McLin & Norman Davis

McLin Hezikiah Davis was born in Tullahoma, Tennessee on September 12th, 1852.  McLin was a local businessman in the area that had casual connections to Cascade Whisky as far back as 1870. At that time it was made by differently than it was today. It was produced by local farmers John F. Brown and F. E. Cunningham.

George A. Dickel, a successful Nashville merchant, created a wholesale company that bought barrels of whiskey directly from several regional distillers including Cascade and distributed them in barrels, jugs, and bottles to the public. As time went on, their purchases of whiskies used in rectifying became more and more centered around Cascade Whisky. George Dickel and his brother-in-law Victor Emmanuel “Manny” Shwab became the largest buyer and distributer of that whisky and found McLin then asked him to be a local partner in the town where the distillery was located.

Recognizing the popularity of the whiskey, Dickel and Shwab purchased a two-thirds interest in the distillery in 1878, and eventually George A. Dickel & Company became the sole distributor of the whiskey. The following year, the distillery would bring McLin Davis on board as a partner and made him their first Master Distiller.

Davis is credited with the George A. Dickel with the very high corn, low rye recipe that is still used today with a Mash Bill: 84% Corn, 8% Rye and 8% Malted Barley. McLin would work for the company in many capacities for twenty year.

George Dickel passed away in 1894 and McLin Davis died on the 1st of April, 1898 on a business trip to Battle Creek, Michigan at the young aged of only 45. He is buried at the Oakwood Cemetery in Tullahoma, Coffee County, Tennessee. His son Norman Hezikiah Davis took over his father’s position but never really had the desire to work in a still house. He sold his shares inherited from his father to Shwab, who now owned 100% of the distillery.

Norman became wildly successful after departing Dickel, first as a businessman and then as a diplomat. He turned the money he had acquired from the sale of his Cascade shares into a fortune as a businessman living in Cuba as he facilitated trading between that country and the U. S. When he returned to the United States, he entered the public sector at the federal level. For the rest of his life, he operated at the highest levels of international diplomacy and finance. Among his assignments, he served as President Woodrow Wilson's Assistant Secretary of Treasury (1919 to 1920)and later as Undersecretary of State(1920 to 1921). He was a member of the American delegation that went with President Wilson to Paris for the Versailles Peace Conference. 

Contributed by: Col. CRaig Duncan, Columbia, Tennessee