distillery search  |  pre-pro.com home


The Tea Kettle Distillery
RD #63, 6 th District
Trimble County, KY

(Est. 1840)


According to Cecil, the distillery was built originally by James Snyder. It was located on the Ohio river, some 1-1/2 miles north of Milton in Trimble Co., KY. Snyder died in 1872 and operations were passed on to his son, W T Snyder. The Snyder Distillery Co. produced "Snyder" and "Richwood" brands, but the distillery was razed by a fire in July, 1879 with an estimated loss of $60,000.

In 1880, the distillery was rebuilt and a Cincinnati wholesaler (Jas. Levy & Bro.) contracted to handle its output. Insurance underwriter records assembled in 1892 identify H M Levy as proprietor and make note of the fact that the "Richwood Distillery" had formerly been known as "The Teakettle". They also locate the still in Hunters Bottom, east of Milton. Trade journals of the era (1890) indicate that the "Tea Kettle" brand had been established by Richwood Distilling in 1854.

The 1892 insurance records describe the distillery property as containing a stone still-house with a boiler house (no fire doubling). A cattle shed located 16 ft from the still housed cattle to be fattened by the slops. The distillery property also included three bonded warehouses as follows:
Warehouse "A" -- brick with a metal or slate roof, 210 ft south of the still house.
Warehouse "B" -- brick with a metal or slate roof, 125 ft SE of the still house.
Warehouse "C" -- iron-clad, 150 ft north of the still.

Cecil suggests that the distillery was sold in 1913 to Ferd. Westheimer & Co. of St. Joseph, MO. and they maintained control until Prohibition. Company officials were Morris F Westheimer, D I Johnson, Harry M Levy, Sidney S Hillman and Lewis S Rosenstiel (1914). Harry M Levy presumably was the same person identified a "proprietor" in the early records. Lewis S Rosenstiel, who must have been 22 or 23 at this time (b. 1891), had been working for The Susquemac Distilling Co. since 1907 and later becomes a founder and Chair of Schenley Distillers Corp. upon Repeal.

Aliases that this distillery's product was sold under
Review bonded warehouse transactions for this distillery

The Tea Kettle Distillery provided product that was sold under the following aliases:

Internal Revenue recorded warehouse transactions for The Tea Kettle Distillery as follows:
( explain: origin of these records, letter codes )

<top of page

Copyright © 2006-2024 www.pre-pro.com.  All rights reserved.