Wattie Boone

Wattie Boone, was a pioneer distiller. He was a relative of Daniel Boone [1] and built the first distillery in the area of Knob Creek in LaRue County.[2] Historians agree that Boone was one of the first to be documented producing Bourbon whiskey in Kentucky in 1776. [3] According to local folklore the father of Abraham Lincoln accepted a job at the Boone Distillery in 1814. [4]

Boone was a pioneer to the area. It was a time of sieges and skirmishes with local tribes. Boone would have been part of a group of settlers who travelled through the Cumberland Gap, at the time Samuel Goodwin, founded Goodin or Goodwin Fort, as a frontier settlement of Virginia.

Following the American Revolutionary War more settlers arrived. By the time Kentucky established statehood over this area, Boone’s neighbor, Aaron Atherton and his son, Peter Atherton (1771-1844) had been operating a small distillery on the banks of Rolling Fork River at Knob Creek for over thirty years, since around 1790 making them also one of the first whiskey pioneers of Kentucky [5]

Knob Creek in LaRue County, Kentucky

Legacy

Boone is one of the likely candidates as to the person who invented bourbon; the other candidates being Evan Williams, or Boone’s partner, James Richie. Nevertheless, bourbon was named America’s native spirit by U.S. Congress in 1964. [6]

See also

References
  1. Maurer, David W (1974). Kentucky Moonshine. ISBN 9780813143545.
  2. "Find Americans Native Spirit where Bourbon was Born, Oct 8". 2000.
  3. Ellison, Betty Boles (2003). Illegal Odyssey: 200 Years of Kentucky Moonshine. ISBN 9781410784070.
  4. Gee, Denise (2007). Southern Cocktails: Dixie Drinks, Party Potions, and Classic Libations. ISBN 9781452126180.
  5. Tramazzo, John C. (2018). Bourbon and Bullets: True Stories of Whiskey, War, and Military Service. ISBN 9781640121034.
  6. "America's Native Spirit: includes reference Congress in 1964".
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