OLD VANDEGRIFT WHISKEY

James F. Morgan, a Vandegrift descendant from Frederickton, Pennsylvania wrote:

The Vandegrift families owned two distilleries in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

One was located along the Monongahela River at Allenport.  It was operated by John H. Vandegrift and his son John M. Vandegrift.  The son was to take over the operation and his father was to retire.  However, the son died in 1908 and his father continued to run the operation.

However, the following year (1909) the father died.

The other distillery was located where Berney’s Run enters the Monongahela River below what is Vestaburg today.  Vestaburg is in Washington County, in the Pittsburgh metro area.  The place was known as Vandegrift until the railroad was put through and then became known as Centerville Station.  A road led from there up through the hollow to the town of Centerville.

The name was spelled “Vandergrift” in the county history.  “The Vandergrift Distillery stood near Vestaburg, a mining town in Washington County, until it was destroyed by fire on June 2, 1925.  This was one of the old-time distillers on the Monongahela River, which helped make rye famous the world over.”  (Reference:  History of Washington County, page 498, by Earle R. Forrest, Volume 1, Published, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926)

Vandegrift Distilling Company may have been acquired by Pennco after the fire destroyed the distillery in 1925.

Distilleries and Liquor Dealers That Use Barrels Bearing the Union Label.

Vandergrift, Pa.— Vandergrift Distilling Co.

American druggist and pharmaceutical record, Volume 25

198 – 202    (1895)

Vandergrift Distilling Company. Medicinal Whiskies.