The bottle of bourbon, the box it came in, and the note that was originally given to the Drake family with the bottle.
Ted B. Williams
The Old Ingledew was bottled by Evans & Ragland, Grocers and Commission Merchants, LaGrange, Georgia.
Ted B. Williams
NEWBERRY — What is estimated to be the oldest bottle of bourbon is about to be sold at auction via its local owner, Rex Woolbright, Newberry florist.
The bottle is up for auction at Skinner Auctioneers, and according to research provided on their website, “carbon 14 dating conducted in 2021 in collaboration with the University of Georgia indicates, with the highest probability, that the whiskey was produced between 1762-1802. The raw data was subsequently evaluated by the University of Glasgow and determined to be bourbon with an 81.1% probability of being produced between 1763-1803, which places it in the historical context of The Revolutionary War of the 1770s and the Whiskey Rebellion of the 1790s.”
Woolbright hasn’t had the bottle that long, of course, he said it was handed down to him by his uncle (Logan G. Drake), who got it from his father (James Drake) — it has been in his family from the 1950s. The bottle was given to James Drake by his neighbor, James Byrnes, former governor of South Carolina, according to Woolbright.
“They use to always eat out together, play cards, they (Byrnes and his wife) just gave it to them as kind of a conversational piece,” Woolbright said.
In the box the bottle was in also had a note, it stated:
“Dear Francis
If the Drakes would have all the happiness we wish for them they would be the happiest family in the world.
The attached gift is a conversation piece!
Maude and James F. Byrnes”
It is believed that the bottle was originally purchased by J.P. Morgan — yes the one you are thinking of. In fact, the Skinner’ website states, “Joseph Hyman, remarks, ‘The Old Ingledew Whiskey, bottled by Evans & Ragland, Lagrange, Ga., c. 1860s, is thought to be the only surviving bottle of a trio from the cellar of J.P. Morgan gifted in the 1940s to Washington power elite.’”
The bottle, according to the website, “is reported to have been purchased by financier John Pierpont Morgan during one of his frequent visits to Georgia. It is believed that his son, Jack Morgan, later gifted this bottle to James Byrnes of South Carolina and two sister bottles to Franklin D. Roosevelt (a distant cousin to Morgan) and Harry S. Truman, circa 1942-44.”
This bottle has been around for centuries and been in the hands of some of the state’s, and country’s, most influential individuals.
“The Old Ingledew was bottled by Evans & Ragland, Grocers and Commission Merchants, LaGrange, Georgia. Archival information indicates that Evans & Ragland were active in business circa the 1860s-70s, and the bottle is consistent with glass manufacture circa 1840-70,” according to the website.
During the process of researching the bottle and its contents, Woolbright said that Hyman tasted it and said, “it tastes like bourbon.”
The bottle of bourbon will be auctioned off by Skinner during their Rare Spirits Online Auction June 22-30. Their website estimates the bottle is worth of $20,000-40,000.