CRAFT by Under My Host® Issue No. 17 Made in America: Part II | Page 116

W W W. C R A F T BY U M H . C O M
PHOTO CREDIT: Pubic Domain
George Washington’s Distillery ® , Mount Vernon, Virginia, July 8, 2015
almost 13,000 soldiers was raised from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland,
and Virginia. Led by President Washington himself, the show of force was de-
signed to pacify the instigators and bring the rebellion to an end. In late 1794,
the rebellion did end with the arrest of many of the leaders of the insurrection.
Several were tried and convicted, and all were pardoned by President Washing-
ton. Of particular note, it is reported that there was little attempt to collect the
tax from distillers in Kentucky, and only a handful were ever even charged with
failure to pay.
By the end of the Whiskey Rebellion, many of the rye whiskey distillers in West-
ern Pennsylvania felt totally abandoned and disenfranchised by the federal
government. They felt that perhaps it would be better if they just moved farther
away from the flagpole. Enticed by the potential opportunities in the west and
encouraged by the fact that Kentucky distillers were not being forced to pay the
whiskey tax, many distillers packed up their stills, grabbed some rye seeds, and
headed down the Monongahela River to the Ohio River to seek their fortunes
in the west. When these distillers got to Louisville, the falls of the Ohio forced
them to leave the river. This is where expertise met opportunity. There were
thousands of farms in Kentucky, mostly growing Indian maize, or corn, that
could use a distiller, just like the farms they left in Pennsylvania. These distill-
ers fanned out across the state, planted their rye, and set up their stills. By 1810,