W.A. Gaines Bourbon

W. A. Gaines & Co.

Frankfort, K.Y.

S. L (Diamond) F.

Private Stock Old Bourbon.

Livingston & Co.
Sole Agents

Hiram and George Berry, Frankfort, Kentucky

Louis Livingston, San Francisco, California

Olive-Amber Fifth

Provenance: Ken Schwartz Collection

The W. A. Gaines story is interesting as we have referenced him before with another bottle in our Spirits Gallery called the Pride of Kentucky Old Bourbon.

Our W. A. Gaines & Co. Old Bourbon bottle was made in the 1870s and is typically found in shades of amber and has an applied top. Our example is rather extraordinary in its olive-amber glass coloration. There are four different variants though the one most desirable to collectors is embossed ‘FRANKFORT, K.Y.’ like our museum example.

The bourbon was distributed in California and other western states by Livingston & Co. who were the sole agents operating out of San Francisco. This is actually embossed on the bottle along with a trade-mark embossed diamond ‘L’ (Livingston) flanked by an embossed ‘S. F.’ for San Francisco.

Louis Livingston started out in the grocery and wholesale liquor business in San Francisco in 1864. By 1867, his operation was called Livingston & Co. He also had a Covington, Kentucky address. Livingston & Co. were the sole agents for both Pride of Kentucky Bourbon and W. A. Gaines & Co. Private Stock Old Bourbon.

Hiram Berry was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania on January 16, 1821. After moving to Frankfort, Kentucky in 1848, he later operated a business that supplied the federal government with stock and cotton during the Civil War. In his post-war life, Berry entered the wholesale liquor and distilling business with W. A. Gaines and E. H. Taylor, Jr., forming Gaines, Berry & Co. that specialized in American-made whiskeys.

In 1868, the company reorganized and changed its name to W. A. Gaines & Co. Though the name W. A. Gaines was displayed, Hiram Berry was the principal and president of the firm. E. H. Taylor Jr., remained more in the background as he typically financed and was involved with many central Kentucky distilleries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1872, W. A. Gaines & Co. was incorporated as a way to increase productivity and capitalization which was always a challenge in the whiskey business. Hiram Berry (Frankfort, Ky.) and George H. Allen (New York City) were General Partners and Sherman Paris (New York City), Marshall J. Allen (New York City), and Frank S. Stevens (Swanzey, Massachusetts) were Special Partners each contributing or investing thirty thousand dollars. Paris became president and the company’s main offices remained in New York.

In 1868, W. A. Gaines & Co. built the Hermitage Distillery on the Kentucky River south of Frankfort. It is believed that “Hermitage” was a reference to President Andrew Jackson’s home of that name in Nashville, Tennessee. They became the largest producers of fine sour mash whiskeys in the world. The Old Hermitage brand would become a big seller. The label below for Hermitage Sour Mash Rye Whiskey notes it was bottled by P. J. Murray & Co., Inc. Holyoke, Mass.

Another primary brand was Old Crow Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Old Crow Bourbon was first made by Dr. James C. Crow when he was master distiller at what is now Woodford Reserve. When Dr. Crow died suddenly in 1856, the name continued on and W. A. Gaines & Co. also ran the Old Crow Distillery where they partnered with Edson Bradley, another New York investor.

Some partnership changes occurred next as Taylor withdrew in 1870, Gaines died in 1872 and Paris retired in 1882. He was succeeded in New York City by Marshall J. Allen. Hiram Berry continued as vice-president and his son, George, became a corporate secretary and his father’s understudy in running the local Frankfort operation. George would make his fortune running the business of W. A. Gaines & Co., and by 1887, W. A. Gaines & Co. was one of the largest American whiskey companies.

Later W. A. Gaines & Co. became a joint-stock company in 1887. The involvement of W. A. Gaines and Co. in the whiskey industry ended with Prohibition and the Hermitage Distillery was converted into a chair factory during prohibition. There was talk about reviving it after repeal, but nothing came of it and the factory was razed in 1945.

Primary Image: W. A. Gaines & Co. Old Bourbon bottle imaged on location by the FOHBC Virtual Museum midwest studio led by Alan DeMaison.

Support: The Multi-millionaire and the Making of “Old Crow” by Jack Sullivan, September – October 2011, Bottles and Extras

Support: Reference to Whiskey Bottles of the Old West by John L. Thomas, 2002