David Nicholson

 David Nicholson was born in December 1814 in the Scottish Village of Foster Wester, County Perth. He became a grocer's apprentice in Glasgow and then later in Oban in the West Highlands. In 1832 he emigrated to Montreal, Canada. David traveled between Montreal and Ottawa looking for work. Unable to find work in a grocery market he learned carpentry. His travels brought him in to the United States starting in Erie, Pennsylvania. He moved to Chicago, Illinois and then finally settling in St. Louis, Missouri. As he traveled, he perfected is carpentry, his handiwork can still be seen in the woodwork inside St. Xaviers Church in St. Louis. 

He met and married another Scottish immigrant, Jane McHendrie, in 1840. They had 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls. They settled in a house on Garrison Street near the corner of Franklin. The house was later given to Major General William T. Sherman for his service during the civil war. 

In 1843 David gave up carpentry and formed a grocery and liquor dealership with a wine merchant he had met. As a wholesaler they supplied wagon trains with everything they could need as they traveled into the expanding western parts of the U.S. Their business grew rapidly and had to move multiple times to accommodate the growth. David also did business in the eastern part of the country from an office in New York City. In 1870 they moved the business into a large building that he designed. It was 5 stories tall and employed 50 people. David was the first person to import foreign commodities and promoted them as superior goods.

In Nicholson later years he asked family members to get involved in his company. David asked his wife, Jane to serve on the board of directors and as corporate secretary. Later his nephew Peter Nicholson, moved to the United States in 1852 from the United Kingdom and was hired instantly by Nicholson as a clerk. Peter would go on to be promoted several times because of business sense and tireless efforts. Their target audience increased five fold as Peter increasingly was given more and more supervisory responsibilities. One of the company’s top profit centers was it’s whiskey named after David Nicholson himself.

One of his most popular was his recipe for whiskey, David developed recipes for bourbons and rye whiskeys. He also purchased well-known brands at the time such as Old Crow for distribution out of the east. David was not actually a distiller but instead a rectifier, a person who blends sourced whiskeys. While most rectifiers were caught up in crimes of the Whiskey Ring, David's honesty and contempt for illegal activities became his identity. His whiskey became a huge hit in Missouri and Illinois, rapidly becoming the top selling whiskey in the area. 

David died in 1880 and his nephew Peter took over the business. The store burned down in 1891 and Peter moved locations where he operated until 1920 when Prohibition began. In 1893 David’s recipe was sold to Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle. Pappy made it at the famous Stitzel-Weller distillery. David’s recipe is said to have inspired Old Fitzgerald. In 1985 the recipe was sold to the David Sherman Company, which later in 2006 was renamed LuxCo where his whiskey is still made today. In June of 2021 LuxCo was acquired by Midwest Grain Products out of Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

Contributed by: Charles Meyer, Fargo, North Dakota

with support from Daniel Snyder, Whiskey Founders Sub Committee Chair, Champaign, Illinois