The Whiskey Papers #1

E D W A R D   B R O W N

The Old Brown Homestead, south of Winchester, Maryland

What makes history fun is I never actually write about I think I will be writing.  This started out to be about the Dawes family in St. Albans.  In the meantime, I will tell you about whiskey in St. Albans.

If you want to understand a little history of Alexandria and St. Albans, I need to tell you about Ed Brown.  Ed was born on September 16, 1733 or 34, depending on which calendar you use, on the family estate in what is now Carroll County, Maryland.  The farm was patented as "Brown's Delight" but was resurveyed and renamed "Brown's Plague."  Today, the northern part of his farm is the southern part of Westminster, Maryland.  Ed thought the area was becoming too crowded...

Meanwhile, a Frenchman named Pierre-Joseph Céloron led a march along La Belle Rivière - we call it the Ohio River and the Dutch called it de Cubach.  This expedition was to mark out France's claim to the Ohio Territory.  Next, the French began to build forts along this line leading to George Washington's defeat at Fort Necessity which, in turn, kicked off the French and Indian War.  The Iroquois judged the winners as the British and the British made treaties with the Iroquois at Fort Stanwix for land on the other side of the Appalachians.  One provision of the treaty was that the land must be inhabited and farmed.  As such, The Ohio Company of Virginia actively recruited farmers to move to these new lands.  This was an offer Ed Brown and many of his friends could not turn down.  Ed bought land south of present Burgettstown in Washington County, Pennsylvania.  Back then, this was Virginia territory.

Then, the Revolution came.  Ed and his sons went to war.  They fought because they were being taxed without representation.  When they came home, Ed and his sons went west to southwestern Pennsylvania.  Within four years, they were in the middle of the Whiskey Rebellion.  Once again, they saw whiskey tax as taxation without representation -- you won't see anything about it in the Broadway play Hamilton.  Political correctness matters, they say.

Going back in time, in Maryland, Ed continued running his father's grist mill.  Back then, the miller almost always ran a still.  It only made sense...   it takes milled grain to make whiskey.  If you can make a loaf of bread, with those same ingredients, you can make whiskey.  It was a fact of life.  Whiskey had uses beyond being an intoxicant and this was well before the Temperance Movement.  Whiskey was currency.  Run out of chickens?  A jug of whiskey gets you Sunday dinner and even more chickens for eggs for breakfast.  It was medicine.  When mixed with honey or cider, it fixed a sore throat.  Barn too cold?  Whiskey warmed you up.

Ed found himself in the middle of the Whiskey Rebellion.  It never was about Whiskey.

Alexander Hamilton recognized that the States incurred massive, unpayable debt to fight the Revolution.  Hamilton bought the State's debt and made it Federal debt.  To finance this debt, Hamilton was able to persuade Congress to pass a tax on Whiskey.  Despite the popularity of Hamilton: An American Musical, in the Whiskey Rebellion, Hamilton was a swear word; his portrait was hung upside-down.  There were many issues with this Whiskey Tax,

• It was oppresive.  Small producers, the local farmers, paid by the gallon.  Large producers, such as George Washington, paid a flat rate and could produce as much as they could.

• It made for unfair competition.  Pennsylvania farmers could produce and sell whiskey at a much lower rate than large-scale, East Coast producers until Hamilton's tax made Pennsylvania whiskey more expensive.

• Using whiskey as local currency became an expensive proposition in a place where currency was rare.

Most settlers in southwestern Pennsylvania were veterans of the Revolution.  To contest anything, they had to undertake perilous travel over the Appalachians to Philadelphia.  To these veterans, it seemed like taxation without representation, the very thing they fought against.  Further, these settlers faced constant and deadly harassment from Indians from across the Ohio River.  The new Federal government did not respond.  These settlers felt they were giving their money to the Feds and receiving nothing in return.  The Whiskey Rebellion was so severe that not a single person could be found to enforce the tax in Kentucky.

The Whiskey Rebelliom ended in 1784 when President George Washington sent 12,950 Federalized troops to Southwestern Pennsylvania.  This was tantamount to overkill to the few hundred rebels.  Ed Brown, his family, and friends found a new home along the Ohio River.

By 1790, Ed Brown had lost his beloved Peggy.  Ed took off down the Ohio River with family and friends to Kentucky.  There, the family split up.  Ed's son Nick took off to Ohio and settled in Licking County at Hollow and Watkins Road.  While this may not have been the exact story of any St. Albans and Alexandria family in particular, it sets the stage for the the body politic of the early settlers of St. Albans.  These were people looking for freedom, liberty, and sustenance.

Here the Brown family split again and spread out between Hebron, Luray, and Kirkersville in the south and Granville to the north.  The Brown family spread out through Union Township.   My branch went to Illinois, Iowa, then Terre Haute.  Dad moved to Newark, then Aexandria, from Terre Haute and I grew up in Alexandria.

Alexandria was populated by people from Vermont and Conneticut, from New Jersey and Massechusetts.  They all have their stories to tell.  For now, this is how things looked in 1800.