I was discussing this past weekend bourbon myths and legends. There are several well known myths that are often quoted as history. The most common ones are:
1) Evan Williams was Kentucky's first distiller.
2) Elijah Craig invented bourbon.
3) James Crow invented (a) the sour mash process, (b) the aging process (c) bourbon
4) Jack Daniel's is the first registered distillery.
5) George Garvin Brown was the first to bottle bourbon.
6) The "Lincoln County Process" was invented in Tennessee.
These are all polular myths. Evan Williams was an early Louisville distiller, but according to his family papers, he did not leave England until 1784. Elijah Craig was another early distiller but there is no real evidence that he created bourbon. James Crow was an important figure who vastly improved the methods of making bourbon, but I have yet to find evidence that created anything new. There are sour mash recipes in the Kentucky Historical Society dating to 1818, evidence of charred barrels date back to at least 1826 and bourbon back to the early 1820's. While he applied scientific methods to measure and control these process and created a more sanitary distilling conditions, he did not actually invent anythig. Jack Daniel did not have the first registered distillery and never made that claim in his lifetime. He did claim to have the oldest registered distillery, but even that can be disputed. George Garvin Brown was the first to sell Old Forester only in the bottle, but there were many bourbons being sold by the bottle before that time. Finally there are written documents describing the charcoal filtering process found in Kentucky and Canada that predate the Lincoln County date put forth by the Tennesse distillers.
These are just a few of the more common myths to be found in what is described as "history" by some companies and writers. I thought I would share them with you with some comments. I hope you enjoy.