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The Murphy, Barber & Co. Distillery
RD #401, 5 th District
Bullitt County, KY

(Est. 1880)


Cecil offers a history of the still, although he refers to it as RD #230. He suggests that the distillery was built in 1880 by Squire Murphy, A M Barber and Calvin Brown. He notes that Brown was a whiskey salesman, while Barber was a teacher from the east. Murphy was a local.

Insurance company underwriter records from 1892 describe the Murphy, Barber & Co. distillery as being of frame construction and as feeding four bonded warehouses on site.
Warehouse No. 1 -- iron clad and located 78 ft west of the still.
Warehouse No. 2 -- iron clad and adjoining Warehouse No. 1.
Warehouse No. 3 -- iron clad and 8 ft from Warehouse No. 2.
Warehouse No. 4 -- iron clad, 8 ft from Warehouse No. 2 and 5 ft from Warehouse No. 3.

S Grabfelder & Co. were contracted to handle sales of whiskey from the distillery following the retirement of Brown and death of Murphy in 1893. The company became sole proprietors in 1903 and increased the capacity from 197 bushels to 500 bushels.

The still and all save one of its warehouses were razed during Prohibition but the grounds became the site of Jim Beam distillery, RD #230 after Repeal.

Review bonded warehouse transactions for this distillery

Internal Revenue recorded warehouse transactions for The Murphy, Barber & Co. Distillery as follows:
( explain: origin of these records, letter codes )

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