The man whose Treasury enforced Prohibition had owned a third of Old Overholt.

On a Sunday night in February 1921, a Methodist minister in Pittsburgh named Daniel L. Marsh preached a sermon with an unusual title: "Does A. W. Mellon Own the Overholt Distillery?" Andrew Mellon was a few days from becoming Secretary of the Treasury, the department that ran Prohibition enforcement. Marsh said Mellon had talked to him, and he told the congregation what Mellon said. Henry Clay Frick had talked him into buying a third of the distillery. "This was in 1880."

The New York Herald ran it the next morning: "Mellon Not Now Distillery Owner, Explains Pastor." Whisky would leave the Overholt warehouses on forged permits, Mellon would end up on a witness stand, and a congressman would put the distillery into articles of impeachment. What became of all that whisky is the last section.

1800 to 1853: a farm still

Henry Overholt brought his family west from Bucks County to Jacobs Creek in Westmoreland County around 1800. The county history of 1882 says his son Abraham "established a small still on his farm in 1810, which used only a bushel and a half of grain per day." That 1810 date is the one the company printed on its ads for the next century.

Abraham did well. In 1838 he built the brick house that still stands at West Overton. In 1853, by the Fayette County history, he put up a second distillery at Broad Ford on the Youghiogheny River, big enough for a hundred bushels of grain a day. In 1859 the family built a six story brick distillery and mill at West Overton, a hundred feet long.

1869 and 1870: the bookkeeper

Abraham's daughter Elizabeth married John W. Frick. Their son, Henry Clay Frick, was born at West Overton in 1849. In 1869 his grandfather made him chief bookkeeper at Broad Ford, at a thousand dollars a year.

Abraham died on January 15, 1870. Seven weeks later his grandson wrote out a condolence letter on the company's letterhead, which advertised "Flour, and Youghiogheny Whiskey." A year after that, Frick and two partners built coke ovens at Broad Ford. That was the start of the fortune that made him one of the richest men in America.

1880 to 1916: Frick, Mellon and the brand

Frick bought into the distillery around the end of the 1870s. Mellon, by his own account, took a third in 1880. A manager named Mauck held the rest and ran it, and Marsh said the two millionaires let him keep two thirds of the profits for doing it.

The whisky became Old Overholt. The company used Abraham's portrait on its ads, bottled in bond after the 1897 law allowed it, and registered the name as a trade mark in 1906. In 1910 it ran a centennial ad, 1810 to 1910.

On November 19, 1905, a warehouse at Broad Ford burned with 810,000 gallons of whisky inside. The wire story put the loss at $4,000,000 and said the plant was "practically owned by H. C. Frick and the Mellons of Pittsburg." Mellon later said the company had not made any whisky since 1916.

1919 to 1921: a warehouse full of rye

Frick died in December 1919, about six weeks before national Prohibition began. The company went into liquidation. What it still had was whisky, about a million and a half gallons in bond, by the 1921 papers.

When Harding picked Mellon for the Treasury, the Anti-Saloon League went after the connection. In mid February 1921 the papers reported that Mellon had sold his Overholt stock to his brother, R. B. Mellon, and to Frick's estate, $240,000 to each. The assets went to the Union Trust Company of Pittsburgh, a Mellon bank, as trustee. Then came Marsh's sermon. His verdict was that the business "is as dead as a polecat shot by Daniel Boone." A Nevada paper ran a joke cabinet that month, and it listed "For secretary of the treasury Andy Mellon, Old Overholt."

1920 to 1928: forged permits

Under Prohibition, whisky could leave a bonded warehouse only on a government permit. Between September 1920 and January 1921, a magazine investigation later reported, a man named Morris Goodman withdrew 42,000 gallons from Overholt on permits that turned out to be forged. The forged permits were said to be in the Mellon National Bank. The indictments were dismissed.

In June 1924 Mellon testified at the trial of Gaston Means and said he "had had an interest in the Overholt distillery." The judge would not allow questions about the forged permits. Mellon's public answer was that the company had made nothing since 1916, the assets went to a trustee before he took office, and since then the trustee had sold no whisky "except fifty-three cases to a drug company."

His enemies did not let it go. Former Pennsylvania governor Gifford Pinchot told a temperance congress in 1927 that Mellon was "if not the largest, one of the largest makers of whiskey in America." Senator James Couzens attacked the trust arrangement on the Senate floor in 1928.

1925: sold

In May 1925 the Union Trust sold the distillery and about 1,800,000 gallons to Park & Tilford, the New York grocers. The AP called it "the largest legitimate liquor deal in the United States since prohibition."

1932: "Whisky Business"

In January 1932 Representative Wright Patman of Texas filed articles of impeachment against Mellon. One was headed "Whisky Business." It charged that from March 4, 1921 to October 2, 1928, Mellon "received his share of the proceeds and profits from the sale of distilled whisky." It never came to a vote. In February Mellon was named ambassador to Britain, and the committee dropped it.

1933 and after

In June 1933, months before Repeal, National Distillers bought Overholt and kept it going as Pennsylvania rye. The Broad Ford stillhouse closed in the early 1950s. Beam bought the brand in 1987 and makes it in Kentucky. Old Overholt is often called the oldest continuously maintained American whisky brand, which rests on that 1810 date and a chain of owners that never broke.

1925: an offer to the Public Health Service

Right after buying the whisky in 1925, Park & Tilford offered all 1,800,000 gallons to the United States Public Health Service, at cost. The acting surgeon general wired back that the Public Health Service "was not interested in the proposition."

If you have an old Overholt

Bonded bottles from before Prohibition say "Distilled and Bottled in Bond by A. Overholt & Co., Pittsburgh, Pa." Pints sold during Prohibition went out as medicine. The strip, the size and the label will date yours: run it through How old is this bottle?

Old Overholt, year by year

Where the sources disagree

When Broad Ford was built. The 1882 Fayette County history says 1853. Later writers say 1854 or 1855.

When Mellon bought in. His own account through Marsh, and the AP in 1925, say 1880. Later writers say 1881 or 1887. This page goes with his.

Who got Frick's share. You will read that Frick left it to Mellon. In 1925 the papers said Frick still owned a third when he died, and it went to his estate.

Whether Mellon really got out. The 1921 sale was reported, not shown, and it went to his brother and a Mellon bank. Patman, Pinchot and Couzens said he kept a stake until 1928. Mellon said he did not.

When National Distillers bought it. The 1933 financial reports say June 1933. You will also see 1932 and 1927.

The numbers. The 1925 sale was reported at $15 million and at more than $18 million. The forged permit total shows up as 42,000 gallons in one account and 8,850 in another. One paper printed 52 cases to the drug company, another 53.