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Distilleries of Early Kalamazoo

Home of “Luke’s Best” (1831-1884)


L.W. Whitcomb & Co., c.1860s

Over the years, dozens of people and products have helped bring notoriety to Kalamazoo; from guitars to taxicabs, fishing tackle to pharmaceuticals, sleds, stoves, undergarments, and of course, “That Gal.” One of the first products made in the village, and the first to bring national attention to Kalamazoo, was of all things, whiskey.

America’s thirst for alcohol during the early nineteenth century (and the problems that went along with it) is certainly no secret. Annual per capita consumption in the United States then averaged nearly three times what it is today, and Kalamazoo was no exception. In its 1837 annual report, the Kalamazoo Total Abstinence Temperance Society stated that the combined total sales for the five local liquor retailers that year amounted to 4,375 gallons, including 1,070 gallons of whiskey. Kalamazoo’s population at that time was just 1,367! A decade or so later, the “Big Village” boasted no less than six breweries and two distilleries, plus a thriving crop of saloons and liquor retailers—rather amazing for a community of then just seven thousand.

“It was customary,” recalled one early pioneer, “to have liquor for such times as raisings of new barns, it being quite common at the time. But,” he added, “some felt the need of it for their stomach and the infirmities which is sometimes epidemic in a new country” (Gazette). At one such barn raising in Portage during the 1840s, a concoction known as “black-strap”—a blend of water, molasses, and “Luke’s Best” whiskey “in nearly equal proportions” (Kalamazoo Telegraph)—was served up on site for the workers in a large wash tub.

Another prominent local pioneer, William “Billy” Wood, once recalled that “whiskey was sold at all public gatherings, over a board fixed between two trees and covered with cloth, very much the same as red lemonade is now dispensed at a county fair.” According to Wood, “The usual price was three cents for a tumbler full,” but he added, “scarcely ever did a man become intoxicated.” Wood also revealed that “the whiskey was made in a little still, which had been set up in the community” (Gazette), but he wouldn’t say exactly where.

Clearly, distilling grain into alcohol was (and of course still is) big business. From that perspective alone, it’s interesting to explore the backgrounds of these early enterprises and to learn more about the people behind this lucrative and often controversial industry.

Hosea B. Huston

Hosea B. Huston.

When Titus Bronson platted the village of Bronson (later Kalamazoo) in 1831, Hosea B. Huston was there, right along with Nathan Harrison, Cyrus Lovell, Justus Burdick, and others. Huston had been elected as the township clerk and served as the first village sheriff. He opened the first store in the village on the northeast corner of Main and Rose streets, and later became proprietor of the “97 Main” dry goods store, commonly known as “Old Brig.” In 1843 Huston became the first village president. It’s also likely he was responsible for the community’s first distillery.

“Enniskillen” (c.1831)

Soon after his arrival in Bronson, Huston set up a distillery a mile or so northeast of the village near the Kalamazoo River (where Spring Valley Park is today) and began making whiskey, which at that time sold for 25¢ to 30¢ per gallon. Huston originally called his place “Clipknockie,” but later changed the name to “Enniskillen.”

Enniskillen whiskey became a favorite among the locals. In the late 1830s, Francis “Frank” March bought the property, including the distillery, and soon after took over the “Old Brig, 97 Main” dry goods business. March immediately began offering “any quantity of Enniskillen Whiskey,” be it by the gallon, barrel (31 gal.), hogshead (63 gal.), pipe (126 gal.), “or any other quantity desired” (Gazette), in exchange for wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley, hops, merchandise, or cash. In May 1841, March advertised his full stock of dry goods in exchange for cash or corn, hoping to secure 2,000 bushels of shelled corn and 500 bushels of wheat for his distillery.

Location of Hosea B. Huston’s “Enniskillen” distillery (later J.P. Woodbury). Geil & Harley, 1861. Library of Congress

Frank March did a brisk business until March 1848 when he put his property up for sale, including the “Enniskillen distillery.” The distillery never reopened. Instead, J.P. Woodbury and Allen Potter built a well-known blast furnace and stove factory on the site, where they mined bog ore near the river and smelted it into pig iron for stove parts and other castings. That operation was taken over in 1857 by W. Burtt & Son. In 1867 Caleb Sherman purchased the property and built a popular gristmill there.

“T. Clark & Son” (c.1836)

During the spring of 1836, Thomas Clark (born 1782 in Essex, England) arrived in Kalamazoo with his family and built a distillery on the west side of the Kalamazoo River, just north of where the Michigan Avenue bridge now crosses. His son, George Thomas Clark (born about 1808) helped run the operation.

Approximate location of T. Clark & Son Distillery, Bronson Village Plat Map, c.1834 Local History Room

By February 1837, the “T. Clark & Son” distillery was paying cash for grain and advertising plenty of “well rectified whiskey on hand.” (“Rectified” refers the process of creating blends from multiple batches for consistent flavor.) The Clarks advertised frequently for more than a year and apparently ran a successful business, but the enterprise was short-lived. Thomas Clark died unexpectedly in Kalamazoo on January 14, 1838, and it appears that the family distillery operation ceased soon after. The final advertisement for G. Clark’s “Kalamazoo Distillery” appeared in April that year. Luke Whitcomb bought the property soon after.

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Kalamazoo Gazette, February 4, 1837, p.3

Isaac Moffatt & Co.

Isaac Moffatt (top) & Hiram Arnold

In 1845, two prominent local dry goods merchants, Isaac Moffatt and Hiram Arnold, formed a new partnership with Prentiss S. Cobb and former Kalamazoo sheriff John Parker. Together they developed a large steam-powered gristmill on Kalamazoo’s north side, a few blocks north of the Michigan Central depot. In 1849, they made plans to add a sawmill and distillery on the property.

Moffatt & Co. engaged John Earl to build their distillery. Earl learned the trade while working with his uncle in New York and had just completed a large distillery for Isaac Willard in Paw Paw. After much planning, work finally got underway and by the spring of 1850, Moffatt & Co. was operating a saw mill and distillery in “a large double building” (Gazette) on the west side of Burdick Street between North and Frank streets. The company advertised extensively, soliciting large quantities of wheat, corn, rye, barley and oats for their mill and distillery, which according to the Gazette, was “solely employed for the manufacture of highwines (liquor) for exportation.”

Moffatt’s distillery turned out some 60,000 gallons of liquor annually, and was in operation until the mid-1850s, when a short-lived statewide liquor ban went into effect. Hiram Arnold resigned in 1855 and went into the banking business. Isaac Moffatt served as village president from 1849 until 1851, and was one of the principal investors in the Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids Plank Road. The distillery building on Burdick Street was acquired by George Judge in 1857 and converted to a malt house and brewery.

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I. Moffatt & Co., 1853 Local History Room

The Whitcomb Mills

Leverett Whitcomb. courtesy, James Richards

The best-known and certainly the most successful of the Kalamazoo distilleries was owned and operated by the three Whitcomb brothers; Elias (born about 1804), Leverett (born about 1806), and Luke (born about 1810). The Whitcombs descended from a long line of New England millers, including their great-grandfather, Joseph Whitcomb, who was a miller in New Hampshire. All three sons were born in Vermont where their father, Peter Whitcomb, was himself a miller. The family later relocated to western New York where the boys learned the trade from their father, before ultimately moving on to Kalamazoo.

In 1835, the first bridge was constructed across the Kalamazoo River where Michigan Avenue now crosses. During the fall, Anthony Cooley and Erastus Bailey began building the town’s first gristmill near the bridge along the east side of the river. By springtime, Cooley and Bailey had their mill up and running and were busy grinding wheat into flour. So joyous were the citizens of Kalamazoo about the construction of the new mill that a special committee was enlisted to draft a formal letter of appreciation in Bailey’s honor. “It is highly gratifying to me,” stated Bailey in response, “to have my name associated with the growing interests of so enlightened and intelligent a community as the citizens of Kalamazoo” (Gazette).

Elias and Leverett Whitcomb

Elias Whitcomb arrived in Kalamazoo in 1836 and purchased Bailey’s share of the newly built flour mill. Whitcomb’s younger brother, Leverett, joined him in Kalamazoo a year later. Eventually, the Whitcomb brothers assumed full ownership of the gristmill, and became well-liked among the locals. Leverett Whitcomb was another who would later play a significant role in the development of the Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids Plank Road.

Luke Wheelock Whitcomb

During the spring of 1838, a third brother, Luke Wheelock Whitcomb, made the journey westward from the family home in western New York and settled in Kalamazoo, where he purchased the old Clark distillery across the river from his brothers’ gristmill. Luke soon had his distillery operation in full swing, making whiskey, packing salt-cured pork and making “lots of bacon” (Massie).

Whitcomb operated the distillery in its original location until July 1841 when a sudden fire consumed the building, taking with it “a few barrels of pork and 1,000 gallons of whiskey” (Gazette). After the fire, the Whitcombs hired a local carpenter named Martin Turner to put up a new distillery building next to the flour mill on the east side of the river, and to build a new sawmill on the same property just north of it. Turner had originally been contracted by George Gale to build a sawmill in what would later become Galesburg, but when that building project fell through, Turner sold the wood to Luke Whitcomb instead and floated it down the river to Kalamazoo.

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Whitcomb Mill and Distillery, 1853 (view this location on a current map) Local History Room

For the next dozen years or so, Luke Whitcomb packed barrels of salt-cured pork and distilled upwards of 60,000 gallons of liquor annually. A statewide prohibition law went into effect in December 1853, which undoubtedly curtailed Luke’s distilling operation for a time, although local enforcement was evidently lax and the law was soon declared unconstitutional. Leverett Whitcomb continued to run the sawmill, and Elias Whitcomb took care of the day-to-day operations in the flour mill until his untimely death in April 1854. Leverett and Luke then carried on as “L. and L.W. Whitcomb,” although the worst of times for the Whitcomb brothers, it seems, still lay ahead.

“Come Hell or High Water”

1858 would be a devastating year for the Whitcomb brothers. Heavy spring rains swamped the area, causing the Kalamazoo and Portage rivers to overflow and flood “hundreds of acres of meadow” (Kalamazoo Telegraph) along their banks. The otherwise gentle Arcadia Creek became a raging torrent that washed out a culvert west of town that sent flood waters pouring over the north side of the community. By June 1st, the Main Street bridge over the Kalamazoo river was partially submerged and the mill race near Whitcomb’s mill was completely under water. The mill and distillery buildings withstood the watery onslaught, although some 400 hogs narrowly escaped the rising water and had to be moved to higher ground. Grain in the mill was stored in upper level rooms so it was kept safe from the water, but damage to the machinery on ground level was said to be “severe” (Kalamazoo Telegraph). The water soon subsided, but the brothers’ troubles were only beginning.

Fire at the Mill

During the early morning hours of September 23, 1858, a sudden blaze wiped out the entire Whitcomb mill and distillery complex, including all of its contents. A worker in charge of the mill had evidently allowed a lamp to come in contact with a cask of liquor, which ignited a blaze that quickly consumed the dry wooden buildings, including the distillery, the gristmill, an adjoining shed, the sawmill, and some livestock. Some 300 hogs were saved from the blaze, but loss was estimated in excess of $17,000 (more than $465,000 today) for which the Whitcombs had no insurance coverage. Leverett Whitcomb was overwhelmed by the loss. Without the ability to rebuild his operation, he died less than two years later. This, along with the nation’s growing anti-liquor sentiment, effectively brought an end to commercial distilling in Kalamazoo.

“Ever the Gentleman”

One account later told of several temperance supporters who watched the 1858 fire and suggested the firemen should “just let it burn,” as it was “nothing but an old distillery.” Whitcomb knew that some horses and several head of cattle were kept in the sheds directly behind the burning building, and in response, told the firemen to “never mind the whiskey, let it burn, but save the animals.”

A decade later, Luke Whitcomb was standing nearby when fire broke out in the old Congregational Church building on Academy Street and bystanders were pleading for assistance to help remove furniture ahead of the blaze. “Let ‘er burn, it’s nothing but a church,” Whitcomb quipped, then removed his coat and jumping in bodily to help save the building and its contents. “(Luke Whitcomb) had his faults and vices like many other men,” recalled Judge E.W. DeYoe in 1901, “but despite them all he was ever the gentleman under all circumstances” (Gazette).

C____, of Kalamazoo, thought highly of whisky for preserving leather, and always has a skin full. He sold his driving horse to a distiller, H___; seeing it passing one day, hauling a load of “Luke’s Best,” remarked: “That horse has changed owners, but keeps on at the same work, only he hauls it now in barrels.”

Auburn Daily Bulletin (NY), March 31, 1870, p.1

Kalamazoo’s Famous Whiskey: “Luke’s Best”

Despite the 1858 fire and the untimely deaths of his business partner brothers, Luke Whitcomb forged ahead. He knew that despite stiff competition from the big city distilleries and growing resistance from the temperance movement, there was still money to be made locally in the liquor trade. He formed L.W. Whitcomb & Co. and went into the business of “rectifying” whiskey at the corner of Harrison and Willard Streets. Rather than distilling it locally, raw corn liquor was brought in by rail from out-of-town (typically Detroit), then aged and mixed into various blends and distributed regionally.

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L.W. Whitcomb & Co., c. 1867 (looking west, corner of Harrison and Willard streets) Bird’s-eye-view lithograph, 1867-1868, by Charles Shober, Chicago, IL; published by the Gazette Office, Kalamazoo, Mich. Courtesy, Kalamazoo Valley Museum
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Eight-Rowed Yankee Corn The Home and Farm Manual, 1884

“That famous ‘honey dew’ for the pioneers”

Luke Whitcomb’s signature product had for many years been a whiskey known as “Luke’s Best,” which grew famous largely by word-of-mouth from Chicago to the Eastern Seaboard, and perhaps even abroad. From the 1840s, freshly distilled “Luke’s Best,” said to be “made from the old-fashioned eight-rowed Yankee (Flint) corn, pronounced by competent judges to be the best whiskey ever made on earth” (Gazette), could be purchased right from the distillery for 25¢ a gallon, or 50¢ for a gallon of two-year-old. “Luke’s Best” would continue to be Whitcomb’s stock-in-trade for decades to come, in fact outliving Ol’ Luke himself by some fifteen years.

Thomas’s Kalamazoo Directory and Business Advertiser for 1867 and 1868. Local History Room

Tall Tales of Luke Whitcomb

Whitcomb was tall in stature and a bold character who seldom hesitated to make his presence known. As the stories go, Luke took such pride in his work that he felt every tavern in the country should carry “Luke’s Best” and he often took it upon himself to see that they did. According to the Gazette in 1922, “Pioneers who had a taste for strong drink declared that the ‘Best’ was better than any other brand to be had. Whitcomb himself pinned his reputation to it and is said to have been quite partial to the liquor of his own making.” As Luke traveled, he stopped and asked for it wherever he went.

“I know ‘Luke’s Best’ when I see it…”

A typical story of Luke Whitcomb’s travels is recalled in a 1920 Kalamazoo Gazette article…

“It is said that the distiller once essayed a journey to the elite east, the trip being made by stagecoach, which stopped every ten or dozen miles so that horses might be changed and passengers might alight and either exercise their legs or find refreshment with in the taverns. At each of the stopping places, the story goes, Whitcomb would invite his companions to have a little something and in each case ordered “Luke’s Best.”

In each instance a bottle of the “Best” was set out and duly sampled, until late in the day in sampling a drink, Whitcomb smashed his glass down on the bar of the tavern where the stage had stopped, and exclaimed: “I called for “Luke’s Best.’”

“That’s ‘Luke’s Best,’” reported the landlord, who waited upon the party. “’Tis not!” thundered Whitcomb; I know ‘Luke’s Best’ when I see it, or smell it, or taste it, for I’m Luke, Luke Whitcomb himself! Now sir, set out a bottle of the ‘Best,’ and never try to palm off an inferior article.”

Apologizing, the tavern keeper placed a bottle of the genuine article on the bar, and it is said that as long as he sold “refreshments for men and beast,” he never again attempted to substitute anything else for Luke’s Best.”

Kalamazoo Gazette, May 30, 1920, p.7

“15 cents a drink?”

An earlier strikingly similar story was articulated by Judge E.W. DeYoe in 1901…

“At one time Mr. Whitcomb went to Albany. Stopping at a tavern near there he went in and inquired if he could get a drink of first class whiskey there. He, by the way, was not a fancy dresser, and the clothes he wore were not always as neatly kept as they might have been. The bartender looked him over and was about to say something when Mr. Whitcomb espied a sign, “’Old Luke’s Best’ whiskey for sale here.” Then turning to the man behind the bar, he said: “Give me some of that ‘Old Luke’s Best.’”

“Do you know that whiskey will cost you 15 cents a drink?”

Raising himself to his full height and bringing his fist down on the bar he replied: “Fifteen cents – fifteen cents; too cheap, too cheap; ought to be twenty. Give me some of it anyway, for I’m “Old Luke,’ myself.”

Kalamazoo Gazette,  May 19, 1901, p.12

Luke’s Fourth of July Lemonade

Luke it seems was a bit of a prankster, as well. In November 1899, the Kalamazoo Gazette published a series of stories about Kalamazoo’s early pioneers and some of the humorous things that happened to them. One such story tells of Luke Whitcomb and an incident that occurred during an early Fourth of July celebration near what is now Farmers Alley…

“In the late thirties or early forties there was a Fourth of July celebration held on the premises of General Humphrey that took in the whole square there the Farmers’ sheds now stand. The residence stood on a rise of ground back in the center of the plat, the front gate opening out on to Main street, which is now covered with stores. The village then had from seven hundred to a thousand inhabitants.

Patriotic citizens had furnished two barrels of lemonade, with ice, the first known in this section. Early in the day Luke Whitcomb, who ran a distillery and saw mill on the east bank of the river, east Main street, tasted the ‘stuff,’ as he called it, and at once proclaimed that it would give everyone who drank it the ague or chill fever. He at once drove to his distillery and brought back with him two gallons of whiskey, made from the old-fashioned eight-rowed Yankee corn, pronounced by competent judges to be the best whiskey ever made on earth, and poured a gallon into each barrel.

We have tried time and again to have some of the old pioneers tell us about that celebration, but all we could get from either men or women was a shake of the head and a big laugh with the request to ask so-and-so about it. When so-and-so was approached they utterly refused to talk, but we ascertained that the whole town acted as if they were chock full of — enthusiasm. It was generally believed that the ice, to which the people were not used, had an exhilarating effect. Be that as it may, no increase of ague patients were reported.”

Kalamazoo Gazette, November 19, 1899, p.11

“Luke’s Best” and the Civil War

When G.W. Lyon submitted his report to the Soldiers’ Aid Society in July 1862, he described the conditions he found in the various field hospitals while touring the Civil War battlefields and spoke extensively of the Michigan regiments. “The 12th Michigan was in a truly deplorable condition,” Lyon wrote in his report. “They had suffered terribly on the battle field, and now with greatly reduced numbers, sickness was alarmingly prevalent, and the men were disheartened and disaffected… The lack of proper food and stimulus greatly swelled the list of deaths. We were abundantly supplied with everything else (except mosquito nets) that a hospital needs. We needed more fresh meat, more vegetables, milk and pickles and had it not been for the 20 gallons of “Luke’s best” contributed to our supplies, I have no doubt more lives would have been lost. The liquors furnished by the government are unfit for a sick man” (Gazette).

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Whitcomb’s rectifying works (A) and flour mill (B) as they appeared in this 1874 drawing. Library of Congress

LeGrand Whitcomb & Milford N. Joy

LeGrand Whitcomb. courtesy, James Richards

After Leverett Whitcomb’s death in 1860, his son LeGrand Whitcomb (b.1836) built a new gristmill on the old site and opened it in September 1862 as Whitcomb’s Custom Mill (though without a distillery). Shortly thereafter, LeGrand sold his mill to Caleb Sherman and joined his uncle Luke and longtime Kalamazoo merchant Milford N. Joy in the whiskey rectifying and distribution business.

Luke Whitcomb’s Legacy

Luke Whitcomb did rather well for himself in the distilling and rectifying trade. During the 1860s, Luke carried a class ‘B’ liquor license, which allowed him to produce up to five hundred barrels of liquor each year. In 1860, the census taker valued Whitcomb’s inventory of whiskey (25,000 gallons) at 58¢ per gallon, for a total value of $14,500.00 (about $409,000 in today’s currency). Whitcomb’s reported annual income for the year 1865 was $12,251.00, or roughly $178,000 today.

After Luke Whitcomb’s death in April 1868, his partners Milford Joy and LeGrand Whitcomb continued the business at the old Harrison Street location until about 1872. In June of that year, LeGrand Whitcomb returned to milling, and Milford Joy moved his rectifying and wholesale/retail liquor operation to a building on the south side of Water Street, between Edwards and Pitcher. In 1876, Luke’s widow built a stately home on the corner of Lovell and Park streets, which stood for many years where the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts is now located. By 1881, Hiram Cobb had rented the old distillery building on Harrison Street for his new spring tooth harrow manufacturing company. Milford Joy continued manufacturing and distributing “Luke’s Best” from his Water Street facility until his retirement about 1884.

“Do you remember Luke Whitcomb’s liquor warehouse on Harrison street, where barrels upon barrels of Luke’s Best were stored?”

Kalamazoo Gazette, May 23, 1920

“The Last Drop”

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Kalamazoo Gazette, July 11, 1878, p.4

When Luke Whitcomb’s son Noble was born, the proud father presented Dr. T.A. Metcalf with a bottle of eight-year-old “Luke’s Best.” The good doctor put the bottle away and kept it safely hidden for a number of years.

In March 1901, a group of area businessmen gathered at the Post Tavern in Battle Creek to celebrate Dr. Metcalf’s 70th birthday. “On this occasion the bottle of whiskey was brought forth, covered with dust, cobwebs and dirt and ceremoniously opened. A number of the guests sipped the liquor and found it to be the same fine quality of the former years when it was a leader in its class” (Gazette). “The gentlemen were regaled with ‘Luke’s Best’ and other refreshments over 50 years of age,” hailed the Battle Creek Journal, “and it was the last drop of ‘Luke’s Best’ in the world.”

Milford N. Joy (foreground) standing in Bronson Park, c.1880s. Kalamazoo Public Library Photograph P-899

Continuing Research

Like many of our Local History essays, this article is by no means a definitive study; rather it should be viewed as a work-in-progress. If you have new information, corrections, photos or items to share, please contact the author or the Local History Room.

 

Written by Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library Staff, 2011. Updates and corrections, September 2016 and 2019.

Sources

Books

Thomas’ Kalamazoo Directory and Business Advertiser for 1867 and 1868
Thomas, James M. 1867.
H 917.7417 K14

Kalamazoo County Directory with a History of the County…1869 and 1870
Thomas, James M. 1869.
University of Michigan / Internet Archive

History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan, 1880
Durant, Samuel W. D. W. Ensign & Col., 1880 (reprinted by Unigraphic, 1976).
H 977.417 H67U

The Whitcomb Family in America: A Biographical Genealogy 
Whitcomb, Charlotte. 1904.
Open Library: OL23529087M
OCLC/WorldCat: 38226218

Michigan Historical Collections, Volume 18
Burton, M. Agnes, ed. 1911.
Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, Lansing, MI.
University of California/Google

An Account of Southwest Michigan and Calhoun County
Weissert, Charles A., George N. Fuller. c.1924.
Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, Lansing, MI.
University of Michigan

Kalamazoo, The Place Behind the Product : an illustrated history
Massie, Larry B. Woodland Hills, CA : Windsor Publications, 1981.
977.418 M417

Last Call : The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
Okrent, Daniel. Scribner, 2010.
363.41 O418


Articles

“Died, Thomas Clark, formerly of Essex, in England, aged 56.”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 20 January 1838, page 2, column 7.

“Extract from the 2d Annual Report of the Kalamazoo T.A. Temperance Society.”
Kalamazoo Gazette. January 20, 1838, p.2, col. 5.

“Distillery of Elias Whitcomb & Brothers was consumed by fire.”
Kalamazoo Gazette. July 2, 1841, p.2, col. 4.

“Messrs. Parker, Moffatt & Cobb”
Kalamazoo Gazette. December 25, 1846, p.2.

“The new steam mill”
Kalamazoo Gazette. May 17, 1850, p.2, col. 3.

“The Village of Kalamazoo”
Michigan Farmer. January 1854, p.10, col. 1.

“Fire!”
Kalamazoo Gazette. September 24, 1858, p.2.

“Died, Leverett Whitcomb in the 54th year of his age.”
Kalamazoo Gazette. June 29, 1860, p.3, col. 3.

“To the Soldiers’ Aid Society located at Kalamazoo.”
Kalamazoo Gazette. July 11, 1862, p.3.

“Whitcomb’s new custom mill.”
Kalamazoo Gazette. September 12, 1862, p.3.

“Death of L.W. Whitcomb.”
Kalamazoo Telegraph. April 29, 1868, p.1, col.1.

“Manufacturing seems to be springing up…”
Kalamazoo Daily Gazette. April 14, 1880, p.4.

“Recollections of Western Life – A Raising”
Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph. October 7, 1882, p.3, col.4.

“Death of Milford N. Joy.”
Kalamazoo Gazette. March 9, 1888, p.1.

“Luke’s Best”
Kalamazoo Telegraph. December 16, 1890, p.7.

“Clubs and Society”
Kalamazoo Gazette-News. May 3, 1901, p.2.

“‘Old Luke’s Best’ whisky”
Kalamazoo Gazette-News.  May 19, 1901, p.12.

“Early days in Kazoo County”
Kalamazoo Gazette. March 12, 1905, p.12.

“Le Grand Whitcomb dies at age of 74”
Kalamazoo Gazette. May 2, 1911, p.7.

“Kazoo in olden days had five breweries and 1 distillery where ‘Luke’s Best’ was made”
Kalamazoo Gazette. May 30, 1920, p. 7.

“Birthplace of ‘Luke’s Best’ gives way to factory plant”
Kalamazoo Gazette. March 19, 1922, p.29.


Databases

Ancestry Library (In Library Only)
United States Federal Census (1840, 1850, 1860, 1870)
U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918
Michigan Census, 1827-70


Censuses

Nonpopulation Census for Michigan – Industry (1850, 1860). Local History Room


Local History Room Files

History Room Subject File: Houses – Kalamazoo – Park, S., 344 (demolished).


Miscellaneous

Special thanks to Jamie Richards for providing photos and additional information about the Whitcomb family.

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