McKennas Nelson County Bourbon

Provenance: Richard T. Siri Collection

Like many western spirit bottles, McKenna’s bottle contents came from Kentucky, the epicenter of bourbon and whiskey production in America. All those hard-driving miners, lumbermen, and pioneers of the west sure loved their whiskey. Because of this, a few McKenna bottles and broken pieces were reportedly found in old lumber and mining camps.

Our applied top “McKenna’s Nelson County Extra Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey, W & K Sole Agents” bottle is in a rich yellow-amber glass color and was made in a four-piece mold and has a blank base. The bottle can be found n nearly all shades of amber from light yellow to green-amber and chocolate.

Henry McKenna

A young Henry McKenna arrived in Nelson County, Kentucky in 1838 via Philadelphia. He was born in Draperstown, County Derry in Ireland in 1819. Henry worked for a period in an Irish distillery and later clerked in a liquor store for a relative before coming to America to start a new life and follow his dreams. He would meet Elizabeth “Lizzie” McGuigan and get married in Lexington, Kentucky. Lizzie was also from County Derry in Ireland. According to one early biographer, Henry was engaged in hard labor around Lexington for many years. McKenna was thrifty and entrepreneurial. He saved his money and soon began working as a contractor, building turnpikes.

The McKenna’s would move to Fairfield, Kentucky, a small town in Nelson County in 1855, and open a flour mill. Henry bought a plot of land at the edge of town, built a grain elevator and mill, and set about grinding wheat into flour for his neighbors. The byproducts of milling would lead him to create a still to make wheat whiskey with his generations-old family recipe. Starting with a half-barrel a day, Henry next shifted to corn grain. From there, the process expanded. Henry was known for his perseverance and dedication to quality, The Louisville Courier at that time credited him as “unique among Kentucky distillers for refusing to sell his whiskey until it had been aged at least five years.” Later company billheads and contemporary McKenna advertising would say “since 1855.”

In 1880, McKenna opened a business office on Louisville’s Market Street to sell his whiskey to a broader audience. Unfortunately, he rapidly outgrew that facility and had to invest in other property. He bought “The Old Blue House” on Market Street, which was a famous landmark at the time. That name of the house was one of three images painted in blue on McKenna’s Whiskey ceramic jugs.

To meet the production demand for his fine whiskey, Henry again moved his Louisville distillery and corporate offices. This time he chose Fourth Street and Main, soon to be identified as Louisville’s Whiskey Row because of the number of distillers that set up shop there. In 1883, he built a brand new brick distillery on Whiskey Row and it had the capacity to make three barrels a day, seven days a week. His distillery was about 10 miles from the current distillery site owned by Heaven Hill in Bardstown, Kentucky.

By the 1890s, his Irishman’s Old Line Sour Mash Whiskey was being sold throughout the continental United States. Over time, McKenna became widely recognized as one of the true patriarchs of Kentucky whiskey. In 1892, Congress introduced a bill asking for a five-year bonding time for bourbon whiskey. Although it did not pass that year, the bill was known as “The McKenna Bill.” Just under a year later, in 1893, McKenna passed away at age 75. The brand continued as you can still buy McKenna Bourbon today.

Wilmerding and Kellogg

If you notice, there is an embossed interlocking “W&K” monogram on the reverse bottle shoulder standing for Wilmerding and Kellogg who were prominent California liquor agents based in San Francisco.

As a resident of California, Julius Clute Wilmerding was reportedly in front of the gold rush population curve, as he was noted as being in the Golden State as early as 1848. Born in New York about 1833, Wilmerding found himself mining in Tuttletown, Tuolumne County, California. After a few years, he went to San Francisco where he met an old New York acquaintance named Calvin F. Fargo, who was selling liquor in “the city by the bay.” Wilmerding was admitted into his employ and soon became a partner in the firm of Fargo & Co., along with Calvin Whitwood Kellogg, who was employed as a salesman. In 1869, Fargo left the partnership and a new company by the name of Wilmerding & Kellogg was formed in January of that year. The monogram on the bottle’s reverse shoulder should notes that Wilmerding & Kellogg were the agents for the brand.

See the museum example of a C. W. Stuart’s Extra Kentucky Whiskey.

Primary Image: The McKennas Nelson County Extra Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey bottle imaged on location by the FOHBC Virtual Museum midwest studio led by Alan DeMaison.

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

Support: Reference to Henry McKenna, Whiskey University.

Support: Eric McGuire on Wilmerding & Kellogg.

Support Image: Auction Lot: Consigner Richard Siri. 38924. McKenna’s Nelson County Extra Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey, W & K sole agents. Amber applied top whiskey. Four-piece mold. This bottle is a choice example. Deep chocolate, sharp features, bright texture, lacking damage. Unarguably one of the finest known examples. Please inspect – it’s a beauty. Thomas number 168. Blank base. – Fred Holabird, Holabird Western Americana Collections, LLC., FOHBC Sacramento National Antique Bottle Convention, 49er Jamboree Auction.

Support: Reference to Henry McKenna: Ireland’s Gift to American Whiskey

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