ebay Louis Taussig & Co. whiskey bottle
by Bret Heinemann - Atusaudero, Ca.

.....It is not known exactly when or why Louis Taussig came to California. It is assumed, however, he was like everyone else, since he arrived sometime between 1849 and 1856. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 had increased the number of young men heading west. The western frontier had always offered opportunities to those who sought fame and fortune. Even though most people heading west found hardship rather than either fortune or fame, they kept coming. Probably because most of them were able to make new lives for themselves. Also the isolation of the West Coast from the rest of the United States, and most every place else prior to the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, created new business opportunities with minimal competition. One of which was the sale of whiskey to the young miners who arrived as a result of the Gold Rush.
During the 1860s, there had developed in the eastern United States a distilling capacity three times what was needed there.1 The problem of how to get this surplus to the western markets was solved in 1869 with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. The major markets in the west at this time being San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Virginia City. The mining and lumber towns and camps started by the gold rush were also good potential markets for whiskey.

Louis Taussig claimed to have got started into the wholesale liquor business in 1856 at 723 Sansome Street in San Francisco. However, there is no record of him having operated a business in San Francisco at this address at this time.2 It has been established that he was a silent partner in the firm of Louis Altschul and Company. He took over the company in 1864 when he formed a partnership with David L. Lederer (formerly of the Fletcher and Lederer bakery). This partnership lasted about one year. He also operated the Congress Hall Saloon at 318 Bush Street in San Francisco for a while in the 1860s. From 1869 to about 1871 Louis Altschul was the majority partner again.3 In 1866 he was listed as a wholesale liquor dealer.4
Louis Taussig, like other wholesale liquor merchants, sold whiskey in quantities of not less than five gallons.5 He was also subject to any special taxes in the places where he conducted business. However, he was exempt from having to purchase specific wholesale liquor licenses for every location that he conducted business in. The places of business were defined as the place where the transfer of ownership of the product took place.6 This policy was reaffirmed by a Treasury Department decision on January 21, 1898.7 A merchant was classified as a rectifier if he attempted to purify or refine the product in any way other then simply pouring it through a cloth to strain out impurities.8
Along with the arrival of larger quantities of good whiskey from the East on the railroad came the increased use of authorized agents. In addition to which, there was by the 1880’s fifteen distilleries operating in California.9 The use of these agents by distillers to sell their brands also helped to guarantee quality. The brands distributed by Louis Taussig included P. Morvilles AAA whiskey and Carrol Rye.10
Louis Taussig by 1873 had moved to the southwest corner of Battery and Sacramento Streets, and the firm became known as Louis Taussig and Company. In 1873 Louis Taussig had formed a partnership with Adolph Fried and Adolph Eisenbach.11 From 1874 until Prohibition the Louis Taussig Company was on of the largest wholesale liquor merchants on the West Coast.12
Somewhere between the mid 1870s and 1900, Louis Taussig and Company opened distributing outlets at #9 Delaney Street in New York City and at #15 Sycamore Street in Cincinnati.13

Drawing courtesy of John L. Thomas from his book "Whiskey Bottle of the Old West."

The Taussig San Francisco addresses were 205 & 207 Battery Street and 26 & 28 Main Street.14
By 1877 Gabriel Taussig was working for the company. He would eventually become the president. Rudolph J. Taussig began working for the company as a traveling salesman in 1885; and in 1888 Edward and Hugo Taussig began working for the company. Louis Taussig would become involved in real estate working out of the 26 & 28 Main Street store. In the early 1890s John J. Carroll became a partner. Louis Taussig died about 1900. The family would continue until Prohibition forced them to close.15
In 1883 the company was valued at between $75,000 and $125,000; and in 1915 the company had grown in value to be worth between $300,000 and $500,000. This was despite the setbacks the company suffered in the 1906 earthquake.16
The passage of Prohibition, which put an end to the business of Louis Taussig and Company, was the result of the belief that most of the ills in society could be cured, if liquor was no longer available. Men who spent their time in saloons were seen as a threat to both women and the sanctity of the home. Saloons were regarded as a threat to men’s jobs; and the men who frequented saloons were viewed as more likely to abuse or abandon their wives and children.

Drawing courtesy of John L. Thomas from his book "Whiskey Bottle of the Old West."

The temperance movement began in the early 1870s in Ohio with a campaign to shut down the saloons there. This campaign was only temporarily successful in closing saloons there. This campaign was only temporarily successful in closing saloons. In 1873 a group in Chicago founded the Women’s Christian Temperance Union under the leadership of Anne Wittenmeyer. The WCTU was one of the major forces behind the temperance crusade. In 1879 Frances Willard became the leader of the WCTU, and she changed it from a Midwestern prayer group into a national militant organization. Willard also enlarged the scope of the organization to include a plan to reform all of the social evils in society. The WCTU would grow and have 160,000 members by 1890 and 245,000 by 1911.17
The attitude, in general, of both the liquor merchants and distillers was in favor of national laws to regulate their industry. They viewed national quotas as necessary to stabilize their industry and protect themselves from more severe local restrictions. They even tried unsuccessfully to get Congress to regulate their industry.18
After January 16, 1920, with the passage of the Volstead Act the sale of liquor became illegal; and prohibition became law. The end of an era had arrived.....

References:
1. Jeremiah W. Jenks, “The Development of the Whiskey Trust,” Political Science Quarterly, 4 (1889) 298.
2. William L. Wilson, and Betty Wilson, Spirit Bottles of the Old West, (Wolfe City: Henington Publishing Company, 1968) 139.
3. John L. Thomas, Whiskey Bottles of the Old West, (Bend: Maverick Publications, 1977) 45
4. William L. Wilson, and Betty Wilson, Spirit Bottles of the Old West. 139
5. William Mida, Mida’s Compendium of Information for the Liquor Interests, (Chicago: Criterion Publishing Company, 1899) 203.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid. 213.
8. Ibid.
9. William L. Wilson, and Betty Wilson, Spirit Bottles of the Old West. 139.
10. John L. Thomas, Whiskey Bottles of the Old West, 45-46.
11. Ibid.
12. William L. Wilson and Betty Wilson, Spirit Bottles of the Old West. 139
13. John L. Thomas, Whiskey Bottles of the Old West, 45-46
14. William L. Wilson, and Betty Wilson, Spirit Bottles of the Old West. 139.
15. John L. Thomas, Whiskey Bottles of the Old West, 45-46.
16. Ibid.
17. Nancy Woloch, Women and the American Experience, (New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1994) 287-288.
18. David Stauber, “Attitude of the Distillers and Wholesale Liquor Dealers on the Regulation of the Liquor Traffic,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 32 (November, 1908), 539.

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