Southwestern Pennsylvania’s whiskey industry overflowed with more than 100 distilleries making rye whiskey between the 1880s and early 1900s, but they went dry when Prohibition took effect a century ago. “The distilleries had to close and most did not reopen” when Prohibition was lifted in 1933, said Samuel Komlenic, a Pennsylvania whiskey historian from State College, who grew up in the shadows of the former S. Dillinger & Sons distillery in Ruffs Dale. Unlike breweries, some of which converted to produce soda and ice cream or put ladies’ furs in cold storage alongside empty vats, distilleries were not suitable for such alternatives during the 14-year dry spell, Komlenic said. Among the few that were allowed to remain open during the nation’s war against alcohol was the A. Overholt & Co. distillery near Connellsville at Broad Ford, which produced Old Overholt rye whiskey. The Volstead Act, which gave enforcement powers to the 18th Amendment banning the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol, permitted a few distilleries — like Overholt — to sell whiskey made before Prohibition to drugstores for medicinal purposes. Overholt and select other distilleries with medicinal licenses made whiskey later during Prohibition for this purpose, Komlenic said. “(Doctors) wrote a boatload of prescriptions. That kept Overholt in business,” Komlenic said, jokingly. According to a 1990 National Park Service survey of the Broad Ford site, Overholt developed a distillery there in 1853. After several expansions and improvements, it produced 7,700 gallons of whiskey per day in 1914. Following the repeal of Prohibition, the distillery boosted daily production once more, to 9,760 gallons. Its affiliated distillery at West Overton, the Overholt family’s original homestead near Scottdale, was not as lucky. Continuing a tradition of distilling rye whiskey it began there a century earlier, the family in 1906 invested half a million dollars in improvements, including a new bottling works and two seven-story warehouses, according to Aaron Hollis, director of education at West Overton Village and Museums. In hindsight, it looks like a shaky investment. “In 1906, there was a lot of momentum growing for Prohibition,” Hollis said. “Some states had already voted to outlaw alcohol, and the Anti-­Saloon League and Woman’s Christian Temperance Union were gaining members.” But, at West Overton, he said, “They were still selling more rye, year after year. The market was strong.” A decade later, with national Prohibition at hand, West Overton produced its final spirits. “They cleaned the warehouses out, and they took the leftover stock over to Broad Ford,” Hollis said. By 1928, Helen Frick, a descendant of company patriarch Abraham Overholt, owned the West Overton properties and began turning them into museums. The economy of the village also was transformed. “The distillery for many years was the main business in that community,” Hollis said, noting multiple segments of the local economy fell on hard times when the operation was shuttered. “It’s not just the distillers. They had farmers growing their grain, millers milling the grain, coopers making their barrels and glassworkers making the bottles.” After a century, whiskey distilling resumed at West Overton in 2019, though on a smaller scale. “We are in a research and development stage,” said Aleasha Monroe, chief of staff. Under the West Overton Distilling label, the nonprofit historic site plans to offer some spirits in the spring — including a Monongahela-style rye whiskey that was aged off-site. In March 2021, the first batch of whiskey produced on-site should be ready, Monroe said. Price of success The relative success of Overholt’s Broad Ford site turned out to be a political liability for one of its prominent owners — Pittsburgh financier Andrew Mellon. Through his business relationship with Helen Frick’s father, industrialist Henry Clay Frick, Mellon became a partner in the Overholt distilling enterprise. He gained a major interest following Frick’s death in 1919. That placed him in a conflicted position in 1921, when President Warren G. Harding named him U.S. Treasury secretary — the federal official charged with enforcing Prohibition. His Overholt connection led to questioning in the press and an outcry among Prohibition proponents. Biographer David Cannadine noted Mellon, in response, arranged for the Union Trust Co. — which he had organized with Frick — to acquire all Overholt property and remaining liquor stocks, which were sold for medicinal purposes. Ultimately, oversight of Prohibition was moved to the Justice Department in 1930. “Mellon himself seems to have always regarded his shares in Old Overholt a result of his long-term and very close business partnership with Henry Clay Frick, rather than a choice to actually be in the liquor business,” observed Leslie Przybylek, senior curator at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. Other regional distilleries that survived Prohibition — like the Joseph F. Finch Distilling Co. in Schenley, Armstrong County, and the Large distillery in Jefferson Hills, Allegheny County — similarly had obtained medicinal licenses. By the time Prohibition ended in 1933, most U.S. distilling centered around Kentucky, Komlenic said. Pennsylvania distilleries still operating in the 1930s, like Overholt and Large, closed in the 1950s. Finch’s closed in the 1960s. Some skirted the law Area breweries, like distilleries, were challenged by Prohibition. Latrobe Brewing Co. in the city’s First Ward initially operated as a satellite facility of Pittsburgh Brewing Co. from 1893 until it was idled in 1920. It was among those that reemerged successfully after the 18th Amendment was repealed. Revived by the local Tito family in 1933, it produced Rolling Rock beer beginning in 1939. The facility continues today as a City Brewing Co. operation, though Anheuser-Busch bought the Rolling Rock label in 2006 and moved its production to New Jersey. Other Latrobe-area breweries didn’t survive Prohibition, including Loyalhanna Brewery and one Benedictine monks ran at the Saint Vincent monastery in Unity since 1860. The latter operation initially sold some of its beer, but some Catholic officials frowned on the practice, and barrels were reserved solely for consumption by the resident monks before the brewery shut down in 1919. The associated buildings were mostly destroyed in a 1926 fire. Prohibition was ultimately so unpopular that enforcement wasn’t always rigorous — particularly for beer, with its relatively low alcohol content. It wasn’t uncommon for breweries to find ways to skirt or largely ignore the law. According to Pennsylvania brewery historian Rich Wagner, trade publications from 1917-19 advertised methods brewers could use to remove alcohol from their products. But the resulting “near beer” wasn’t popular with consumers, and some brewers didn’t apply the process to all of their beer. “It was one of the things that brewers did legally or to cover up what they weren’t doing legally,” Wagner said of near beer production. “This is what you did as a cover for making the real beer.” In addition, there was so-called “needle” beer. Wagner explained a needle was used to inject alcohol back into near beer. Some breweries also sold malt syrup to home brewers. Federal officials seized Star Brewing’s Greensburg facility in 1922, after it continued to make and sell beer. “When repeal came, there was a scramble,” Wagner said. “Everybody wanted to get back into the business. It brought a lot of opportunities for some and disaster for others. A lot tried and lasted just a year.” Stoney’s Beer, long associated with a brewery in Smithton, can trace its history back to the late 19th century. The facility’s brewing tradition survived through Prohibition and into the 21st century, with a few hiccups. William “Stoney” Jones moved the Eureka Brewing Co., begun in Sutersville in 1881, to Smithton in 1907. In 1933, production resumed as the Jones Brewing Co. Brewing operations stayed in Smithton until 2001 and eventually moved to City Brewing in Latrobe. In 2017, Jones’ great-grandson, Jon King, joined forces with developer John LaCarte to keep the brand alive under the new banner of Stoney’s Brewing Co. David Finoli, author of the 2017 history “Roll Out the Stoney’s,” notes Eureka stayed afloat during Prohibition by making beer for local bars while a new sister company, Puraqua Products and Ice, made near beer and distributed ice. In September 1921, Jones’ company was caught trying to move more than 4,000 barrels of the real stuff. He pleaded guilty but negotiated his fine down to $25,000, Finoli said. The government took temporary control of the brewery, but Jones was back in operation after a few months. “Two or three times, he got caught doing this,” Finoli said. “I think Stoney was a hell of a businessman. He was able to do what he had to to keep the business going. He was intent on getting his actual beer to the people. He knew that ice and near beer wouldn’t be enough.” Joe Napsha and Jeff Himler are Tribune-Review staff writers. You can contact Joe at 724-836-5252, jnapsha@tribweb.com or via Twitter @jnapsha and Jeff at 724-836-6622, jhimler@tribweb.com or via Twitter @jhimler_news. Related Content War on alcohol: An experiment that was a ‘catastrophic failure’ The United States was a battleground before World War I — with armies of people opposed to liquor and saloons lobbying politicians and marching on... Timeline of events important to Prohibition How Prohibition shook Pittsburgh 100 years ago, and how alcohol still flowed Email Newsletters TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.