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From: Lyle VanHook <>
Subject: VanHook Whiskey.
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 17:59:04 -0600


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Hi to all the VanHooks,
I have recently come across some information that has been of interest to
me because of it's connection to our "VanHook name".

The Harrison County (Kentucky) Historical Society in its February 2004
issue of the "Harrison Heritage News" has pictured a (full) bottle of
whiskey ( circa 1922) which is labeled as "Van-Hook Whiskey" distributed by
the F. S. Ashbrook Distillery. The story that went along with the picture
indicated that the bottle of whiskey had been donated to the Society by a
Lyle Bell who discovered the bottle in 1980 in a house which he had owned
in Berkley, California. The house had been built in 1925 but Mr. Bell had
no idea of where the bottle of whiskey had come from but "in the interest
of historic value" contacted Mr. George D. Slade, a historian with the
Harrison County Society for information about his find. Mr. Slade replied
to Mr. Bell with personal information of the Distillery and in ending, he
added that "the bottle of whiskey would be a great item for our museum".
The response to Mr. Slade's remark was well rewarded....... Mr .Bell sent
the "Van-Hook Whiskey " bottle to the museum, where it is now on display.

Now, here is the reason that this story was of special interest to me. I
have a son, Dennis VanHook who lives in Montana and is a collector of
antiques and other items that interest him. A few years ago, Dennis was
attending a Flea Market and located a similar whiskey bottle (empty) that
was also labeled "Van-Hook Whiskey". He bought the bottle which he still
owns to date.
However, the distributor of the whiskey was the Associated Distilleries of
Kentucky, District No 17, 7th District of Kentucky.

In spite of the fact that the two bottles were distributed by different
Distillers, the "Van-Hook Whiskey" labels are exactly the same. That being
the case, I struck up an email correspondence with Historian George D.
Slade of the Harrison County (Kentucky) Historical Society and in an
attempt to learn more about "Van-Hook Whiskey" sent him pictures of the
label on my son's bottle
It turns out that Mr. Slade is 5 years older than my 83 years and has a
remarkable personal recall of events that occurred around Cynthiana,
Kentucky and other parts of Harrison County. The following is taken from
some of his remarks......

"Lyle. Yes I agree that the labels are the same.
L. VanHook & Co. Distillery, North Main St. , Cynthiana, Ky. was built in
1868 by Peck, VanHook & Co.. The distillery was later sold but the brand
name remained with the distillery. All bourbon whiskey is basically the
same. Each distiller had his own guarded recipe for making the starter yeast.
I am 88+ years of age and remember when they were moving whiskey from
the Van Hook Distillery warehouses and shipping it by rail. This was in the
mid 1920s. The various distilleries probably shipped their whiskey to a
central location where it was bottled and distributed to medical supply
houses. I would say that the same formula was in both bottles. One was
bottled at the distillery, the other at the Associated Distilleries of Ky."

Does anyone out there have any further information on this subject???????
Hope that this will provoke some discussion. So, fire away.

Lyle VanHook



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