Bill Samuels, Sr.
Photo of Bill Samuels, Sr., courtesy of Maker’s Mark
"Wheat Master "
In 1784, after mustering out of the Pennsylvania militia during the American Revolution, 29-year-old Robert Samuels moved his family westward to the Bardstown, Kentucky frontier to settle land, try their hand at farming corn, and whiskey making. After all, George Washington had contacted his former Captain Samuels to get him to produce whiskey for the colonial soldiers. Robert had three sons, William, Reuben, and John. William later became high sheriff and continued the distilling operation started by his father.
In 1821, William also had a son, Tailor William (“T.W.”) who, in 1844, established the family’s first “commercial” distillery on the family farm. He branded his spirit ‘TW Samuels Straight Bourbon Whiskey’. T.W. was said to be strong-willed and was successful in many different enterprises, including becoming high sheriff like his father. In 1865, T.W. single-handedly arrested and later pardoned Jesse James and the dangerous James gang for their actions during the Civil War. T.W. had a son, William Isaac, in 1845, who later moved into a large house in Bardstown, Kentucky, next door to Colonel Jim and Mary Beam. However, William Isaac suffered an untimely death later that year, and his son, Lesley Samuels, promptly took over the operation of the distillery.
Lesley improved the operation with more modern conveniences, which made for faster distilling, but his son, Tailor William (“Bill”) Samuels, Sr., who had at that time only just graduated from college, thought the whiskey was more important than the facility, and tried to convince his father to produce a smoother style of bourbon. Lesley, however, insisted on his tried-and-true recipe and methods.
When Lesley Samuels unexpectedly died in 1936, Bill Sr. took over the distillery and was then free to distill as he would choose. However, in 1943, President Roosevelt decreed that any distilleries that did not have a column still high enough to produce industrial alcohol for the War be closed. So later that year, Bill, discouraged and tired of the political wrangling involved in producing whiskey, sold the distillery and the trademarked name and enlisted in the Army, where he ultimately served three years.
Upon returning home, Bill helped care for his elderly neighbors and godparents, Jim and Mary Beam, until Jim died in 1947. He had then intended to become a gentleman farmer and live out his days growing his own vegetables and produce; however, he very quickly tired of farm life and decided to get back into distilling, so he sought his old friends in the bourbon business for guidance, all of whom offered him their sage advice: The Beams, Lem Motlow at Jack Daniels, Elmer T. Lee at OFC. Meanwhile, Bill had married Margie Mattingly in 1937, whom he had met while at the University of Louisville, and by now they had three children: daughters Leslie and Nancy, and a son Bill Jr., who was born in 1940.
For his new distilling enterprise, Bill decided to do what he had tried to convince his stubborn father to do, which was to improve the taste of the whiskey by replacing the harsh rye with smoother, more palatable wheat. Needing to experiment with recipes, but lacking the time and resources to distill and age different mash bills, Bill had Margie bake seven different grain recipes into seven loaves of bread and had his family try each. What the Samuels settled on at their kitchen table that day would change the bourbon world forever: yellow corn with a soft winter wheat would be used to make their bourbon.
By 1953, the new distillery was born in the hills of the Samuels’ ancestral farm (called Star Hill Farm) in “Happy Hollow” near Loretto, Kentucky. In February of 1954, the first 19-barrel batch of the “new” formula whiskey was barreled. While it was aging, Margie set about creating a logo and bottle style, as well as coming up with the name “Maker’s Mark,” which she got from her love for fine pewter. For these meaningful actions and the many more that she contributed to the bourbon industry over time, Margie was later awarded her place in the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame.
The first bottle of Maker’s Mark was sold in 1958. Decades later, the distillery still rotates all barrels by hand and ages every batch to taste, not to time. These are choices that larger distilleries might find unreasonably arduous, yet they continue to deliver consistency and guarantee quality. As a further testament to its craftsmanship, every bottle of Maker’s is still hand-dipped in its signature red wax.
The Samuels family line of bourbon distillers has now been perpetuated through eight generations of sons: Bill Jr. served as President of Maker’s Mark for 35 years until 2011, when his son Rob became the COO. Rob still serves in that capacity. The simple but sobering advice from father to son on both occasions on the day that they took over the helm at Maker’s Mark: “Don’t screw up the whiskey.”
Bill Samuels, Sr., Maker’s Mark founder and master whiskey innovator, died in 1992 at the age of 82. He had outlived his beloved Margie by seven years. Both are buried at the Bardstown Cemetery in Nelson County, Kentucky.
Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee
Margie and Bill, circa 1939
