Remembering more about Kinsey Distillery

[dave ziegler]

Today it is cold and raining here and I remember well what the one Old timer used to say to me on a day like this he would say Dave whatever you do don't go out with out your Flask! I remember driving our Yard gang Pickup which was the nicest of the old trucks a 1951 Ford still had the original Motor little flip switch push botton and key that Locked the steering to start it and people today think locking Steering is something new. We would haul stuff to the dump Broken bottles barrels all kinds of things. The old Pickup still had its windshield and doors and the old Radiator hanging under the dash for a heater and it worked to. The Guy that worked on the trucks had a homemade room between the #10 Rye Building and old 1892 warehouse just a home made bay and a little radiator hanging from the roof a cold place but he Liked it as He liked working by himself. His name was Dicky Pheifer and he was a good guy who had to fix allot of ruined stuff all the time. The old Heavy Duty 1941 Flat trucks had no doors or wipers and one did not even have a windshield. They came up from a logging operation Publicker had somewhere in the south so the one oldtimer told me and I think that is where they got the White Oak for their Barrels. They had their own Cooperage plant in Essington near Phila and made all the stays & Heads there. They had many Coopers at that time, it is now almost a lost art. We also used an old Tractor and wagon to haul out the Steel racks when the company decided to go to large Barrels stacked, we would haul all the steel down to the steer pens to save it. Meanwhile they still used the old Wooden rack buildings for good Rye and Bourbons in BIB! I remember climbing the old wooden Ladder to each level in those buildings it was that or ride the freight evelvator. No stairs or floors just boards running in the center and along each level of the racks. One time as I said before I was running the elevator and they put to much on and I went right to the bottom fast hitting bottom. When I worked there they had 3 company houses two out front and the one down back that Ed Zucca and Mr Holman Bryant shared a upstairs and down stairs apartments both fairly big it is the house Jacob G Kinsey Lived in back in 1892! When we would get coal in we would have to climb in the car and knock at the sides to loosen some of the coal that would stick. They had two very large coal Boilers and one Oil Boiler. The pipes from out front next to the Still ran through the whole plant front and back bringing Hot steam to all the warehouses and in one of my newest set of Pictures jeff put on for me there is one of a thermostat on the wall of one of the elevators. The still even though shut down in the mid 1950's still was a fully heated building and very much fire protected. I remember sweeping the floors even around the mash tanks which there are pictures of in my Thread. I was amazed to look at the old Timkin timer and it had a round data sheet in it from the last time it was run for the next day which never came dated mid 1950's. When in the yard gang we took all our breaks in the old tunnel at the bottom of the still it was well heated and we had lockers there. The company gave us great new US army surplus boots lasted forever and Heavy sub zero coats they where very good about that and we had great insurance too fully paid by Publicker. Back in the old days I worked there the union was called the Grain & Distilling Union member AFLCIO! They even had pipes running into the woods to an old Pump station for fire safey. I have a picture of it with the pictures of the walls left from the Steer Pens. The other Plant Mechanics were Frank Kurtus, Harrison Tyson ( Shorty ) And Lou Stefey. if your car had problems most time the plant mechanics would repair it for you while you worked and 90% of the time it would cost you nothing! We made great money then I have an old pay stub dated Dec 1969 and I cleared $101.20 after taxes very good wages for those times. Publicker was great to work for!

Dave

[dave ziegler]

Here are some pictures I took this weekend of the racks in the old Kinsey Warehouse G & F built right after Probition ended. They were about 10 levels high and you had to climb a wood Ladder or use the Frieght Elevator that was put in! Note on one of the pictures the Sprinkler pointing up to spray around it in case of fire, everything had sprinklers in the plant! Pictures #1 & # 3 if you look up you can see how high they were. Picture #4 You can see the Sprinkler pointing up so it would spray everything round it. You had better be thin to get on the boards between the racks and fearless climbing the wooden ladder up 10 levels! As I said before one to many barrels on the frieght Elevater and you went down fast!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

These Pictures as noted other times were taken in total Darkness with a Flashlight in my Left Hand and the Digital camera in the other with Flash fill in. There is very little light in the building as no windows in most of it. Takes you a good 8 to 10 minutes working your way from one end to the other! In its time this was the bottling house that all the Distillers would have liked to have, state of art with everything from blending to bottling to Caseing, skiding, storing, and shipping from Box car or Truck all in one long building with 12 Running lines.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

If you look close on picture 4 you can see some old barrels laying there in the bottom falling apart. Very sad for me as the first warehouses I went in once I was bumped to warehouse were the old ones and they were very neat old Buildings and as I have said many times alot of the bourbons and Ryes came from barrels aged in there. My first taste of Rittenhouse Rye was from a barrel in one of these Old Warehouses. I am fairly sure the 20 Year aniversary Old Hickory was from aged barrels in these warehouses.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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[dave ziegler]

Here are two Pictures of Building O the Plant Lunch and Locker room and the Government Locker room upstairs. Many a game of Dice did we play in the Lunch room One time I started with .50 got up to $50. only to have the one guy demand to keep playing for another day to see him get the money.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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