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JESSE MOORE
Louisville, KY.
1853-1909
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Est. 1853.
1838: Jesse Moore (b. 1812) entered the distillery business when his older brother George J Moore became owner of the McFifan distillery in Mt. Vernon, IN. George was a banker who became owner as a result of a bad debt, but the distillery had burned (or been burned) to the ground before he could take possession. Jesse and George together rebuilt the distillery as the Phoenix. George and his family later returned to Louisville, leaving Jesse in charge.

1848: Jesse sold his stake in the Phoenix and returned to Louisville, where he runs a confectionary, wine and liquor store in partnership with Daniel McMullen.

1853Jesse and Daniel Grigsby together buy a small distillery in Lebanon, KY.

1859-1875: The Jesse Moore company builds at least two more distilleries.

1875: Jesse Moore sells his stake in the Grigsby distillery in Marion Co., KY. In partnership with his nephew George Henry Moore (b. 1835), he built the Belmont, Astor, and Nutwood distilleries in Louisville. The Jesse Moore brand had become extremely popular throughout the West, and the distilleries were needed to supply the market. The company eventually had established outlets in New York, Pittsburg, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Boston, Kansas City, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Louisville, Denver, San Diego and San Francisco.

1876: Jesse and George took Henry Browne Hunt as a partner. Originally from Phillipsburg, PA., Hunt was working in the San Francisco office.

1880's: Max Selliger, a salesman, had been taken on by the company to help run the distilleries. Moore (George) and Selliger, a separate company, lists in Louisville directories from at least 1884.

1890: Thos. Kirkpatrick, an immigrant from England, became manager of the San Francisco office.

1892: Jesse Moore retired from the business (he died in 1898) and sold his shares in Jesse Moore & Co. to a group of English investors headed by Nathan Hofheimer. Hofheimer has worked for the company from 1879 to 1884, at which point he left for New York and became established in the international liquor trade.

1896: George H Moore died at the age of 61. His widow sold most of his stock to Max Selliger, although Sherley Moore, George's son, still held shares worth $100,000. The Louisville and San Francisco operations were then consolidated, with Thos Kirkpatrick as President and Sherley Moore as Vice President of the Jesse Moore-Hunt Co. Inc.

1901: Sherley Moore got out of the liquor business, leaving Max Selliger to continue running the company until Prohibition. Upon repeal in 1933, Selliger sold the idled distilleries along with the Jesse Moore brand name to Leo Gerngoss and Emil Schwartzhaupt, owners of several distilleries they had aquired from I.W. Bernheim. The Bernheim operation was subsequently sold to Schenley.

Note: the business was also being supplied by the Fern Cliff Distillery in Louisville (RD #409, 5th Dist.): see the distillery listing page for more details.

The company used the brand names:
"Jesse Moore", "Jesse Moore's A.A.", "Kentucky Bedford", "P. Vollmer", and "Swan."

Business name timeline:
Jesse Moore (1866-1867), Jesse Moore & Co. (1870-1893), Jesse Moore, Hunt Co. (1897-1909)

Address timeline:
72 2 nd (1866-1870), 84 1 st (1871), 29 Main, nr 2 nd (1875-1881), 135-137 E Main (1882-1884), 223-225 W Main (1885-1908), 128 S 2 nd (1909)

Business category timeline (abbreviations decoded below):
W


Years that company appeared in directories
Years directories were consulted
Louisville directory notes



The images below are thumbnails linked to listing pages containing larger, more detailed images and links to related material.
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BUY ME!

BUY ME!

BUY ME!

BUY ME!

no date

1898

Appearance in directories:
1866, 1867, 1870, 1871, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1897, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1907, 1908, 1909

Directories consulted:
1866, 1867, 1869, 1870, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1897, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919

Louisville directory notes:
W = Wines & Liquors, I = Importers, D = Distillers, R = Rectifiers, DA = Distiller's Agents, B = Brokers (1892), S = Saloons (1905), M = Mail Order House (1915). Listings for wholesalers from 1866 to 1869 and for distillers 1866 through to 1906 were compiled from a typescript prepared by Norma Snyder. 1887 and 1889 wholesaler listings are partial, missing last names in the alphabet, 1890, 1895 missing their entirety. No copies of listings in any category for 1896, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901. 1888 has a partial list of Importers (not found in copies for other years). 1905 copies include Saloons (not incorporated). 1906 is incomplete for distillers, missing wholesalers.

1881 witnessed a major city-wide street reorganization so all addresses change. In 1909, there is a second renumbering and this year shows both old and the new number in brackets.

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