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Unread postPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:09 am
by bourbonv
Brenda,
You are right, of course. This distillery was later purchased by Bill Samuels, Sr. and became Maker's Mark. These papers are from 1948 and do mention the sale sale of some whiskey with the distillery, should Taylor Hay purchase the site. I assume the whiskey eventually ended up in Old Thompson blended whiskey, the whiskey thst was "Wed in the Wood" before being bottled.

Unread postPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:13 pm
by bourbonv
Today there is a copy of the settlement in District Court between National Distillers and the K Taylor Distillery over the use of the name "Taylor" in bourbon brands. The court ruled that K Taylor had stepped out of bounds, but was entitled to use the name as long as a disclaimer was added stating they were not the successor to or tied to the Old Taylor distillery and brand. This pretty much ended the life of the K Taylor Distillery, located at the Forks of the Elkhorn, which eventually ended up in the hands of National Distillers.

Unread postPosted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 11:49 am
by bourbonv
Today has been full of interesting items. I found a 1948 article from Spirits Magazine on the A Smith Bowman distillery. There was an undated, unidentified article (maybe Playboy late 50's early 60's) on the McCormick distillery, identifying it as a "prestige" distillery of the finest quality. There was a 1935 cocktail book from Hillcrest distilling Co. and a 1904 booklet from E H taylor, Jr. and Sons discussing Kentucky's exhibit at St. Louis and why rectifiers needed to be excluded in an exhibit on Kentucky Products. Now I am getting ready to go through a collection of post cards.

Unread postPosted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:45 am
by bourbonv
For the last couple of weeks it has been all about Scotland Farm and breeding race horses. There was an interesting letter where one of Taylor Hay's stallions was killed in a fight with another stallion right after doing stud duty. The horse was on loan to another farm when another stallion broke out of his stall and attacked. Both stallions died as a result - Taylor's killed instantly and the other had to be put down.

Unread postPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 3:58 pm
by bourbonv
Today I have started in on an unpublished, very rough draft of a biography of E H Taylor, Jr. written 1929 by John Wilson Townsend. Unfortunately the papers is in very ragged condition and there are pages missing. About 20 pages covering his childhood are missing - I am hoping to find them mixed in with other pages, but probably will not. Still there has been great information about him visiting with Henry Clay, who autographed a biography of Clay for Taylor, Clay's death, Daniel Boone's re-internment in the Frankfort cemetary, his education and start in the banking business. I have only read about 60 pages and find it very interesting. I can't wait to get to his distilling days and the conflict with Gregory and Stagg.

Unread postPosted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 11:26 am
by bourbonv
Working on cataloging an unpublished biography of Taylor today. A newspaper article clipped to the pages tells of a businessman traveling to Beattyville, Ky. in 1904. He visits the County Clerk sees a pile of wooden boxes in the corner labeled Old Taylor, T P Ripy etc... He inquires as to what they are and the County Clerk replies those are their ballet boxes. About that time the sheriff walks in and states that he purchased those to replace their old tin boxes. There are seven boxes - one for each district and they even call the districts "Old Taylor", T. P. Ripy, Old McBrayer, etc... He then states it was the best move he ever made - the boxes go out filled with bourbon and come back filled with ballets.

"In Kentucky, politics is the damnedest" as they say in the poem. Still, I would vote for that guy as sheriff anyday.

Unread postPosted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 5:54 pm
by cowdery
Many years ago I was working on a political campaign in southeastern Kentucky. When we presented the cost for the proposed media schedule, the campaign manager punched some numbers into his calculator and announced, "for that amount I can buy every voter a pint of Jack Daniel's." I replied that if he had a way of accomplishing that, I would agree it was a superior strategy and he should do it.

He bought the media.

Unread postPosted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 1:48 pm
by bourbonv
I have finished the loose letters/papers of the collection and I am beginning to type in the notes from the letterbooks and scrapbooks (There was no computer at the help desk when I did these during my shifts there last year). These notes have many interesting letters in the letterpress books. In 1872 there are descriptions of the sour mash process at OFC, description of the warehouse construction, a letter comparing OFC to the best brandy in Europe and some discussion of charred barrels.

Unread postPosted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:27 pm
by gillmang
Mike, does the letter doing the brandy comparison give any detail or does it just say, "our whisky is the equal of the best brandy stills of France".

Gary

Re: An interesting haul -- Pepper Found?

Unread postPosted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 10:37 am
by southcap
New to this site & still trying to navigate. My family is working on the remaining James E. Pepper and Ashland/Old Tarr buildings in Lexington and was hoping to touch base with anyone who might have any historical info, photos, or just a sense of direction in trying to uncover info on these buildings and distilleries.

Thanks!
Barry McNees
bmcnees@alltel.net


bourbonv wrote:Just got back from Frankfort, Ky. where a relative of E H Taylor is donating about 50 cubic feet of family papers and ledger. Some of the ledgers I am looking forward to checking include the records from the 1870's of the Jame E Pepper distillery and the OFC distillery. Also found letter books and an bundles of letter from the 1800's. This will be a fun job to catalog for the Filson.

Mike Veach

Unread postPosted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 11:24 am
by bourbonv
The James E Pepper distillery mentioned here is really the Old Oscar Pepper distillery, now Woodford Reserve. There are some mentions of James E Pepper the person in the collection, but not his Lexington Distillery.

Unread postPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 12:55 pm
by bourbonv
Today's notes include notes from a July 1871 to March 1872 letter press book. On pages 115-116, Taylor states that the capacity of the OFC distillery is 140 barrels per month - 1,200 barrelos per season and that he mashes 1 bushel at a time and distills 5 bushels at a time.

Unread postPosted: Fri Dec 15, 2006 3:35 pm
by bourbonv
Today I am working on some ledger from the OFC distillery. I have one here that was made to track the barrels with serial no. for the barrel, wine gallons, proof gallons and tax gallons. The barrels have the same numbers for all three columns since tax gallons are the same as proof gallons and they evidently was putting the product in the bqarrel at 100 proof. Most barrels entered have between 44 and 48 gallons listed, but in April 1878 they made some pure rye and must have used double sized barrels because they have between 104 and 112 gallons each. Makes me wonder how that would effect aging with the lesser contact with the wood. How about it Howie, do you want to do some math for this history major and compare the surface area per gallon ration?

Unread postPosted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:19 pm
by bourbonv
Working on the ledger from the distillery now. I have found many interesting bits of information including the names of the distillers at OFC and OOP distilleries in the 1870's. There is also record of Taylor selling Fitzgerald Whiskey to SC Herbst in 1889. I am assuming this whiskey was made on contract for Herbst, thus the Fitzgerald distinction to the barrels. This points out once again that Old Fitzgerald was not a brand born in Kentucky, just Kentucky whiskey called Old Fitzgerald by Herbst. Jno. E Fitzgerald is probably the guy in Milwaukee.

Unread postPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 12:29 pm
by bourbonv
Insurance Ledgers can actually be interesting reading. I am working on several of theae ledgers in the Taylor-Hay collection and it is interesting to see how much whiskey stored in his warehouses is being insured for other companies such as Frankfort Distilleries and W A Gaines and Co. It is also interesting as to how much whiskey Taylor is insuring in other company's warehouses such as W A Gaines and Co. Even back then, there was a lot of whiskey in those warehouses that was owned by other companies and it would be hard to tell who really made the whiskey in the bottle unless it was bottled in bond.