Elijah Craig – Evangelist, Distiller, Innovator
While venturing into bourbon, you will notice that many bourbons are named after people with old colorful names that seem like names you might see on your family tree. Generally, these gentleman were pioneers in the bourbon and whiskey industry. Today, the Bourbon Mash-Up delves into the accomplishments of Elijah Craig, who is credited by some as “The Father of Bourbon Whiskey.”
Elijah Craig was a baptist minister in the late 1700’s from Virginia, who eventually migrated to Kentucky. As a baptist minister, Rev. Craig was involved in efforts to protect religious freedoms and served as a liaison between the Baptist Church and the Virginia legislature. It is said that he was arrested twice for his preaching.
Religious persecution in Virginia led Elijah to move the congregation of the Great Crossing Church to the area we now know as Lancaster, Kentucky in 1786.
He would go on to helping create the town of Lebanon, Kentucky (present day Georgetown) and founded the Royal Springs Academy, which would later become the Rittenhouse Academy which closed in 1829. He donated land for the establishment of Georgetown College, which if anything demonstrates the impact he had on the community in regards to higher education, as it was created soon after the Rittenhouse Academy closed. Local legend has it that there might be a quart of bourbon stashed inside each of the six columns in the front of Georgetown College’s Giddings Hall.
Elijah would also prove to be an established businessman and entrepreneur by going on to create Kentucky’s first fulling mill (necessary for woolen clothmaken), paper mill, ropewalk (for producing hemp rope), lumber and gristmill. It was at a distillery that he opened in 1789 in what is now known as Scott County. This business venture is where Elijah Craig became into the conversation of legend and lore of Kentucky Bourbon.
The legend is that Elijah Craig is the man responsible for charring oak barrels before aging his whiskey, thus creating what we now know as bourbon. There really is no certain proof that Elijah Craig created bourbon whiskey. There were others making similar whiskeys with similar processes, and the credit to that process has been credited to others as well, which make it difficult to determine fact from lore. As a side note, it may seem odd to think of a Baptist preacher dabbling in the art of making whiskey, but that was a different time and the views by the Baptist Church on alcohol was more acceptable.
Like many of the names we have become to know in bourbon, the title of being considered “The Father of Bourbon” is mostly the result of really great marketing by a distiller. Heaven Hill Distillery is the maker of Elijah Craig bourbons which are offered in small batch, barrel proof, 18 year old, and 23 year old varieties. Their website tells of an account which tells of an accidental fire in his mill, and another account of him storing his whiskey in former sugar barrels. These are great stories that help back up using his name on their bourbon.
What we do know is that Elijah Craig was a religious man, an educator, a prominent businessman and influential voice in the establishment of a Kentucky community. He must have had clout, and indelibly etched his name into bourbon history enough to at least be in the conversation as one of a few founding fathers of bourbon whiskey.
Cheers, Y’all!