could not get it all in the picture

The next pictures are of tankage lines bottling machines I also got a shot of the pastry Machine in the Lunch room and the Candy Machine with old dried up display stuff in the front! And the refride one of many with a old Lunch bag from 1986! Next a trip into the Door Marked General Office where there sits a very old Early Computer, a nurses station with pills and medicines still on the table. And the door into the room. The last Picture is of the giant tanks at the far outside end of the bottle house.

It is sure sad that things ended this way. And I still can hardly beoieve this has happened to what was the world largest Bottling House for spirits when it opened.

There will be more postings here today and there will be a posting later today on the bottling house thread of Singer Bottling Machines in Building O. I found a old sign that States Kinsey Distilling Corporation Distillery # 10 and I will post a picture of it later today here on the Memories thread!

Also at 4:30 this morning I posted pictures on the Fire Observation thread!

Dave Z

_________________________________________

It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's most Magnificent Bourbon

_________________________________________

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Here are the last of the pictures I took on Sunday 110 of them altogether with my new Camera.

Picture 1. The Well at Warehouse H

2.Stuck my camera in H as far as I could get it as door blocked by large Cement Block The sign that says about Fire is on the Only surviving Frieght Elevator in the Old Warehouses.

3. Door Blocked Warehouse H a shame as this is the building where my Dads Nickname is on the rail ( Ziggy )

4. Shot into the biggest silo

5. through 25 All shots of the Old Grain Building last two of these shots shows a hole where the worm ran out the Grain to the Old # 12 Still! And the Large Wooden Bins on the second floor but the stairs are gone when they tore part of the building down so held my Camera up and zoomed from the ground

26. This is the Old Doorway we would come through to the tunnel where we took are breaks when I worked on the Yard gang

27. Here is the sign I talked about I found

28. Looking At where the Office building was Mr Reinhert Plant Manager Had his office and what is left of the old Kinsey Bottle House.

29. Old Whiskey Tank and wood Gauge to show amount in tank

30. Old Blender of the type Ludy used to Blend Whiskey in there.

31. Old Fire fighting Pull tank in the Grain drying Building also pictures of where Charlie kept his Buggy and showing the hard right turn he had to make when He came flying out of there every morning going into second gear as he made the sharp turn!

Last Picture is of the Fire escape Stair well in Building J very Dark but they as I said were sealed and you could only get in them from the roof or the little Porchs from the Doors in the warehouse walls on on each of the 3 floors!

I will continue to try and find shots that show how things were and to find stuff I have not posted!

Finding that sign again was another surprise for me and I am glad I got a shot as to Big for me to carry!

My Little Emergency Phone has been a blessing as it lets me go there by myself without having to worry if I need Help.

I hope to hear comments on the posting on these 3 threads and hope the pictures are Helpful!

Dave Z

________________________________________

It Seems All The Nicest people Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

_________________________________________

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When I go to Kinsey and take pictures I am always amazed at the way things were built there. The Beams in the old Grain building are so strong and good that even though they tore down the front part the rest stands strong. Holding those large wooden bins above which I can not get to as no stairs.

That is one place I never got to explore back when I worked in the yard gang there I did most including Charlies Grain drying Building. The Picture of the old time Electric meter is on the wall in Charlies building the Grain dryer building and on the other side is the only Boiler left the old oil one the two coal ones having been torn down. I showed a guy at work some of the pictures and he said boy would I love to have some of them posts and beams from that old building to put into a new house they are something else.

It was always interesting when they brought Fork lifts into the old Warehouses like the ones I have posted on the other threads the old orange ones the wrong type for that. They would bring them on one of the old Ford trucks and put down a large flat metal plate and just very quickly run them over the plate onto the dock.

The dock was not designed for fork trucks so you really had to be careful not to get stuck. They brought the Fork lifts from the new bottle House and they were not designed for that type of dock but once they were in did a good job lifting the 337 W.G Barrels onto the Piles we made in Building L. It was moving them across the pile that was hell we did it in teams but how I do not know and no one ever got hurt.

Boy did they leak at the bottom head sitting upright. When it came time to empty them we had pumps and pumped the whiskey into the Troughs. The 337 Gal Barrels that it talkes about on that paper also had chared pieces of White oak put in them through the bung hole that they called floaters to get a better whiskey by making sure all of it touched the Chared wood.

Does anyone else know of any Distiller that tried this big a size of Wooden Barrels or was this a Publicker Idea only?

Dave Z

_______________________________________________

It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most magnificent Bourbon

________________________________________________

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I was just sitting here tonight and I decided to pour myself out a shot of Kinsey Silver from the old 1965 Pint Ludy gave me the past spring and as I have said before find it to be a delightful Blended Whiskey. I never was much for Blended and when I did drink it drank our Philadelphia Blended but now that I have this Kinsey Silver 86.6 Proof I find it to be better then the Phila Blended and it is very neat to Drink the Kinsey Brand for me after all these years it being gone. And as I drink it I lift a toast to Jacob G Kinsey. To think that at Age 75 He would try to make it again as a Distiller of Fine Whiskeys is amazing as most people do not do much at age 75 but Mr Kinsey never gave up trying.

Dave Z

This is the complete Kinsey Solgan!

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Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

For Unhurried Moments

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Dave, maybe you have answered this before...

When and why did you leave Kinsey and what were your thoughts at the time (about the company)?

Did you have family who worked there?

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Jono For your question about Family working there My Father worked at Kinsey for about 3 years then got a job driving truck for Jones Motors which is what he wanted to do after He got out of the Army Air Corps when WWII ended. He Had some friends there and they became my friends, so much so that Ludy does not even remember my Dad but remembered me as soon as I talked to him! Dad worked there from around 1947 year I was Born till 1951.

Other friends were my Dads old Friend Lou Stefy who became a good friend of mine and Old Ben Meyers my first Boss when I went into the Warehouse from the yard gang. When He found out who my dad was he gave me an easy job!

As for Leaving I was just plain dumb! I worked at Kinsey from 1966 till early 1972 5 1/2 yrs We Had a neighbor who kept telling me I should come work where He did at Baker Equipment which was about a mile and a half from my House. Day after day he would tell me how great it would be to work there. Well I finnally quit Kinsey and went there to find that I just Hated the place and having to always buy tools made alot less Money too! A couple years later I tried to get back and Mr Harold Reinert the Plant Boss wanted to give me a job back but they were slow then so he could not.

It was not more then 3 weeks after I left Kinsey that I was mad as heck about having done it. I kept in touch with a bunch of the guys and always wished I would have not left. Even if I would have lost my Job There in 1979 or after they did Antifreeze in 1986 I would have made alot more money and had a happy Job.

Instead I became a truck driver Like my father but made half what he did and less then working at Kinsey and because of 18 years driving have many Back and leg troubles too!

Kinsey Was a wonderful place to work but when you are young sometimes People talk you into stuff that is just plain stupid. So I worked two times harder for less money for many years.

Thankfully after 18 yrs the Plating Company I drove truck for downsized me and I got my wonderful Office job where I am now.

So I always tell young People don't always think that the other side of the street is better as you may make the biggest mistake of your Life.

This is why I love to go back there and remember great days great People and a great Job.

Where I worked for 18 yrs was like working in Hell.

Dave Z

_____________________________________________

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey For Unhurried Moments

______________________________________________

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I am from the "Quad Cities"...Moline / Rock Island IL and Davenport / Bettendorf - IA metro area....actually a small city called Silvis, IL. Anyway, the big employer has always been John Deere...though other competitors like the old International Harvester and Case had plants there too. My dad was a skilled machinist and worked for a small specialty company....non-union...Parr Instrument Company. He could have doubled his wages and had better benefits but he did not want to work in the large Deere plants. He liked the comraderie of his shop and the work. He tried Deere when he was young but just did not like it. Now most people would think you were nuts...after all Deere was Nirvana for the working man in the QC....but he said no thanks. I remember going with Mom to pick him up after work...in those days one car in the family was not unusual....we would park and wait for the shop door to open and out would come the guys with their lunch buckets...all chatting..some would light up...other moms picking their husbands up. Dad was always one of the last to leave...he took extra time to clean up his work area and make sure things were right. The one benefit of working there was that he avoided the cycle of union strikes and layoffs and long over-time hours that were common at Deere and other large union shops. I wonder if his exposore to all those cutting oils and other products coupled with his pipe smoking could have led to his cancer...he developed a lymphoma at 55 and we lost him at 57. Heck, everyone at that time probably had asbestos exposure....I bet Kinsey had it on the pipes, it was in insulation, many products. We used in it High School labs for hot objects. He never wanted us to go into his kind of work...it was going to be college for us. His old company is still there and appears to be thriving.

Happy Thanksgiving! Have a small pour of your Old Hickory.

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Yes Jono there was plenty of Asbestos at Kinsey all the Heat pipes that ran through the Plant were wraped in it! I decided before going to my Sisters for a little bit of Dinner to take a walk around Kinsey today Like I did on Thanksgiving 2006. I got some nice pictures and here are 8 of the shots I will post the rest later this weekend. I like your Dad Jono I always enjoyed going to work at Kinsey and was not in a big Hurry to leave at the end of the day.

Pic 1 thru 3 the Kinsey Stair case in Dsp-Pa-10 Rye Barn I climbed it and found it to be very strong yet and unharmed by the weather

Pic 4 & 5 Shots from the Bank behind where the Old Dsp-Pa-12 stood

Pic 6 thru 8 Shots standing down in the little valley behind the grain building near where the Boiler room was of the 1966 Bottling House two shots showing how Long it is the white Tank at the end is the far end of the building and the Last one showing as much of the side of the Bottle House in a picture you can get in!

I have about 23 more Pictures I will post later. As always I had a good time walking around and it was very Peaceful there as it always is.

Dave Z

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Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

For Unhurried Moments

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Here are the last of the Pictures from Kinsey I took last Sunday!

1. Reads Dsp - Pa 12 warehouse B Continental Distilling corp

2 Warehouse B Racks

3. Old Barrel holder hanges from rack in Warehouse A built in 1892

4.Warehouse A racks fallen down

5. Racks in B holder hanging

6. The Old Barrel Lift that Ludy told me about fallen down to bottom

7. More fallen racks in Warehouse A

8. Racks still standing in Warehouse B

9. Looking in Warehouse D out near road

10. Looking back from warehouse D at door to Dsp - pa-10 Rye Barn

11.12,13 shots of the back road side of the Old kinsey Bottling House I took a walk out toward the road between the buildings to get this shot never got any of it from this side before.

14. Warehouse E last one before the road out front

15. Looking down at warehouse E from D

16. Fire fighting mains for warehouse D in special room built on

17. Looking at Dsp-pa-10 and Warehouse's A & B behind it and the old bottling house and where bricks are the sight of the plant office from behind where the still stood

18. A shot of the inside of the smaller Silo that sits next to the Old Grain drying Building that Charlie drove his buggy out of.

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Well I may really be able to write a book about Publicker & Mr Neuman after Last night!

Last night I received a call from a very Important Person that was involved in almost all of the operations of Continental and Publicker Ind, and this spring we hope to get together when He is in my area and He likes the Idea of a book and has tons of Informamtion and pictures of The Plant in Phila and Kinsey. I talked to him for over two hours and I am very Excited about the hope of writing a tribute Book to Mr Neuman and Publicker Industries and its History and with his help and advice it can be done. I will leave it at that.

Here is a Picture of My Hallers County Fair BIB 1946 / 1950 bottle of that I took the whiskey out of and wrote about on The General Bourbon thread

I am going to the Plant for a walk today I want to look for something I saw in my pictures from Last week and if I can get it will bring it home.

I will if possible get a few differant shots today and will write later today.

Dave Z

===========================================

It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory

America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

===========================================

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