Last night I called up Al Landis 90 yrs old his Grandfather Henry was married to one of two sisters the other sister was married to Mr Kinsey ! Al Landis's Father Hoarce told Al all about the Angelo Myers days. I spent two hours talking to Al and here is the story of Angelo Myers. Angelo Myers was in the late 1800's a very well known Whiskey Merchant and also a master Distiller himself. He and Jacob G Kinsey were good friends and around late 1897 Myers name began to be named with the Distillery then in 1909 or a little earlier Mr Kinsey decided that to be able to get his Whiskey's well known he would get Mr Myers to run the plant for a while and use his name with Jake Kinsey's. On my Wooden Kinsey box one side says Kinsey Distllery the Other side says Angelo Myers Distillery. One thing I can also state Jacob Kinsey always owned Kinsey Distillery till Publicker Bought it in late 1939. Jacob Kinsey was married to Edna Longacher and Al's Grandfather Henry was married to Annie Longacher. The Kinsey Brands started to get a good name and just about the time that Mr Kinsey would have started using His own Name only Prohibition came about. One of the brands was Maywood Brand straight Rye Whiskey. At the top it says Kinsey's Pennsylvania Rye. On the bottom of the label it says bottled by the american Liqour Company Boston Mass. Mr Myers had many connections in Phila, New York City and Boston! Neither Angelo Myers or Jacob G Kinsey ever thought that something like Prohibition would bring an end to this, rather then them. Kinsey was to small at that time to make medical Alcohol so the Plant was shut down till fall 1933. End of prohibition.
Mr Angelo Myers contiued to sponser the Boy Scouts in Linfield for many years after leaving.
In late fall 1933 Jacob G Kinsey went down to visit Hoarce Landis and Asked him to come work at the Distillery, He stated that he was going to train him to be a Master Distiller of great ability.
Well for starters the old Dsp-Pa 12 was a continuos still and the Old Dsp-pa 10 was a small batch type still. Those first months out put was 80 barrels a day, Mr Kinsey Hired Hoarce's son Al Landis to work for him, at 17 yrs old Al Racked the first 20,000 barrels made after Prohibition and Al and a man named Oscar Tyson Dumped the very first barrels to be bottled at Kinsey they bottled in the Old Barn then right next to the Dsp-Pa 10 still it was an old very large Barn building. during the time Angelo Myer was running the Plant with Mr Kinsey Mr Kinsey was the Master distiller and was trying to make the very best whiskey's money could buy. When Jacob G Kinsey reopened the Plant in Fall 1933 He was 75 yrs old so he trained Hoarce Landis to be a very Good Master Distiller. In Fall 1939 when Kinsey Had to sell and Continental Distilling bought the Plant Hoarce Landis stayed on to be Master Distiller at Kinsey Dsp-Pa 12 till the day it shut down in Spring of 1951! He then worked at many things there and finished running security for Continental Distilling and retired in spring 1963. Late in 1963 early 1964 Hoarce Landis got a call from ContinentaL Distilling Company Chairman Si Neuman asking him if he would come out of retirement for a few months to help him with the start up of the Inver House stills in Scotland with all exspenes paid. Hoarce went to Scotland and trained people as master Distillers and over saw the start ups. Al also told me that when Mr Kinsey was running the Plant at age 75 He would get up every morning before Hoarce came in to start at 6:00-AM He would go down to the Boiler room to check to see the Boiler operater had 100 pounds of steam up before Hoarce started the still up. Then Mr Kinsey would go eat his breakfast. The still ran from 6:00 Am till about noon cranking out 80 barrels when ever he got done was considered a full day for Hoarce by Mr Kinsey and he would go home with full pay. Mr Kinsey was a very Generous man and his goal was for Kinsey Whiskey to be of the very Best!
During the time Hoarce Landis was in Scotland his granson Ken was stationed in Germany, one day Mr Neuman came over to visit and was very pleased how things were going so He said to Horace is there anything I can do for you for the great job you have done here, and Hoarce told him he wished he could go see his Grandson Ken a couple of days so Si Neuman flew him to Germany to visit Ken a few days! There were 3 generations of Landis that worked at Kinesy Hoarce 1933 to 1963 Al 5 Yrs got layed off and went to work for Packard and Grandson Ken who is a friend of mine and worked there around 20 yrs +.
It was really great talking to Al and finding these things out knowing that this is the real story and fills in alot of blank spots in the history. After Leaving Kinsey's Mr Kinsey lived to be 94 yrs old and Kinsey Distillery operated for 94 years total.
Dave Z
Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey
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- Dsp pa 10 Rye Building
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- Old Maywood Straight rye Whiskey bottle in my collection
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