Leslie B. Samuels
Leslie B. Samuels was born on January 29th, 1872, to his father William Isaac Samuels, and his mother Emma Dorcas Samuels in Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky. Leslie was very smart and graduated at the top of his class with distinction from Richmond College in Virginia in 1893. While at Richmond College, he was a valued member of the baseball team, serving as captain in his junior and senior years, and a member of Beta Theta Pi where he served as Rush Chair.
In 1898, after Leslie Samuels’ grandfather Taylor Williams Samuels (age 77), and his father William Isaac Samuels (age 52) passed away within a few months of each other, he became the General Manager and Plant Superintendent of what was then known as the T. W. Samuels and Son Distillery located in Deatsville, Kentucky, at the age of 26.
Mr. Les, as he was known locally, was very involved in the affairs of Bardstown. In 1908 he rallied public support to create a K-12 public school system, serving as the charter trustee and then to elected positions on the school board for the 28 years of his life, almost all those years as chairman. In the early 1920s, Governor Ed Morrow appointed Leslie as Chair of the newly created Kentucky Highway Commission board. Bardstown prospered during this period with many state-funded highways.
Leslie also served on Bardstown’s City Council for more than 30 years and as mayor from 134 until his death in 1936. Leslie also played an important role in convincing family friend Madge Rowan Frost to sell her family mansion, known as Federal Hill, to the state of Kentucky so that it could be preserved and open to the public as part of the My Old Kentucky Home State Park. This plantation home became immortalized in Stephen C. Foster’s (known as the “Father of American music”) melodies including “My Old Kentucky Home”.
In 1909, a fire destroyed the distillery and the entire stock of over 9,000 barrels of Bourbon. Shortly afterwards Starr Distilling Company of Cincinnati, Ohio took over controlling interest and rebuilt the distillery. Leslie was still part owner with a minority stake in the company and they requested that he stay on as General Manager of the distillery until it was shut down permanently during Prohibition in 1920. During Prohibition Leslie purchased an Automobile Dealership and the People’s Bank.
In anticipation of the end of Prohibition in 1933, Samuels rebuilt the distillery with the help of his son Tom, a recent engineering graduate of the University of Louisville, and helped reorganize the company. Leslie located this distillery right on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad line. At this time, Leslie owned 51% of the distillery. When reorganized, the Robert L. Block Corporation of Cincinnati had Block as President and Leslie Samuels as Vice President and distillery General Manager. The new distillery would have six new warehouses with a capacity of 19,000 barrels each along the railroad line. The distillery helped build the Bardstown-Springfield branch railroad depot.
On February 18, 1936, Leslie passed away and was buried in his hometown of Bardstown. His son T. W. (Bill Sr.) Samuels would become the General Manager after he graduated from Speed Engineering school. Being a trained engineer he was neither a distiller nor a businessman, but he soon learned both.
They had three brands, T. W. Samuels Bottled in Bond with a black label, T. W. Samuels Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky at 90 proof with a red label, and Old Jordan Whiskey. The T.W. Samuels brand had a strong following in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. It was the top-selling brand of bourbon in Cincinnati as well as some urban Texas markets like Dallas and Houston. It also had some hot spots along the west coast. The 90-proof whiskey proved to be far more popular than they had envisioned and soon shortages developed. The company began purchasing barrels when they were available from the Labrot & Graham distillery in Woodford County until 1940.
In 1943, Block wanted to sell the distillery, but Bill Sr. did not want to sell the family business. After all attempts to secure finances failed, Bill had no choice but to hand over the family business to Foster Trading Corporation of New York, which changed the distillery name to Country Distillers making the Samules name disappear from the facility and product. In 1953, Bill Samuels Sr. purchased the Burks Spring Distillery in Loretto, KY, and created Maker’s Mark with the assistance of his wife Margie.
The Samuels family line of mercantile bourbon distillers has now been perpetual through eight generations of the family’s sons although it was not as commercial distillers until Ole T. W. began making it the family business in the 1840’s. The Samuels family tradition actually started several generations before T. W. with Robert Samuels (1755-1822) who originally hailed from East Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and served in George Washington’s Continental Army. He was commissioned by the General to make whisky for the soldiers of Washington’s Army. Captain Robert Samuels was honorably discharged from the Army once the Revolutionary War was over and moved his family and his father’s 60-gallon copper still to what is today Nelson County, Kentucky. Robert had three sons, William Samuels (Ole T. W.’s father), John Samuels, and Rueben Samuels. Both John and William had stills on their respective neighboring farms. However, John was more commercially successful. It was T. W.’s uncle John who continued in the distilling business, but his main job was that of a farmer. Like others in the day, he turned his corn into whisky as an efficient way and value-added way to transport his harvest.
The commercial distilling began with Taylor William (Ole T. W.) Samuels, {1821-1898}, William Isaac Samuels {1845-1898}, Leslie B. Samuels {1871-1936}; Taylor William Samuels, IV (“Bill, Sr.”) {1911-1992}, Taylor William Samuels, V (“Bill, Jr.”)940-}, and Robert Samuels {1974-}, however the 14 years of Prohibition and the 10 years following the sale of the TWS distillery were taken up as a Naval Officer during WWII and planning his reentry into the industry
