MIDWAY

Distilling Bourbon in Midway

Midway has a very rich history of distilling Bourbon for nearly a 100-year period from 1865 to 1959. The Distillery was located at the corner of Gratz Street and Dudley Street, nestled in the bend of the Lee's Branch of the North Elkhorn Creek. There were several owners over the years, with the Distillery operating under various business names. Buford, Guthrie & Co. 1865–67, A. Buford Distillery 1867–68, Keller Distillery 1868–77, 1878–89, S.J. Greenbaum Distillery 1890–1911, Belle of Anderson Distillery 1912–14, Midway Distilling Co. 1915–24, Destroyed by fire in 1924 and closed from then till 1933, rebuilt and operated as the Woodford County Distilling Company 1933–40, Park & Tilford Distillery 1941–53, Schenley Products Distillery 1954–59. Early in the 1960s, Schenley Products donated the property, building and equipment to the Midway Woman's College. Notable national brand names produced include, Belle of Bourbon, Belle of Lexington, Belle of Anderson, Glenarme, Arlington, Jessamine, and Woodford. Two buildings still remain, currently known as Kentucky Cannabis Company, previously a distilling building and The Midway Loft Apartments, previously an aging warehouse. A large Distillery warehouse fire occurred on August 4, 1908, where over 47,000 barrels of bourbon where destroyed. The Lee's Branch was on fire for over one mile, and several Midway residents were scorched dipping tin cups into the Lee's Branch for Bourbon and Water. Martin Street next to the Lee's Branch was nicknamed “Tin Cup Alley”. The Midway Fire Department was recognized for saving the City and the Female Orphan's School.

In 1920, during a robbery of the distillery, Benjamin Rodgers and Homer Nave were killed. Richard W. James, was arrested for the killings. He admitted to the robbery but denied shooting the men, and claimed that the facility's superintendent of bottling, Samuel Seay, had a deal with James and others to share the proceeds of the stolen liquor. James was convicted of murder, but one member of the jury refused to vote for his execution on religious grounds. On March 13, 1921, a mob took James from the county jail in Versailles, Kentucky and lynched him from a tree near Margaret College, about a half-mile from Versailles. No one from the mob was indicted and, when Gov. Edwin P. Morrow removed the sheriff from his post, local voters elected his wife to replace him.