2 Spring 2004 Bottles and Extras Ben Holladay: The Man and His Whiskey by Jack Sullivan (Special to Bottles and Extras)

During the mid-1800s, when Ben the Civil War, sought his company and Holladay was accounted the largest advice, and the common folk sang his employer in America and one of the praises in popular tunes: wealthiest and most famous citizens, it probably never occurred to him that his "You ask me for our leader, I soon name and legacy would live on largely inform you then; through the distillery he founded as a "It's Holladay they call him, and often sideline. But that is how things have only Ben; turned out. "IF you can read the papers, it's easy Holladay was born in 1824 in a log work to scan; cabin in the hills near the town "He beats the world in staging now, or of Blue Lick Springs. Early on, he was any other man." exposed to the ways of managing a wagon train, accompanying his father in leading Ben Holladay was a man of large soldiers westward through the appetites, and one of them was for Cumberland Gap. Soon the young whiskey. In one account, his brother Joe hostler relocated to Weston, , ran a saloon at the corner of Clifford and Ben Holladay at the height of his wealth and fame. already a "jumping off point" for thou- Burr Streets in Weston. Its window bore sands of pioneer settlers. It was from a sign announcing that "Monongahela and scotch. As one of America's wealthi- Weston by dint of hard work and an acute Whiskey" could be found inside. But that est men - and abetted by a social- business sense that he created a transport liquor was made in Pennsylvania, a thou- climbing wife - he became renowned for empire that eventually included the out- sand miles away, and was expensive to his fancy parties. At a time when 25-cents fitting of wagon trains, a stagecoach transport all the way to Missouri. would buy dinner, some of the couple's monopoly, steamship lines and eventually Holladay had a better idea. In 1804, at extravaganzas reputedly cost $10,000. the Central Railroad. By 1864, Weston, the explorers Lewis and Clark had Holladay, a large man with a spreading Ben Holladay was accounted the largest found some excellent limestone springs beard, eventually owned three mansions, individual employer in the entire United that later generations used to fill their one in New York City, a two-hundred room States. water barrels on the way West. The young palace near White Plains, N.Y., and a long- entrepreneur understood that the same disappeared stately residence at 1311 K tasty limestone-based water would be an Street, N.W., in what is now downtown ideal ingredient to make very good Washington, D.C. The D.C. mansion was whiskey. So it was, as a sideline to his used mainly as a place for Holladay to transportation empire, that in 1856 he entertain Members of Congress to founded a distillery on the outskirts of influence them to increase his subsidies Weston and put his brother, Donald, in for carrying the mail. At one point, his charge. company was being paid $1 million Whiskey proved to be a highly annually by the U.S. Post Office. lucrative product. As the liquor began to In the 1860s, Holladay bought two large An artist's rendering of Holladay's initial flow from his stills, it found a ready bronze lions to grace the spacious entrance distillery from the Historic Weston market in frontier America. Ben's to his K Street mansion. They were not Missouri Coloring Book. whiskey sold for five dollars a gallon, but originals, but excellent copies of lions cast One of his biographers calls Holladay he later charged his Indian customers a by the famous Italian sculptor Antonio the "America's King of Wheels" because beaver pelt for just two swigs. Legend has his far flung transportation system bound it that he personally measured his drinks half a world together. To Will Ermine, in half-pint cups coated inside with who wrote a novel about him, Ben was tallow and stuck his fingers in to aid his the "Boss of the Plains." To author Erle measure. Biographer Ellis Lucia says that Stanley Gardner, he was "a truly red- "between tallow and fingers, the whiskey blooded hero." Yet to many of his stretched a long way." As with most of contemporaries, Holladay was a tough and his business enterprises, Holladay's ruthless businessman who did not hesitate distillery flourished. to trample anything, or anyone, who got Barrels of liquor were stored in cool in his way. His enemies considered him limestone caves near Weston until Ben's unscrupulous and devoid of any moral hostlers could load them on wagons to the sense. thirsty folks out West.As time went by, Nevertheless, American elites of the Holladay himself was developing a taste One of Ben's lions at the Corcorian day, including President Lincoln during for more exotic libations, like champagne Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Bottles and Extras Spring 2004 3

Despite Ben's financial reverses, the distillery stayed in the Holladay family for a number of years. David Holladay's daughter married a man named Benton, and the firm became Benton and Holladay. Despite an 1880 explosion during the processing of applejack that killed three workers and injured six others severely, the business flourished under the direction of Holladay's relatives. In 1895, eight years after Ben's death, however, the family sold out to another "larger-than- life" character, George W. Shawhan. He dumped the Holladay name and gave the company his own as the Shawhan Distillery Company. In 1907, Shawhan cashed out his Weston interests and moved to Verona, in Southwestern Missouri, where he operated another distillery until his death in 1912. During Prohibition, subsequent owners shut the Weston facility, but continued the farming operations that McCormick's Bourbon - 7 Years Old. Old Ben Holladay whiskey ceramic. George Shawhan had started as a way to use spent mash from the distillery for series of collectible decanters honoring Canova for the tomb of Pope Clement XIII animal fodder. After Repeal, the company American events and heroes. In 1983, in Rome. It was common in those days was purchased by Isadore Singer and his McCormick issued a bottle in honor of the for the American super-rich to covet such brothers. They began making Old Weston - but did not mention Ben. statues. They suggested a heritage of and Old Holladay bourbons at the site And while "Doc" Holliday, the culture and classical interest that was where Ben first had begun distilling. gun-slinger, was memorialized with a otherwise lacking in free-booting million- About 1939, the Singer family bought the special McCormick decanter in 1972, Ben aires like Ben Holladay. name "McCormick" from a nearby Holladay, the distillery founder, was Everything seemed to be going right distillery founded years before by E. R. ignored. McCormick also marketed its for this self-made man until railroads be- McCormick. The story is that Mrs. products in ceramic jugs, some of them gin to make stagecoaches obsolete. That McCormick had "gotten religion" during shown here. was followed by the Black Friday stock Prohibition, and would not let her husband After a change of management in 1980, exchange panic of 1873. Ben Holladay reopen when whiskey again the McCormick Distilling Co. began was ruined. He lost his business to credi- became legal. marketing its products nationwide, tors and was forced to sell off many of his Under the McCormick Distillery name, buildings. the Singers later sold out to Cloud L. Cray, Perhaps because of strong personal who used the facilities to make industrial attachments, he held on to his D.C alcohol during World War II. After the mansion with its lions and to the Weston war, Cray's sons began a small bourbon- distillery. During ensuing years, Holladay making operation that sold its product struggled hard to make a financial recov- regionally. They soon joined other ery, but he died in Portland, Ore. in 1887, distillers like Jim Beam, who were without having succeeded in regaining his selling their liquor in fancy ceramic lost wealth. bottles, and from 1969-1987, issued a

McCormick's Platte Valley The Holladay and Barton plant of the late 1800s. Corn Whiskey, with Hillbilly. 4 Spring 2004 Bottles and Extras

escapades. Songs were written about him. named one of its major streets after him in the 1850s. But time takes a toll on celebrity status and today, only Western history buffs readily recognize his name. Ironically, Denver's Holladay Street later became the site of that city's "red light" district, and synonymous with wanton women and debauchery. In the late 1800s, Ben's relatives petitioned the city fathers to change its name. Today, the avenue is known as Market Street. Nor did ownership of Canova's famous "Made in the Hills" Platte Valley lions bring Holladay immortality. One half-pint and pint. year later, after his death, the K Street mansion, and the lions, were sold at selling blended whiskey, gin, vodka and auction. For $1,600 - a considerable sum in those days - Washington's Corcoran grain alcohol. Following still another Cover of Holladay Street, a Denver change in ownership in 1993, the Gallery bought the resting felines. At first History, with one of the ladies company ceased giving tours of the they resided on Pennsylvania Avenue, responsible for the street name being factory and moved its Country Store across from the White House, outside the changed to Market. operation - tee-shirts, hats, mugs, etc. - museum's first location. In 1897, they into an 1886 building in downtown were moved down 17th Street to the ated. Some celebrities might not be happy Weston, current population, 1,528. present museum site, where they are iden- with their only memorial being a whiskey Today the firm is a major bottler and tified with Corcoran - not Holladay. bottle, but his history suggests that Ben distributor of alcoholic products, with sales Today, Ben Holladay truly is a forgotten Holladay might not mind at all. in 50 states and 37 foreign countries. It giant of the Old West. As biographer Lucia has corporate offices in Dallas, but its main puts it: "...Nowhere in all this broad land Information for this article has come from plant is still located in Weston. The origi- is there a monument, a marker, a statue, a number of sources. Many thanks go to nal Weston distillery has been placed on to the King of Wheels." Stephanie Parsons of the McCormick Distill- the National Register of Historical Sites Today, the principal reminder of this ing Co., for her help. The distillery website and - with the demise of the Michter fabulous American figure is a whiskey also provided useful facts and operation in Pennsylvania - McCormick brand from the McCormick Distillery. It illustrations. Among books written about Ben can claim to be the oldest continuously is B.J. Holladay "Private Keep" Sour Mash Holladay are a biography: THE SAGA OF BEN active distillery in the . Straight Bourbon Whiskey. The distinc- HOLLADAY: GIANT OF THE OLD WEST, During his lifetime, Ben Holladay was tive black and gold label shows a striking by Ellis Lucia (1959), and a novel based on a celebrated a figure as Bill Gates is in his figure with a black beard and an ox-drawn his life, BOSS OF THE PLAINS, by Will own time. Newspapers and magazines Conestoga wagon in the background. It Ermine (1940). Some of this material previ- regularly profiled him and reported his is an image of Ben, idealized and perpetu- ously has appeared in the Potomac Pontil, the newsletter of the Potomac Bottle Club.

Label for B. J. Holladay McCormick Gin Jug. McCormick Missouri Whiskey. Private Keep Bourbon.