Dead Distillers by Colin Spoelman

Author:Colin Spoelman
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2016-04-07T16:00:00+00:00

An eight-story aging warehouse at an unknown distillery

PAUL JONES

WHISKEY BROKER

1841–1895

Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky

Paul Jones at least carries this distinction: He has the largest tomb of any of the distillers buried in Kentucky. He died a millionaire, which was no small feat in 1895, and his wealth came from whiskey. He created many brands, the most enduring of which is Four Roses.

Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, he fled with his family during the Civil War to Georgia. He and his brother Warner joined the Confederate Army, though Paul’s “delicate health” prevented him from seeing much action. His brother died at the Battle of Atlanta.

After the war, Jones and his father sold whiskey and tobacco in Atlanta, and when the Georgia state legislature started yielding to temperance advocates, Jones moved north to Louisville, setting up in a wood-paneled office with mosaic tile floor. His business acumen was chiefly in marketing. His savvy was summarized in his obituary in the Louisville Courier-Journal by mention of his electric advertisement in Madison Square in New York that cost twelve hundred dollars a month.

Jones died a bachelor, which proves somewhat problematic for his lasting legacy, as the brand he founded is lately built on the myth that he married his sweetheart after she wore a corsage of four roses, signaling her acceptance of his proposal. Historian Mike Veach has speculated that the famous whiskey may simply have been a blend of four whiskeys from the R. M. Rose Company of Atlanta, Georgia, which sold several varieties of corn and rye whiskey using “Old-Fashioned Copper” stills. In fact, the first time the brand name appears is in an 1889 advertisement in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And the corsage story was once told in reverse: Jones’s beloved spurned him, so he devoted his life to whiskey. The Four Roses distillery that is today in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, was built fifteen years after Jones’s death, and Jones was more a whiskey wholesaler and marketer than he was a distiller.

Jones had a penchant for fast horses, and, according to the Courier-Journal, “refused to let anyone pass him on the road.” At the time of his death, he owned five fast trotters, though none should be confused with the horse Paul Jones that won the Kentucky Derby in 1920.

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