204:, there is no evidence to support the oft-told story that Dickel established the distillery while on a trip to the area in 1870. John F. Brown and F.E. Cunningham were operating a distillery in the valley by 1879, when Brown sold his shares to Matthew Sims. In 1883, McLin Davis became the Cascade operation's distiller, and instituted a number of innovations that greatly increased the whiskey's quality. Shwab, who had become a full partner in Dickel and Company in 1881, purchased Sims's share of the distillery in 1888. With this purchase, Dickel and Company became Cascade's sole distributor.
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bottles. The company also sold beer from
Nashville-area brewers, including ales and lagers produced by South Nashville brewer Stifel and Pfeiffer, as well as wines and brandies. The company was one of the first in Nashville to directly import liquor, including Scottish and Irish whiskeys, Dutch gin, and champagnes. An 1875 advertisement described the company's specialties as "copper distilled sour mash whiskies" and imported champagnes, and noted the company shipped nationwide.
136:. Though he was not the distiller of the whiskey, which was originally sold under the brand name "Cascade", his wholesaling firm played an important role in its distribution and marketing, and his name appeared on its labels throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When Cascade's new owners reopened the original Cascade Hollow distillery in the 1950s, they renamed the whiskey for Dickel.
189:(1847–1924), as a bookkeeper. Shwab, who had dropped the "c" from his surname in an attempt to Americanize it, would eventually marry Emma Banzer, a sister of Dickel's wife, Augusta. In 1867, Dickel began blending whiskey, and was arrested and charged in federal court for rectifying liquor without a license. In spite of these charges, Dickel's liquor retail continued to thrive.
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As Dickel's health declined, Shwab gradually took over Dickel and
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immigrants with whom Dickel would long be associated, were heavily involved in
Nashville's illicit whiskey trade. A son-in-law of Abram Schwab, Meier Salzkotter (1822–1891), who had been a business associate of Dickel since 1859, was caught by Union authorities in possession of a large quantity
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By 1870, Dickel had established a liquor wholesaling firm, George A. Dickel and
Company, which was headquartered at 2 North Market Street. Typical of liquor wholesalers of the day, Dickel and Company purchased whiskey directly from distillers from around the region, and sold it in barrels, jugs and
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On March 17, 1874, a fire swept through Market Street, destroying the Dickel and
Company headquarters, and just missing its large warehouse, which was filled with $ 60,000 worth of whiskey. Another fire in May 1881 destroyed the warehouse, however, which represented for the company a $ 75,000 loss
255:. In the late 1950s, Schenley Industries, which had bought the Cascade brand from Shwab's descendants, rebuilt the Cascade Hollow distillery, and renamed the brand "George Dickel". A bust and monument to Dickel now stands outside the general store and visitors' center at the new distillery.
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At the end of the war in 1865, Dickel opened a liquor store on South
College Street in Nashville. He had relocated to South Market Street (modern Second Avenue) by the following year. He hired Salzkotter as a superintendent, and Salzkotter's former brother-in-law, Victor Emmanuel Shwab
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By the mid-1850s, Dickel was operating a boot and shoe manufacturing business on Union Street in
Nashville. He continued in this line of work until about 1860. During this period, he married Augusta Banzer, who was twenty years his junior. Dickel first began selling liquor in 1861.
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During the Civil War, rampant smuggling took place in
Nashville after Union soldiers occupied the city in 1862 and banned the sale of liquor. While there is no direct evidence linking Dickel to wartime smuggling, the Schwabs, a family of
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In 1886, Dickel was badly injured in a horse-riding accident, and never fully recovered. His health declined rapidly during the last two years of his life, and he died on June 11, 1894. He is interred in
Nashville's
197:(though partially insured). In reporting on this second fire, one newspaper described Dickel as "the great whiskey dealer". In 1882, Dickel and Company built a new five-story headquarters on Market Street.
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As the distributor of the increasingly popular
Cascade brand, Dickel and Company's name appeared on the Cascade label into the 20th century, when the operation was forced to close with the onset of
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Along with his successful liquor enterprise, Dickel was engaged in a number of endeavors in Nashville. He lived just outside the city in a home on Dickerson Pike, where he operated a sizable
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of contraband liquor. Salzkotter argued that his in-laws had saddled him with the whiskey, but was nevertheless arrested and jailed. Upon his release, he divorced his wife, Cecilia Schwab.
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Though he valued anonymity and preferred to work in the background in business dealings, Dickel was a prominent resident of his adopted hometown of
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128:(February 2, 1818 – June 11, 1894) was a German-born American businessman best known for his namesake brand of whiskey,
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While it's unknown when exactly Dickel and Company began distributing whiskey produced at the Cascade Hollow distillery near
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159:. He was named after his godfather (and probable uncle) Georg Adam Fischer. Anton Fischer's father, Adam Fischer, was a
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who specialized in wine casks. Dickel migrated to the United States in 1844, and relocated to Nashville in 1847.
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Dickel and Company's headquarters, built in 1882, still stands at 201–203 Second Avenue in Nashville.
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155:(in modern Germany). He is believed to have been the illegitimate son of Anton Fischer, who lived in
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orchard. He was also a volunteer fireman with Nashville's Deluge Company No. 3. Dickel became a
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Kay Baker Gaston, "George Dickel Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey: The Story Behind the Label",
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spent her later years dividing her time between Nashville, her summer home in
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582:, Vol. 16 (Marshall and Bruce, 1880), p. xciv.
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568:(The History Press, 2008), p. 39.
338:Prominent Nashville Merchant Dead
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16:German-born American businessman
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544:Nashville's Great Fire
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126:George Augustus Dickel
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233:Mount Olivet Cemetery
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253:prohibition
659:Categories
453:River News
274:References
221:Carl Giers
147:Early life
108:Occupation
54:1818-02-02
37:Carl Giers
227:in 1874.
202:Tullahoma
262:See also
223:for the
177:Alsatian
161:Würzburg
62:Grünberg
239:Legacy
165:cooper
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507:Fire!
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