Jump to content

Old Lewis Hunter distillery


razerburnt
This topic has been inactive for at least 365 days, and is now closed. Please feel free to start a new thread on the subject! 

Recommended Posts

My Grandfather passed away last year and in his barn I found a whiskey barrel in the barn marked Old Lewis Hunter distillery. DSP KY 15. Anyone know anything about this distillery? Thanks, Randy.

  • I like it 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does your bottle state a city or county on the label?

I checked my index, and Sam Cecil list five different distilleries in five different counties as having used RD 15 at one time.

He does list Lewis Hunter as one of the names used at the Kessler Distillery (page 78) at Lair in Harrison County (RD 9, 19 and/or 38). One of the citation of RD 15 is for the Redmon Distilling Co.(also page 78) in Cynthiana, Harrison County. A local could tell you if those two towns are close.

What the connection of these two distilleries may be, maybe someone else can answer.

Roger

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's the actual barrel, not a bottle. It also says "filled mar 20 1973" and "sour mash bourbon whiskey".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All I could find on the TTB website search was a listing for Old Lewis Hunter KSBW which appeared to be owned by Seagrams. It was dated 1980 with a DSP of 37 for the bottling facility.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I was intrigued by this inquiry and started to dig locally, since Harrison County is not too far away.

I found a geneology site which led me to a great-great granddaughter of Lewis Hunter named Annette Petersen. She lives in CA but has offered to send info about the family and distillery.

Quoted below is the e-mail she sent me.

Subsequently, I headed to the library and found a collection of documents called Cromwell's Comments. John Cromwell was a columnist in Cynthiana who wrote for the Cynthiana Democrat from 1928 to 1940.

I'll make a second post after I summarize that info.

"

I would be happy to send you all that I have on the Hunter family. I live in California, but I visit Kentucky every two or three years. I still have Hunter/Hinton family in the Fleming County area.

Lewis Hunter was acturally my great. great grandfather. When I went back to see the distrillery, I met a local resident who was a volunteer at the Harrison County Historical Society. George Slade was extremely helpful, we stayed in touch until his death a couple of years ago. He sent me quite a bit of information regarding the family and the distillery itself.

If you google the names Lula Belle Hunter and Jasper Wardlow, the article that they published should come up in the Newsletter that was posted a few years back.

When I went to visit George, he kept telling me that I had family buried at the old Blackburn House down the road between Cynthiana and Lairs Station.. I told him that I couldn't think who that could be, since my family was buried in Fleming County. We finally figured out that Lewis Hunter's mother MaryAnn (Rohr) Hunter had been a widow and remarried. She married a Mr. Blackburn and she was buried on the Blackburn homestead. I never did get to see the grave because some crazy old lady who lived there wouldn't let people on her land.

I know that there is a photo of an old Bourbon bottle with a man's portrait featured on the front if you look on the Internet images. I have no idea who the man is. I have no photos of Lewis Hunter, but I may be able to get one from a cousin in Kentucky. I do have a photo of his tombstone. He is buried in Hillsboro, KY.

I have a portrait of his son, James Wassie Hunter and his wife Emma Hinton if that is of interest to you. Also, I have an interesting advertisement that was featured in a Baltimore, Maryland newpaper in the 1960s. Siegrems was asking for the Hunter family to please provide a photograph of Old Lewis Hunter. There was a $500.00 reward. Now I am wondering if someone provided a fake portrait.

I have thought about contacting the PBS people who look up information on the History Detectives. I think it might be an interesting case for them to feature."

I'm going to go up and take pictures at the site when the weather breaks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks much Mr. Ed. My curiosity is even more peaked. I'm looking forward to seeing more on this. I've not had much success with finding anything myself. My Grandfather had the barell for years and when he died I brought it home from his farm, so it has some sentimental value. Thanks again, Randy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "Old Lewis Hunter Distillery" is now owned by me. I would like to see your barrel some time, and take a few pictures of it, if possible. You can have a tour of the site, just about anytime if you want. Rick

  • I like it 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Rick, not a problem. Just PM me sometime and we'll set something up. Thanks, Randy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Hey Randy, Any chance we could get together the second Saturday or Sunday in May. Rick B.

Rick,

Look forward to it. Just let me know a little in advance so I can plan my weekend around it. Randy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I'd love to see the site as well. Please let me know if you will in fact be in the area the second weekend of May.

Kevin Nowaczyk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 years later...
On 3/11/2008 at 11:05 PM, BERNCOW said:

The "Old Lewis Hunter Distillery" is now owned by me. I would like to see your barrel some time, and take a few pictures of it, if possible. You can have a tour of the site, just about anytime if you want. Rick

Do you still own the distillery site? Lived in Harrison County for awhile and have always been fond of that old distillery.  Would love to visit it sometime this fall or winter when the vegetation clears out. Thanks - Melissa

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

2 hours ago, CSIMelissa said:

Do you still own the distillery site? Lived in Harrison County for awhile and have always been fond of that old distillery.  Would love to visit it sometime this fall or winter when the vegetation clears out. Thanks - Melissa

Welcome to the site Melissa!

 

Unfortunately I don't think you'll get an answer from BERNCOW as he hasn't logged in since January 2010. If you hover your cursor over someone's name it'll show their count content, when they joined and the last time they visited the site.

 

I hope this doesn't discourage you from continuing to participate on SB.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

My Grandfather & his brother owned the Lair, Ky Old Lewis Hunter distillery.  They also owned Merchants Distillery in Terre Haute, Ind.

Stories of these distelleries filtered down from stories my Dad told me over the years.

In 1989 when I was in Lexington, Ky w/ my folks we went to Cynthiana, Ky because my Dad recalls living there.  We went to the Lair ruins and ran into a man who had worked at the distillery and knew my Grandfather.  This man mentioned that SEAGRAMS had contacted him to see if he had any memorabilia.  He gave them a bottle under the condition that he'd get it back.  They did not and he mentioned this numerous times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is interesting.  I live only about 6 miles from Fleming Co and go there often visiting friends.  I know some of the Hinton Family owners of Hinton Mills and used to attend church with some of them in Ashland.  If anybody wanted to track down family info from Hillsboro or Flemingsburg, I pass thru there often.  I hope to go up that way this weekend to help a friend with a Coyote problem.  

 

Irish

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

The family mentioned in Fleming Co. is my grandmother Ruby (Hunter) Watson, Lewis Hunters granddaughter.  Lewis Hunter's son, James Wassie Hunter, died when my grandmother was 6 months old, and Lewis had passed little more than a year earlier May 14, 1914 (see attached headstone). 

 

Lewis Hunter had several children [1], James, William, who died at 2 y/o, Luta settled in Fleming Co., and Anne, who's family moved west to Colorado and California.  To my knowledge, the only living descendants of Lewis Hunter are through James and Anne.    

 

While we know the family history, there was unfortunately little contact between Lewis Hunter and my grandmothers side of the family.  I have been unable to find any information about when Lewis Hunter actually owned a distillery, which would have been prior to 1914.  The majority of documentation and artifacts, like bottles with his likeness (likely not him) and distillery using his namesake were in operation. 

 

It is likely my cousin Annette Petersen (previously mentioned) would know more about possible dates and location of Lewis Hunter contribution to the Old Lewis Hunter brand.

 

[1] https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/lewis-hunter-24-2ksxp6

 

Cody

IMG_0946.JPG

  • I like it 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/9/2021 at 9:10 AM, cbumgardner said:

The family mentioned in Fleming Co. is my grandmother Ruby (Hunter) Watson, Lewis Hunters granddaughter.  Lewis Hunter's son, James Wassie Hunter, died when my grandmother was 6 months old, and Lewis had passed little more than a year earlier May 14, 1914 (see attached headstone). 

 

Lewis Hunter had several children [1], James, William, who died at 2 y/o, Luta settled in Fleming Co., and Anne, who's family moved west to Colorado and California.  To my knowledge, the only living descendants of Lewis Hunter are through James and Anne.    

 

While we know the family history, there was unfortunately little contact between Lewis Hunter and my grandmothers side of the family.  I have been unable to find any information about when Lewis Hunter actually owned a distillery, which would have been prior to 1914.  The majority of documentation and artifacts, like bottles with his likeness (likely not him) and distillery using his namesake were in operation. 

 

It is likely my cousin Annette Petersen (previously mentioned) would know more about possible dates and location of Lewis Hunter contribution to the Old Lewis Hunter brand.

 

[1] https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/lewis-hunter-24-2ksxp6

 

Cody

IMG_0946.JPG

Thank you for adding your info and another couple pieces to the puzzle of this part of Kentucky bourbon history. 👍🏻

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all, I’ve been buying barrels lately of a friend in the uk,Birmingham area,  and making them into furniture sets in my spare time:) I’ve came across this barrel which has a ‘old Lewis hunter’ dated 1969 and started looking into the history of it. Just thought it was pretty amazing how far it’d come & considering how old.... how great the condition of the barrel is still in! There’s still a little whiskey in there too splashing around.

45C6A495-7143-4F3A-B39E-93B6132D9632.jpeg

2437DC3A-8D99-4028-BAF2-74CB69CF4A1E.jpeg

  • I like it 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’d like to reach out to CBumgardner and others to share what I have recently inherited. It is an Un-opened bottle of Old Lewis Hunter Pure Whiskey. I’m really enjoying the history on this topic so far and I would like to find some more memorabilia if possible. 

5FCB6B3E-7DF4-4B93-B1D1-FFF8C938F9F2.jpeg

BFC5E08E-7DD2-4B47-B2D8-30A540F55FEA.jpeg

  • I like it 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

If anyone still owns the property of like to take a tour and maybe get permission to see if any spirits are still around! Being 100% serious and completely professional

 

  • I like it 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.