The Rohr McHenry Distilling Company, Benton PA

Built by John McHenry in 1812, The Distillery operated for a full century, into 1912.

Located on "Whiskey Hill", about a mile and a half west of Benton.

"Let's start near the beginning. John McHenry, known as "Hunter John," was born September 13, 1785, and is frequently referred to as being the "first white child born north of Knob Mountain in Fishing Creek Valley."

 He was number five of nine children of Daniel and Mary (Stephens) McHenry. Hunter John claimed he shot a total of approximately four thousand deer starting when he was 13 years old. He kept track by means of notches in hickory sticks. A stick with five hundred notches was given a place of distinction on a rack above his fireplace. There are tales of deer horns piled higher than the eves behind Hunter John's house. 

In 1812, John McHenry started the McHenry Distillery, which remained in operation for over a hundred years and in many respects was the mainstay of the local economy for much of that time. " 

When "Hunter John" died in 1868, his son Rohr took over the "Still House", as the McHenry homestead was known.  

1891

"Rohr McHenry and son, J. G., engaged in the distillery business have an extensive reputation and some of their brands are eagerly called for in Philadelphia and Baltimore markets. " - Columbian, 1894

Caroline & Rohr McHenry

Rohr McHenry was the youngest of 9 children born in 1829  to "Hunter John" and his wife Helena Cutter.    [Rohr McHenry was one of 44 men wrongfully imprisoned at Ft Mifflin in 1864 as part of what was called "The Fishing Creek Confederacy".  ]

Rohr built a plant, and grew the distillery into a serious commercial operation, known as the Rohr McHenry Distilling Company.

1892

1892

An ad in the Benton Argus newspaper proclaimed that the company's "strictly pure rye whiskey was double distilled in a copper lined doubler, from thoroughly cleaned rye and pure spring water. " A $500 reward was offered for "any corn or drugs found in our whiskey as it leaves our salesroom." The ad claimed that the drink was "recommended by all the leading physicians" for medical purposes. [The same text was featured on the label]

Another ad said "This whiskey is the product of selected Rye and Malt pure mountain spring water and scientific distilling with years of perfect aging in charred barrels in heated warehouses and coming direct from us it brings to you the finest & purest whiskey made, and costs you no more than the other brands". 

Loading Rohr McHenry & Son whiskey at the storage shed,  Bloomsburg & Sullivan Station, on Market & 5th Street in Benton

 The distillery produced 100 gallons a day.  Local farmers grew rye, hauling it in wagons to sell to the distillery.

The Bond House, where whiskey was stored to age, at McHenry Distillery.

In the Benton area, McHenry's Whiskey was known as Old Rohr," and many believed that  in discreet quantities it  could cure everything from snake bites to typhoid fever. 

According to the Shamokin News Dispatch, in 1933:

"This noted distillery distilled a superior product, to retail at 15 cents in days when 10 cent whiskey was the ordinary price."

George, Charles, and John, sons of Rohr McHenry

Rohr married Caroline Geiser and they had 5 children, including John Geiser McHenry, born on April 26 1868.  

The company was officially incorporated in 1903.

John G. continued the family distillery business, but he also served three terms in congress, beginning in 1906. That same year, Frank Dietrick of Wilkes-Barre was made treasurer and general sales agent for McHenry Distilling Company, and the offices were removed from the plant at Benton, to Wilkes Barre, where they were located on the second floor of the "new Stafford and Trainor building on south main street.  This change was necessary in order that the business department might be more centrally located and brought into closer touch with the trade."

A driver and 2 oxen pulling a McHenry Distillery wagon in Philadelphia.

John G.  planning to add a peach brandy to the McHenry line, had 30,000 peach trees planted on what John G. called Pioneer Farm Peach trees take up to 15 years to produce, so the operation was strictly a financial loss.. Other farm crops, including rye, were grown under the watchful eye of a State College professor and the care of three dozen employees. A vineyard was planted. The farm was under the direct personal supervision of Prof. M. E. Chubbuck, a graduate in agricultural science from the State College, as it was then called, in State College. The farm also included a building for the incubating and breeding of poultry on a large scale.

Local farmers watched and predicted the financial outcome.

An article in the Wilkes Barre Newspaper, 1906, described the operation:

Very Modern Plant 

The plot on .which the building of the McHenry distillery now stands consist of 41/2 acres, and the family own 1.200 acres of surrounding ground, principally devoted to the growing of rye; for which it is signally well adapted. The little building first used In conducting the business still stands in the middle of the plot, insignificant In else and style but very significant In size and stye, but very significant in history, and bids well to stand the siege yet for years despite its remarkable age. 

The buildings consist of a large three-story frame structure, containing the barrel and bottle washing room, bottling room, sales room, packing room, engines, distillery room, yeast room, lab oratory, office or government store keeper, private office of the proprietor and manager malt store room,, etc. Everything Is compact ss it Is possible to make it.

Everything in the establishment is done by power, even to the washing and the filling of bottles and barrels, the bottles being both cleaned and filled by water pressure, six siphons are used in filling the bottles which, have a capacity or 1,000 per  hour. 

The barrels are placed in an immense tub and cleaned by water pressure which  does its work in an incredibly short time and in the most perfect manner.  From the washing room, the bottles go into the filling room, where they are filled and labeled with astonishing rapidity. Then they are hustled Into the packing room, where they are placed in bottles of different dimensions. Adjoining the boxing. department is a small salesroom, having a row of casks. containing whisky of various ages up to ten years, for the accommodation or customers, largely farmer from the sur rounding country who buy by the gallon. The bottling, boxing and shipping department consists of four rooms on the first floor In addition to the building recently  being constructed."

The bond house, shown above on the left, was a ten-story brick building, holding 17,000 barrels of whiskey for aging. 

On March 20 1911 the  McHenry distillery was destroyed by fire.

  Sixteen thousands barrels of whiskey destroyed by flames.  Only one barrel was saved.  The Danville Morning News reported that it was the larges fire loss in Pennsylvania in 10 years, with the insurance paying $574,000 on stock, and $25,000 on the building.  The article mentioned that one of the largest losses would be the barrels themselves [not the whiskey inside], as they were not insured, and nearly 17,000 of them had been lost in the fire.

According to the Lewisburg Journal, the reflection of the fire against the sky could be seen all the way to Lewisburg.

March 24, 1911

In April of 1911, the Daily News reported that the "full amount of insurance allowed, $545,000 on stock and $25,000 on the building" would be paid.

Although much of the plant was saved, and production was maintained, good rye whiskey needed to be aged.  Sixteen months after the bond-house fire, by September, 1912, rumors of insolvency of the McHenry business empire began circulating. 

Congressman McHenry attended the Democratic Convention that nominated Woodrow Wilson, it was the the last public function he attended. 

When he returned to Benton and his home on the hill, friends said he "looked terrible" and for the first time residents realized that John G. was seriously ill.

On November 5th 1912, The Tribune reported that the McHenry Distilling Company "founded a century ago, involved to the extent for $800,000."  A bill of equity was filed.  The Tribune reported that lack of cash and losses entailed by the Mary 1911 fire were the direct cause of the company's decline.  It also said that the company had "heretofore had has met its obligations dollar for dollar", was suffering by Congressman McHenry's illness, and his inability to give personal direction to the companies affairs. "Explaining the financial embarrassment, the company points to the fire of March 1911, in which a $1250,00 loss was sustained.  The insurance money was paid to the trustees for the bond holder, and did not benefit the company.  This loss, in reality, reached $450,000, the officer say, because the laws governing business of of the company, it's product having to be aged at least 5 years, and the fire removed its product for two years from the market."

The company was unable to meet its payroll on October 16th 1912.  

John G., still ill,  entered a sanitarium in New York State, recovered enough to go to Atlantic City, then to the Mercy Hospital in Philadelphia and then he came Back Home to Benton, PA to die. The bank he founded was forced to appoint a receiver for the distilling company. The Pioneer Farms toppled.

 On December 27th 1912, on the night of the foreclosure of Pioneer Farms, John G. McHenry, age 46, passed away.

In 1917, it was reported that the distillery was emptied of whiskey.

This is confusing, considering an article 3 years later stating that 8 year old whiskey was stolen:

8 Year Old Whiskey Was Stolen From The Warehouse, in 1920.

In July of 1920, the equipment of the distillery was sold, and most of the buildings had been demolished.

In 1921, the distillery was being used as a government warehouse.

The remaining distillery buildings were preserved as a museum, but a fire in the boiler house in 1962 destroyed it and nearly all the Rohr McHenry artifacts inside.

1979

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"Digging Up A Rare Botttle & The History Of McHenry Distillery"

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READ MORE 
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1898

1902

Rohr McHenry & Son Calendars

1903

June 5th, 1891

1903 article explaining how McHenry Whiskey was made

1906

Rohr McHenry Death, 1906

Mary [Wolfe] & John G. McHenry

Congressman McHenry Ill, September 1912

Nov 5th 1912         

John G. organized the People's Department Store of Benton shortly after he entered Congress, with many local people investing in stock of the corporation. Local residents could trade in stock and produce for goods and necessities. It proved his partial undoing when he picked the wrong person to operate it, a man who knew nothing about what people of the area wanted. Shelves were filled with fancy goods of no local value. The store failed to provide what purchasers wanted and the manager was even described as "wasteful and extravagant." The People's Department Store was located near the intersection of Main Street and Market Street, approximately where the lawn area of the First Columbia Bank is today. On old maps of Benton, the store is marked, "R. McHenry Store.

The continuation of Main Street South did not occur until after the fire of 1910. Main Street (heading South) made an abrupt turn onto the present Market Street, made a bee line for Fishingcreek and crossed a covered bridge, then either climbed Cemetery Hill or bore South in front of the grist mill that we'll talk about in a couple of days.
The store burned in the fire of July 4, 1910, and the people who had bought stock in the venture were left without the store, the stock or their money. Insurance satisfied the wholesale firms, but left everyone else stranded."