Charles Nelson
Carl Diedrich Wilhelm “Charles” Nelson (1835-1891) was born in Hagenow, Germany on July 4, 1835 to his father John Philip Nelson (1801-1850) and mother Catherine Maria Friederike Roehl (1800-1868). His father John, the patriarch of the family owned a candle and soap factory to support his wife and six children. In October of 1850, his father sold the factory and decided to move his family to the United States of America. In preparation for the long journey overseas, John Nelson had clothing specifically tailored to hold his earnings of which he had melted down into gold for both safety and security. On Saturday October 26, 1850 the Nelson family would set sail on the Helena Sloman from Hamburg, Germany to New York.
After nearly three weeks into the expedition, the Helena Sloman (named after the ships builder Robert Sloman’s daughter) took on extreme weather and large waves. The vessel sustained damage to both its rudder and propeller – leaving little opportunity to continue navigating its course. After being stranded and battling darkness, storms, snow, and sleet for nine days in the icy cold Atlantic – distress signals were answered by an American vessel called the Devonshire. Quickly a rescue mission was in place and passengers were sent via lifeboat from the sinking vessel amidst heavy waves and wind. John Nelson watched as his son Charles and family made their way via lifeboat to safety.
As the final lifeboat full of passengers, including John Nelson started their descent from the sinking Devonshire – waves took control of the tiny boat and it capsized with 12 passengers onboard. With the Nelson family witnessing the tragic event from aboard the Devonshire, it was the family patriarch John Philip Nelson and the family’s fortune that was lost beneath the waves and their father a victim of both mother nature and the icy Atlantic Ocean floor.
Fifteen-year-old Charles Nelson would have little time to mourn his father’s passing as his family entered the United States penniless, and with nothing but the shirts on their back. Once they reached New York, his mother cared for the children as Charles and his brother Adolph (1843-1907) went in search for work in the candle and soap making business they had learned from their father.
In 1852, the family relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio to escape the fast-paced and dangerous metropolis of New York City. Cincinnati was booming as the sixth largest city in the United States – as well as a magnet for fellow German immigrants. Charles would initially continue in the soap and candle trade; however, the thriving livestock industry would convince him to begin working at a local butcher shop. It is here where Charles learned of grains fed to livestock and how the preservation of them became distillation by many farmers. Charles was a quick under study and eventually found a partner to open his own grocery store called Blersch & Nelson.
Five years later in 1857, Charles would move to Nashville, Tennessee to open another grocery store called Nelson & Pfeiffer. The store focused on three primary products for patrons: coffee, meat, and whiskey.
A marketing extraordinaire – Charles would encourage his coffee boy to deliver his blend to the Maxwell House Hotel in downtown Nashville – where it would later become the house blend and marketed under the Maxwell House name and become famous for the saying “good to the last drop”.
His whiskey came from neighboring distilleries – selling it to his customers. Most notably, he would begin selling whiskey in a bottle - which had not yet been introduced to customers. A popular source for his whiskey was from the Green Brier Distillery, in Green Brier, Tennessee. The distillery, also known as Old No. 5 Distillery, was built in 1867 and held a DSP (Distilled Spirits Producer) of five in the state of Tennessee – making it one of the earliest trademarked whiskeys. In 1870, Charles decided to exit the grocery business and purchase the Green Brier Distillery – naming it Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery. He would go on to produce approximately 30 different brands of liquor ranging from Tennessee Whiskey, bourbon whiskey, corn whiskey, gin, and both apple and peach brandy.
Now as a whiskey producer, Charles would produce its flagship brand by using the Lincoln County Process to identify its Tennessee Whiskey distinction – much the same as both Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel. However, a major distinction between that of Charles and his competitors was the use of wheat instead of rye. The mash bill was composed of corn, wheat, and barley – with two of their most popular brands being Nelson’s Green Brier Tennessee Whiskey and Belle Meade.
In 1869, Nelson purchased the H.H. Kirk patent for improved distillation and production capacity. This business move helped Nelson's Green Brier Distillery become one of the largest producing distilleries in the United States prior to Prohibition – versus the likes of George Dickel and Jack Daniels.
Belle Meade was produced by Belle Meade Distillery in Nashville and owned by Sperry Wade and Company. Nelson and Greenbrier were contracted to sell the brand until 1880 when the Belle Meade distillery burned and all production moved to Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery. According to Belle Meade’s website, the label is infamous with the horse on the right depicting Bonnie Scotland, one of the founders of the Northern Dancer bloodline. Descendants of this bloodline include Seabiscuit, War Admiral, Man O’War, Secretariat, California Chrome, American Pharaoh, and Nyquist to name a few.
In Charles’s personal life he married twice. He first married Louise Brengleman (1839-1862) and named his first son after himself Charles W. Nelson (1862-1937). His wife Louise died while giving birth to junior in Ohio on March 18, 1862. Nearly a year later, Charles married a second time on March 4, 1863 to Louisa Christine Rohlfing. The two would go on to have five children together (Emma, William, Alice, Henry, and Louisa).
Charles was well known not just for his business sense but also servant leadership in the Nashville community. He founded and served as President for both the Nashville Trust Company and Nashville Musical Union. It was the Green Brier Distillery that helped pave the way for the towns rail system – helping transport ingredients and products to and from the distillery.
Charles Nelson passed away at his home on December 13, 1891 from congestion of the lungs after a weeklong illness. According to The Courier-Journal out of Louisville, Kentucky, “he built up and added to until his business amounted to a million dollars annually. He paid over $300,000 in taxes to the government the past year and employed 200 men at his distillery. His estate is worth over a million dollars.” It is unclear of his relationship with son Charles Jr as the journal goes onto say, “He leaves a wife, two sons and three daughters.”
Nearly a year after his death – an article by the Hamilton Evening Journal in Ohio, dated December 08, 1892 cited a dispatch from Nashville, Tenn saying: “When Charles Nelson, the millionaire distiller, died a year ago, he cut off his oldest son, who was his only child by his first wife, with $400 a year. Young Charles Nelson, who lives at Oxford, Ohio, entered suit and today a compromise was announced. Young Nelson receives $10,000 in cash and $20,000 to be held in a trust for his benefit. The principal is to revert to his step-mother, if he dies without heir.” It is unclear where the relationship with father-son soured.
Following Charles Nelson’s death, his wife Louisa would take over the distillery operations. Louisa is considered one of the pioneers for women in the whiskey industry today and continued building the brand for an additional 18 years until prohibition laws were passed in the state of Tennessee prohibiting the sale and production of alcohol in 1909.
**The brand would be reintroduced years later by Charles great great great-grandchildren and brothers Andy and Charlie Nelson who resurrected the brand in March 2012 following the end of the Tennessee Prohibition in 2009**.
