Elijah Craig
Rev. Elijah Craig (1738/1743 – May 18, 1808) was a Baptist preacher in Virginia, who became an educator and capitalist entrepreneur in the area of Virginia that later became the state of Kentucky. He has sometimes, although rather dubiously,[1] been credited with the invention of bourbon whiskey by improving the locally made distillate from an un-aged corn liquor to the familiar reddish-brown drink through barrel-aging in charred oak casks.[2]
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[edit] Early life and education
Rev. Craig was born in Orange County, Virginia (formerly Spotsylvania County) in 1738 or 1743, the 5th child of Polly Hawkins and Taliaferro or Toliver Craig, Sr. He was converted by David Thomas and ordained as a Baptist preacher in 1771. His older brother Lewis and younger brother Joseph also became Baptist preachers. Like other independent Baptists, Craig was jailed at least once (in Fredericksburg before the American Revolution) for preaching without a license or episcopal ordination from the Anglican establishment. Craig was imprisoned briefly in South Carolina, apparently for disturbing the peace with his sermons.
In 1777, Craig became establishing pastor of the Blue Run Church, halfway between Barboursville and Liberty Mills, Virginia. Craig discussed with attorney and future president James Madison how to guarantee freedom of religion in the state constitution after the American Revolutionary War. Madison also ensured that religious freedom was protected in the federal Constitution.
[edit] Travel to Kentucky area of Virginia
Still seeking religious freedom, in 1781 Rev. Elijah Craig traveled with his brother Lewis and his congregation of up to 600 people known as "The Traveling Church" . The migrants included slaves held by the Craigs and others. They walked down to present-day Lynchburg and Roanoke before crossing the Blue Ridge and Cumberland Mountains through the Cumberland Gap. They came to in the area of Virginia known as Kentucky, where Boonesborough was the first settlement at which they arrived. Later, in 1792, the Kentucky area would be separated from Virginia to form the new state of Kentucky.
Rev. Elijah Craig purchased 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) in what was then Fayette County of Virginia, in 1782, where he planned and laid out the nearby town originally called Lebanon, incorporated in 1784. (In 1790 the town would later be renamed as Georgetown in honor of Gen. Washington.)[3] Craig preached at several churches and became pastor of the Great Crossing Church, which is still active in the Georgetown area. (He was buried next to his mother in the early church cemetery, now covered by a parking lot.)
Rev. Elijah Craig established the first classical school in Kentucky in 1787. His advertisement in The Kentucky Gazette read:
“Education. Notice is hereby given that on Monday, 28 January next, a school will be opened by Messrs. Jones and Worley, at the Royal Spring in Lebanon Town, Fayette County, where a commodious house, sufficient to contain fifty or sixty scholars, will be prepared. They will teach the Latin and Greek languages, together with such branches of the sciences as are usually taught in public seminaries, at twenty five shillings a quarter for each scholar. One half to be paid in cash, the other half in produce at cash prices. There will be a vacation of a month in the spring, and another in the fall, at the close of each of which it is expected that such payments as are due in cash will be made. For diet, washing and house room for a year, each scholar pays L3 in cash, or 500 weight of pork on entrance, and L3 cash on the beginning of the third quarter. It is desired that, as many as can, would furnish themselves with beds; such as cannot may be provided for here, to the number of eight or ten boys, at 35s a year for each bed. ELIJAH CRAIG. LEBANON, December 27, 1787.”[4]
The school was later linked to the Rittenhouse Academy, founded in 1798 and led by Rev. Craig. He donated land for the founding of Georgetown College, the first Baptist college founded west of the Allegheny Mountains. The college continues today.
Rev. Craig was a businessman and a local magnate, providing many jobs and generating socio-economic development. He built Kentucky's first fulling mill (for cloth manufacturing), its first paper mill, its first ropewalk (for manufacturing rope from hemp), and the first lumber and gristmill at Georgetown.
[edit] Distillery
In approximately 1789, Craig founded a distillery. This last enterprise likely led to his subsequent dubious reputation as the inventor of corn-based bourbon whiskey. Rev. Craig has been claimed to have been the first to age the distillation in charred oak casks,[1][2] "a process that gives the bourbon its reddish color and unique taste."[5]
When he built it, Rev. Craig's distillery was in the territory of the original Fayette County, from which later Bourbon County was created, although the distillery was not located within the area that would become Bourbon County.[1] Both Fayette County and Bourbon County were named in honor of the noted Revolutionary War Gen. Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette of the French nobility and its royal House of Bourbon.[6]
As American whiskey authority Charles Kendrick Cowdery has observed, "By the time Bourbon County was formed in 1785, there were dozens if not hundreds of small farmer-distillers making whiskey throughout the region… Ultimately, most of the corn-based whiskey made west of the Alleghenies was called 'bourbon', to distinguish it from the rye-based whiskies that predominated in the East."[6] Cowdery casts substantial doubt on the notion that Elijah Craig should be credited with the invention of Bourbon whiskey.[1][6]
[edit] Death
Rev. Craig continued to prosper, coming to own more than 4,000 acres (16 km2) and operating a retail store in Frankfort. He died in Georgetown in 1808. The Kentucky Gazette eulogized:
“His preaching was of the most solemn style; his appearance as of a man who had just come from the dead; of a delicate habit, a thin visage, large eyes and mouth; the sweet melody of his voice, both in preaching and singing, bore all down before it.” Some Baptist sources say he sold out to the world, but “He possessed a mind extremely active and, as his whole property was expended in attempts to carry his plans to execution, he consequently died poor. If virtue consists in being useful to our fellow citizens, perhaps there were few more virtuous men than Mr. Craig.”[cite this quote]
[edit] Legacy
Craig may be most widely known for the premium bourbon that bears his name that is produced by Heaven Hill distillery.
Elijah Craig whiskey is made in both 12 "Small Batch" and 18 year-old "Single Barrel" bottlings. The 18 Year Old Single Barrel Bourbon is touted as "The oldest Single Barrel Bourbon in the world at 18 years . . ." made in oak barrels that are "hand selected by Parker and Craig Beam," losing nearly 2/3 of the barrels contents in Angel's share.[7] The barrels are thereafter sold to the Scotch Whiskey industry, and for use by microbrewers in making cask-conditioned beers, such as Goose Island Brewery "Bourbon County" Imperial stout.[8]
In the San Francisco World Spirits Competition of 2010, the 18 year-old Elijah Craig Single Barrel Bourbon was awarded Best Bourbon and a Double Gold Medal rating. In previous years, it had received a Double Gold Medal rating in 2008, a Gold Medal rating in 2004, and four silver ratings in other years (2003, 2005, 2006, and 2007).
[edit] See also
- Bardstown, Kentucky
- Heaven Hill Distillery
- Elijah Craig Bourbon
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Cowdery, Charles K., "Who Invented Bourbon?" Malt Advocate Magazine (4th Quarter 2002), pp. 72-75
- ^ a b "Elijah Craig small batch". Bardstown Whiskey Society. Heaven Hill Distillery. http://www.bardstownwhiskeysociety.com/brands/elijah-craig-small-batch.php. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
- ^ Kleber, John E., ed. (1992). The Kentucky encyclopedia. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. pp. xxii, 47, 371–72, 374, 591, 897–98. ISBN 978-0-8131-1772-0.
- ^ Henry Perrin, History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, Kentucky[page needed]
- ^ Kleber, John E., ed. (1992). The Kentucky encyclopedia. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-8131-1772-0.
- ^ a b c Cowdery, Charles K. (July 1996). "How Bourbon Whiskey Really Got Its Famous Name". The Bourbon Country Reader 3 (1). http://www.straightbourbon.com/articles/ccname.html. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
- ^ "Elijah Craig Single Barrel". Bardstown Whiskey Society. Heaven Hill Distillery. http://www.bardstownwhiskeysociety.com/brands/elijah-craig-single-barrel.php. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
- ^ Northern Home Brewers forum, Goose Island Bourbon Barrel Stout.
