Meryl Kerkhoff of Manning, Iowa, talks about the Templeton Rye taste test being a selling point for customers.

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By the early 1930s, many Templeton Rye stills had been shut down and destroyed by authorities. Despite these Prohibition efforts, there was still a surprising abundance of Templeton Rye.

The excerpt below from the Iowa News Service describes one young man’s account of the Templeton Rye supply in 1932.

It is estimated by persons who should know that there are now only three stills of any importance in the surrounding county. The rest, they say, were wiped out a year or so ago when for a short time authorities destroyed them at the rate of three a day.

The supply, however, is still adequate. Recently, a young man with an investigative turn of mind barged into Templeton to see what he could drink. In response to his initial inquiry he was informed that finding Templeton Rye these days was like locating a needle in a haystack.

Never, the young man now reports, did he come in contact with a needle so large, or a haystack so small.

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During the Great Depression, many Iowans were making and selling Templeton Rye just to get by. The small towns would work together to warn each other when the Feds were coming. “The roads are rough” was code to watch out for the Feds, but it was also very symbolic of the times.

Gerald Gesinger of Carroll County shares the story behind the warning message and his memories of bootlegging during the Depression in the video below:

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Harry W. Harmeyer of Carroll, Iowa, reminisces about drinking Templeton Rye and his dancing days in Templeton:

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Notorious 1930s bank robber John Dillinger allegedly wrote a letter to Henry Ford stating, “Your slogan should be: Drive a Ford and Watch the Other Cars Fall Behind You.” We think Ray Bristol might agree.

H.F. “Gus” Schroeder told us this story about Ray and his new Ford V-8 getaway car:

A fellow by the name of Ray Bristol did all that hooch-making at dad’s place. You could write a story just about his adventures, that’s a fact. He would load up eight 10-gallon kegs of whiskey and run it to Omaha for shipment to Chicago.

He was hijacked that one time in Missouri Valley in 1933 — he had a ‘33 Chevy and it wasn’t fast enough. They took his eight barrels of whiskey (that was 80 gallons) and when he got home he traded the Chevy off for a new Ford. The Fords had just come out with the new V-8s and they were fast. He never got hijacked again after that.

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Gene Wiese from Manning, Iowa, shared this story about the popularity of Templeton Rye in Chicago back in the late 1940s:

When I was a kid, we just accepted Templeton Rye in our area as commonplace. We thought everybody might have something similar to Templeton Rye, that there was nothing unusual about it.

Soon after WWII in 1947, I exhibited cattle at the Great Chicago International Stock Show. My parents warned me, South State and Halsted Streets, that is a tough end of town. As I was sitting with my cattle, all these different ethnic groups would come.

When people asked you where you were from they would say, “Where is that from Des Moines?” or “Where is that from Sioux City?” Well, these folks in Chicago would look at the sign I painted and often ask, “Where is that from Templeton?” Now, this is Chicago, and they acquainted any town in Iowa with where it was from Templeton. The next question was “Did you bring any Templeton Rye with you?” The stories about its popularity in Chicago are very, very true.

You can listen to Gene talk about the Chicago International Stock Show and getting asked about Templeton Rye in the video below:

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Charles Hanson from Odebolt, Iowa, wrote to us with the following story:

When I was a youngster living in Odebolt, my dad and uncle enjoyed fishing in Blackhawk Lake. One evening in the 1930s they were trying their luck on the northeast area of the lake and not finding any kind of bait that the fish were taking.

They had tried worms and several artificial lures to no avail. Dad unwrapped a cigar and even tried using the cellophane wrap as a “fly” lure. Again - no takers. My uncle saw a snake with a frog in it’s mouth and tried to take the frog. The snake held tight. My uncle had visited the bootlegger before going to Blackhawk Lake and had a bit of TR in his tackle box.

He poured a couple of drops of TR in the snake’s mouth and the snake coughed out the frog. While they were casting about 20 minutes later, dad felt something brush his leg and there was that snake with another frog in its mouth! I am now 85 years old, and some of the particulars are a bit dim in my memory, but the “facts” are as true as I can make them!

Thanks Charles — we loved the story!

Garland of Manning, Iowa, sent us this story about a man named George Blade, from Irwin. He writes:

George Blade would ship 8-10 cars of cattle to Chicago several times a year. They would load them on the cars in Irwin and then the train would also stop in Manning to pick up more cattle. While they stopped in Manning, there would be a team of horses and a wagon that would back up to one of George Blade’s cattle cars and unload six or nine sacks of cattle feed.

Upon arriving in Chicago, George would always see that these sacks of cattle feed would get up to his hotel room. After the cattle were sold, the word would go out to the commission men and buyers and various other people that George Blade from Irwin was having some “hospitality” at such-and-such room. By now I’m sure you have figured out that the sacks of cattle feed also contained several bottles of Templeton Rye.

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Robert from Huntsville, Alabama, wrote us an e-mail with this Templeton Rye story:

I grew up two miles west of Templeton. In 1948, 18 of us FFA students took a 4000-mile trip out west. While in a town in Idaho, a man saw “Manning, Iowa” on the back of our FFA jackets and stated, “Is that anywhere near Templeton, Iowa?” I asked him how he knew about Templeton. He said, “That’s where Templeton Rye was made.”

Just goes to show that TR was still notorious 15 years after Prohibition and many states away. Got a TR story of your own to share? Please leave a comment below, or click here to tell us all about it.

Scott Bush, president of Templeton Rye, and Jason Walsmith of The Nadas stopped by KXNO’s The Jon Miller Show to talk about the storied history behind TR. At 25:12 into the video below, Jason plays an “unplugged” version of Templeton Rye, The Nadas’ musical homage to the infamous whiskey and small Iowa town.

Barry Kusel talks about coming across lots of rye crop during harvests in the 1960s, and Templeton’s secret that wasn’t so secret.

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Mike Moore from Madison, Indiana, wrote to us back in October 2007 with this fantastic Templeton Rye story:

My father-in-law, O.J. Berger, is from Templeton, Iowa, and is 90 years old. Mr. Berger tells the family that his mother, Dora Berger, had the only glass funnel in Templeton and some of the farmers would bring their liquor over and use her funnel to pour the Templeton Rye into smaller flasks.

As a child he remembers the local men of the town being arrested and marched off to jail by federal authorities. Mr. Berger tells the story that only two basements were not raided in Templeton — one was the scene of a wake and there was a body in the basement.

Mr. Berger is quite active and my wife and I ordered a bottle of Templeton Rye for him, which he proudly displays to all visitors and family.

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Harry W. Harmeyer discusses the Chevy getaway car used to escape from revenue agents in Templeton, Iowa, back in the 1930s.

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We’re always delighted to hear your stories about TR. Jim from Minneapolis wrote to us with the following memory:

My mother lived in Templeton, Iowa, from around 1920 to 1950. She now lives in Waterloo. I am her son, age 49. When I was a young boy I was sometimes given a tablespoon of Templeton Rye when I had a bad chest cold. The combination of the alcohol and liquid coating seemed to work.

Thanks for sharing, Jim!

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Fay Irlbeck Schleisman, a Templeton native, shares the story of Al Capone’s visit to the small town to arrange shipments of TR to Chicago:

View more stories on YouTube at our Templeton Rye channel.

One of our goals at Templeton Rye is to document all the classic TR stories, as told by the people who lived them. We’re now proudly sharing these videos on YouTube. Please visit our channel at YouTube.com/templetonryewhiskey.

Above is a story from Wilfred “Bud” Irlmeier. His granddaughter, Tracy Olberding, recently wrote to us with the following note:

My Grandpa Bud (Wilfred Irlmeier) passed away on November 25, 2007; he was born in Templeton and was married to my Grandma Toni for 62 years. He enjoyed spending time with his family and will be missed greatly by all of us. We had many wonderful family memories including several about Templeton and Templeton Rye.