Augustus Bulleitt

“The Disappearing Distiller”

Augustus Boilliat’s (pronounced “Boo-e-yay”) story reads like a page torn from a frontier legend. Born in 1805 in Alsace-Lorraine, France, he grew up far from the rolling hills of Kentucky and the flickering glow of tavern lanterns. As a young man, at around age 28, he sailed to America as the frontier spirit of the new world called to him.

Once in the United States, Augustus first camped for a brief time in Louisville, Kentucky, before moving west across the Ohio River to Harrison County, Indiana. At this point, he was still known by his given French surname, “Boilliat.” Census records from that time list Augustus’s occupation as a miller, while five years later, he had become a farmer. The life of a miller/farmer on the early American frontier often overlapped with whiskey-making. Millers in those days would keep 5 to 7 percent of the grain in payment; however, in a community where everyone grew grain, no one needed to buy it, so a miller would either raise livestock and use his surplus grain for feed or distill the grain into whiskey that he could then sell. Good whiskey was a most desirable commodity because it didn't spoil, and there always seemed to be willing buyers.

Now settled in Indiana, Augustus soon met and fell in love with a Belgian girl from Lanesville, named Mary Julia Dulieu; the couple were married on April 29, 1841. At that time, Mary Julia was 21 and Augustus was 35. Age gap notwithstanding, the couple settled down on a farm on Buck Creek near Dogwood. It was also about this time that Augustus became a naturalized American citizen, after which he started using the surname “Bulleitt”. It is worth noting that it was exceedingly common in those days that, once settled in America, emigrants would often change their name to one that sounded more “American.”

It is said that Augustus operated a tavern for a short time, promoting his whiskey, and also that he was also briefly in the lumber business, but both of those enterprises reportedly failed. Before long, Bulleitt’s union with Mary Julia had produced three children,  John Joseph (born in 1844), Mary Josephine (born in 1849), and Amiel (born in 1851). To support his family, the hardworking and resourceful Augustus continued milling, farming, and making whiskey for the next decade or so. His high-rye whiskey was popular and unique, and he was relatively successful at all of his ventures.

Unfortunately, Augustus’s life took a mysterious turn when he was 54  years old in 1860. That year, he loaded a rented flatboat with whiskey and grain and set off down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, bound for the grand markets of New Orleans. Unfortunately, Augustus never made it to Louisiana. In fact, he was never seen or heard from again. Local lore whispered of potential foul play, perhaps river piracy or murder by a competitor whiskey producer, but no conclusive evidence ever surfaced, and Bulleitt’s tragic death remains unsolved to this day.

Back in Indiana, the perplexed and grief-stricken Mary Julia quietly raised her children by Augustus, but never remarried. Mary Julia Bulleitt died in 1887 and is buried in the Catholic cemetery in New Middletown, Indiana.

More than a century later, Augustus Bulleitt’s legacy came roaring back. In 1987, his great-great-grandson Tom Bulleit (now with one “t” dropped) left behind a successful law career to resurrect the family’s frontier whiskey tradition. He revitalized the century‑old recipe and launched the Bulleit Distilling Company. The first bottles released in 1995 were sourced from Ancient Age (later from Four Roses) and included a 90 proof Bulleit bourbon as well as a 100 proof “Thoroughbred” Bulleit bourbon. Uncommon for the time, Tom Bulleit heated the warehouses during the winter months to simulate the temperature swings of the Kentucky seasons, which would make a four to six-year-old bourbon taste like a ten-year-old bourbon.

Bulleit was acquired by spirits conglomerate Diageo in 2000, where it remains to this day. The bourbon is still sourced, but the contract with Four Roses reportedly ran out in 2013. Diageo is mum on the subject, but bourbon aficionados believe the current high-rye bourbon is a product of either Four Roses, Barton’s, Jim Beam, or perhaps a blend of all three, while Bulleit Rye has always been a 95% rye mash bill sourced from MGP in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

Pre-2000

(pre-Diageo)

Bulleit bottle

For years, Diageo let the famed Stitzel-Weller distillery serve as the unofficial headquarters of the Bulleit Brand. However, in 2014, the Bulleit experience opened at the Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Shively, Kentucky. In a vote of confidence in the brand, Diageo then dropped $10 million on a beautiful new Bulleit visitors center.

Augustus Bulleitt’s disappearance is haunting. A man, a recipe, and a name carried downstream into oblivion. Yet, in that loss, the seed of legend was sown. His life embodies the 19th-century frontier ethos of America. In reviving his whiskey, the modern world doesn’t just enjoy a smooth, spicy drink; it revisits a story of ambition, mystery, and the power of legacy. Today, Bulleit Bourbon is known worldwide for its frontier-inspired branding, a fitting tribute to the vanished pioneer who started it all.

Sources:

1. Wikitree genealogy website, www.wikitree.com

2. The Chuck Cowdery Blog, “The Real Augustus Bulleitt Revealed”, March 31, 2014

3. Find-a-grave headstone/obituary site, www.findagrave.com

Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee