First Female Distiller

[fotoski]

Who was the first female distiller on record in the US?

Who is the first (legal) female distiller since prohibition?

[scohar]

I don't know for sure, but I heard it's Lisa Laird from Laird's, who I'm told has been doing it for decades.

I've also heard that Four Roses uses exclusively female distillers, because they have better palates. (Don't know for sure... anyone?)

Finally, of course, Cheryl Lins has been doing it for a while, and our own Becky Harris for 2.5 years.

Scott

[Gwydion Stone]

There's also Jules at Ridge Distillery in Montana and Sonja at North Shore in Chicago.

Interesting topic. I'd actually like to see a complete list of all the female distillers in the US.

[scohar]

Oh, gosh, I forgot Sonat at Koval. How can I forget Sonat? She's great! (And Robert too!)

[cowdery]

There are no female distillers at Four Roses. Also, Sonat is great but I don't think she considers herself a distiller.

No major distillery in the U.S. has had a female distiller, but plenty of females participate on tasting panels. The VP in charge of all of Brown-Forman's distilleries, including Woodford Reserve and Jack Daniel's, is a woman.

As far as real hands-on distillers in the U.S., I don't know of anyone but Cheryl.

[lboe]

Kelly Railean at Railean Rum in San Leon, TX (outside of Houston) is another.

[scohar]

As far as real hands-on distillers in the U.S., I don't know of anyone but Cheryl.

My wife Becky does 90% of all the distilling at Catoctin Creek. She lets me distill when I behave.

[Joe Legate]

From growing and harvesting our herbs to putting the labels on the bottles, Jules does it all at Ridge Distillery.

[fotoski]

The one name I expected to hear but haven't is Margaret Chatey of Westford Hill Distillers. She and Louis were licensed in 1997.

Of the modern distillers, she is the earliest I can think of, ... but are there any historical female distillers? Somebody pre-prohibition?

[Chuck]

Louisa Nelson, my great, great, great Grandmother, was one of the first women to run a distillery. She took command of operations of Nelson's Green Brier Distillery when her husband died in 1891. I have some paperwork that has her as "proprietor", but I don't know how involved she was in the actual distilling.

[cowdery]

Is this you, Chuck?

Drew, I can think of several female proprietors but I don't know of any who were hands-on distillers.

[Chuck]

Cowdery, yep that's me.

[fotoski]

Louisa would be the first distillery proprietor I have heard of. Is there anybody in your family that has studied the genealogy or has old diaries? Have you ever looked for old newspaper references to her?

[Chuck]

In my research, I have found a lot of newspaper articles on the distillery and Charles Nelson, but not many of them mention Louisa. In Charles' obituary, she is referenced:"In all family matters he would with knightly grace defer to his beloved wife, whose word to him was law." Everything I have seen that references her is about her strength of character and 'executive ability, but I haven't found too much other than her signature on a lot of documents.

[cowdery]

Mary Dowling was the proprietor of the Waterfill and Frazier Distillery pre-Prohibition. This was the original Waterfill and Frazier Distillery in Anderson County. Augusta Dickel was the proprietor of George Dickel after her husband's death in 1894. Louisa Nelson may have preceded both of them.

[Chuck]

"In Robertson County, by 1894, only five distilleries were still depositing whiskey in warehouses, and two of those were run by widows: Louisa Nelson for Charles Nelson's Greenbrier Distillery, and Josephine Woodard Brown for J. S. Brown Distilleries on Wartrace Creek."

[fotoski]

Wow, ... where did you come up with that bit of information?

[Chuck]

http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/htallant/border/bs12/fr-gasto.htm

[cowdery]

In that period, it would have been appropriate to call a distillery proprietor a "distiller" even if that person had no actual involvement with production, though the person who actually made the whiskey might also be called "distiller," and many owners either were or had been hands-on distillers themselves. They often weren't very precise with their terminology. I suspect you are more likely to find a 19th century female proprietor, probably a widow, than a 19th century female hands-on whiskey maker.