What was it like when the “whiskey barons” ruled Peoria?
When you look along the river in the downtown area, it’s
hard to visualize that Peoria had produced more whiskey than
any other city in history. It is said the revenue collected
from the whiskey tax in Peoria was larger than in any other
district in the U. S., including Chicago.
And yet, with all the tremendous success came
tremendous devastation. Back in the old days, fires were
frequent and all-consuming, especially in the distillery
industry.
Imagine, if you will, a long row of distilleries all
along the Illinois River, where smoke stacks are belching
out columns of smoke and the heavy smell of whiskey mingles
with the odor of the stockyard. The hum of business can be
heard. It’s after 4:00 o’clock on a warm summer’s afternoon
in 1904. A worker from the Clark Distillery stops by to
visit a few friends at the Corning Distillery.
Then suddenly an alarm goes off at 4:19 p. m. As the
warning blares on, the sky is filled with billowing towers
of smoke and people begin to flock to the vicinity. Within
an hour, thousands of curious onlookers are on the scene.
Before the firemen have arrived, the fire which started in
Warehouse B of the Corning Distillery has spread to
neighboring buildings. One man is seen carried out of the
warehouse in a sea of fire. Within Warehouse B, the fire
causes several explosions which, in turn causes the
eleven-story building to collapse. It was later said the
ruins of the warehouse stood sixty feet high.
The firemen have finally arrived. They quickly realize
that it’s impossible to put out the fire and that they
should concentrate their efforts in preventing the fire from
spreading to other buildings. Luckily, for the city, it
wasn’t windy that day. As it was, torrents of blazing
whiskey that were a foot deep, spread quickly through
gullies in the street and towards the river. The burning
spirits also spill into the sewers. The firemen see smoke
rising from the man-holes and swiftly pour water into the
sewers.
The flood of fire continues on its destructive course
until it reaches the stockyard. Three thousand head of
cattle in their pens are suffocated from the smoke and the
surrounding buildings that were just completed a few months
before are burned as well.
Fifteen men, including the man from Clark Distillery
who was visiting his friends, lost their lives as a result
of the fire. It was never discovered what caused the fire,
but some speculated a faulty lantern was to blame. Because
it was common for whiskey barrels to leak, especially during
the summer months, one person was assigned the dangerous job
of checking every rack, looking for leaking barrels. He was
the only person who worked in the warehouse who could have a
lantern...and now he was dead. Strict safety procedures were
implemented to minimize fire hazards, but apparently there
were still flaws. The Corning Company had experienced two
other recent fires, one of them occurring eight months
earlier, with a loss of seven lives. They would have another
huge fire in 1908. Along with other distillery fires, the
causes of the fires were never discovered.
Even though the fire itself was under control later on
that night, the city had an even bigger problem. Dr. Hayes,
the health commissioner at the time, said the cattle
carcasses had to be disposed of quickly before it posed a
serious health hazard. The officials had a difficult time
figuring out how to remove the cattle. After several failed
attempts, they finally chose pouring “carbolic oil” over the
remains and burning them. Unfortunately, the odor was so
intense by then that they couldn’t find enough men to
volunteer for the work. It took them over a week to clean up
the stockyard.
Franklin Corning, the president of Corning Distillery,
was in New York City at the time of the 1904 fire, which was
said to be the most expensive fire in the distilling
industry. When he returned to Peoria a couple of days later,
he immediately began to make plans for a new warehouse. His
distillery continued to operate until 1919 when Prohibition
shut down the distilleries for a period of time. At the time
of his death in 1915, Mr. Corning, must have seen “the
handwriting on the wall” and realized the ‘whiskey era’
would soon be over.
Even though Corning Distillery doesn’t exist today,
there is the impressive Corning mausoleum in the Springdale
cemetery.
