This thermometer and hydrometer were given to Templeton Rye founder Scott Bush by his maternal grandmother, Mary Margeret Blum Schroeder. They were given to Grandma Schroeder by her mother, Mava Bennett Blum.
Mava, who is Scott’s great-grandmother, was born in 1903 and was one of the first female graduates from Creighton University in 1924. During her teens, she would accompany her father Jess Bennett, on various “runs.” Jess, born in the 1870′s, was an entrepreneur and owned at least one bar in Omaha. His other business was bootlegging, particularly around Defiance, Iowa.
Mava had many stories about these times but told only a few, including being chased and shot at by the Feds and abandoning several cars. Jess was apparently also quite a card player with winnings including a wheat farm in South Dakota, a gold tooth and a beautiful diamond ring still worn by his granddaughter Mary today.
Photo credit: Mandy Miller Photography Templeton Rye President Scott Bush and his grandmother Mary Margeret Blum Schroeder
Sandra Hines talks about her memories of Templeton Rye growing up in Carroll, Iowa, and how the telephone operators would warn the local tavern owners of raids during the prohibition era.
We tracked down and interviewed Shane Smith about his Great Grandfather, who distilled whiskey on the farm, and his Great Uncle who sold lots of sugar at his store in Halbur, Iowa.
In 1931, a cardboard cutout of a little brown jug with the words X-Mas Spirits was raised along with the holiday lights above Main Street in Templeton. Many claim it was done with the aid of at least one person who occupied an important position in the civic and municipal affairs of the town. A picture of the little brown jug ended up on the front page of the Des Moines Register, which led to the most intense and sustained period of federal raids on booze-making around the town of Templeton, ever.
This Flickr post by Genie Gratto couldn’t be more timely with the holiday travel season upon us. Genie, a resident of Oakland, California, shares her story below about how her friends “smuggled” a few 3-oz. bottles of Templeton Rye from Iowa to the West Coast.
Friends from Iowa came to visit last weekend, and I had asked them to bring me a bottle of Templeton Rye. However, they were flying with carry-on bags only, so they said they’d have to see what they could do. Thusly and therefore? Here’s a TSA-approved, quart-sized bag of three-ounce bottles of Templeton. My friends rule.
Cheers to Genie’s friends for their craftiness and ingenuity. Looks like the sly spirit of the Iowa farmers who bootlegged whiskey during Prohibition is alive and well.
Templeton Rye’s founder, Scott Bush, was recently featured on Iowa Public Radio’s The Exchange with Ben Keiffer. We’ve posted the audio file in its entirety below. Click the play button to begin listening.
Gale Bishop, Emeritus Professor of Geology at Georgia Southern University, sent us a story about a white loggerhead sea turtle named “Templeton” that was released into the Atlantic Ocean on August 25th from St. Catherines Island.
Templeton the Turtle hatched on August 24, 2008 (one of 81 sibling loggerhead sea turtles from one nest). The nest had just survived the tempests of Tropical Storm Kay on the Georgia coast. Templeton was the second white turtle of the 2008 nesting season (that’s two among 8037 hatchlings). According to Gale, Templeton should return to St. Catherines Island in approximately 30 years as a sexually-mature sea turtle, after growing from the size of a silver dollar to the size of a large wash-tub. You can visit the SCI Sea Turtle Program website at www.scistp.org to learn about what’s happening with sea turtles on Georgia’s coast.
Gale also writes:
Templeton Rye is rapidly gaining favor (or is that flavor?) here on St. Catherines Island, which, in the best of Prohibition tradition, is “run in” by automobile from Northeast Iowa.
Thanks for the story, Gale! We’re delighted that Templeton Rye has found its way to Georgia, and we hope to spot Templeton the Turtle again in 30 years.
When Prohibition outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in 1920, many enterprising residents of a small Iowa town chose to become outlaws – producing a high caliber and much sought-after whiskey known as Templeton Rye.
Photo credit: Mandy Miller Photography
