The Whiskey Papers #6 - Rose Whiskey
Today, whiskey seems to have one purpose for its existence. This has not always been the case. In pre-Prohibition times, whiskey was considered a necessity around the house. If your child had a sore throat, whiskey was mixed with honey or apple cider or even maple syrup to produce a cough medicine. Cut yourself on a rusty nail? Pour some whiskey on it to clean out the wound. Wild Turkey a bit gamey? (Pun intended) There is an old British recipe that uses a whiskey brine to tame the game. Doctor taking off a limb? Here's a shot of whiskey. Short on cash? A jug of whiskey can get you some chickens. In fact, in nearby Union Township, the first still was fired up in 1809. Several more followed in as many years there. As you will see, there was method to this madness.
Technically, any distillate produced from a grain is a whiskey; distilled fruit produces brandy. Whiskey, or more formally, bourbon, is a spirit made of at least 51% corn. Rye, obviously, is made from at least 51% rye. Scotch is made in Scotland from malted barley. Most whiskey mash bills use corn well into the 70% range. Other grains make up the remainder of the mash. When complete, the barrel strength is usually around 120-130 Proof, or about 60-65% alcohol. Modern distillers will water this down to 80 Proof, or 40% alcohol. Early bourbons and ryes were rarely aged... aging came later. This is a rather simplistic view of whiskey production. Reality is, of course, a bit more complicated.
Why is the mash bill important? Nearby Union Township grew corn, lots of corn. They had an abundance of corn. After they had enough to meet their needs, excess corn meal was used to make whiskey. Transporting corn was not practical then and thanks to Alexander Hamilton, selling the more easily transported whiskey was not profitable. You see, going back to the earliest estate farms over a hundred years earlier, the miller also had a still somewhere nearby. In Union Township, when you ran out of a sack of corn meal, you took a sack full of corn and dropped it by the miller. You also dropped a jug off in his stillhouse. As the miller came to your sack, he ground the corn and left the sack of meal for you to pick up. The process worked the same for your jug of whiskey. Through good rotation, you never ran out of corn meal... or whiskey.
Helon Rose (Yes, HIS name is spelled H-e-l-o-n) came to St Albans Township in 1814 and introduced the first still to St. Albans some four years later. Helon was associated with the Munson family and the Roses and Munsons were prominent in early Granville history, but that is for another time. These families also owned hundreds of acres in St. Albans. Not coincidently, the first grist mill began work that same year. The still was located just east of Helon Rose's, later Lyman Carter's, house, near where the corn was. Lyman Carter's house sat at the northeast corner of what we used to call Scott's Corners. This was the former Helon Rose farm. Later, the St. Albans Clock Factory would occupy this position. The still did not operate long before it was sold to Dr. Enos Nichols, a short distance away along York Road.
Soon, more stills came to St. Albans, although the histories are rather silent about them. Given the three main taverns in St. Albans, all along teamster and drover's routes, whiskey was probably an easy commodity to come by. Likewise, the teamsters provided a ready demand for whiskey. Supply and demand seem to work out quite well. Personally, the thought of sitting on a hard wooden seat and being bounced down poorly maintained roads... well, frequent medication might be required.
Several stories exist about young men coming from Denison University or Newark to have parties. These stories also mention that these young men paid handsomely in good cash for their excesses. Local tavern keepers never seemed to complain, although neighboring residents might. Broken glassware and china littered the tavern grounds until buried by teamster traffic.
Because the road to Delaware ran from Granville through Alexandria, this road was heavily used by teamsters, often loaded dockside from the canal. The grade from the Raccoon Creek flood plain to Granville Street remained unimproved until the Toledo & Ohio Central improved it when they crossed the old Granville Road (Raccoon Valley Road), and there was an additional hill from Granville Street to downtown, teamsters saw fit to rest their horses at the old Buxton Red Tavern. The muddy morass that got them into Alexandria took both skill, patience, and the willpower of the team. This was a perfect time for the teamster to self-medicate.
By the beginning of the 20th Century, Alexandria and St. Albans voted in their own Prohibition. There is a series of popular pictures showing '300 Drys on Parade' marching on Main and South Liberty Streets before posing for a group portrait taken from the new S. S. Anderson Hotel. No longer could whiskey be made or sold in Alexandria Village or St. Albans Township. The Township went dry. Lest I forget to mention, Noble Landon, the township's first clerk, had the honor of naming the township St. Albans after his native home in Vermont... in consideration of four gallons of whiskey supplied by Landon.
By 1900, Temperance Unions had painted a grim picture of whiskey as the source of violence, illness - both mental and physical, and ultimately early death. Whiskey produced battered widows and orphans too broke to properly bury their beloved drunk. Whiskey had gone from a pioneer necessity to the devil's drink whose absence would certainly be welcome. By 1919, a distiller needed a special exemption to produce grain alcohol for medical needs. The Nineteenth Amendment took effect on January 16, 1919 and banned any and all alcoholic beverages, anytime, anywhere. This Amendment was repealed in 1933 by another Constitutional Amendment. St. Albans has since allowed low content beverages - beer and wine - but remains dry with regard to the sale and production of whiskey.
I suspect that somewhere out there are a few old stills forgotten in time.
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