John  Beggs

THE  SHELBY  DEMOCRAT
 February 20, 1879
VOL. 1; No. 37
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from the article, SMILING  SHELBYVILLE!
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The  Shelbyville  Distillery.
Was built in the year 1857.  It has been owned and run by a number of persons since its erection, and in October, 1872, passed into the hands of  John Beggs, the present proprietor.  This institution, under his management, has been very successful.  A great many improvements have been made since his ownership.  He has had built a new brick malt house, warehouse, corn dump and elevator, fermenting room with the necessary fermenting tubs, entirely new cattle pens, stables, out-houses, etc.  Few people in this county have any idea of the magnitude of the business done by this establishment.  It is immense, as the facts given below will abundantly prove.  It consumes from three thousand to three thousand six hundred bushels of corn per week, making for the year, about one hundred and fifty-six thousand bushels.  It turns out from twelve to fourteen thousand gallons of high-wines every week making near seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand gallons for the year.  It pays from $10,000 to $13,000 revenue tax per week.  It has paid  $1,531,436.25 tax on 26,820 barrels of high-wines from October 15, 1874 to January 1, 1879, with an interval  of six  months when work was stopped for repairs, etc.  It has paid, for grain, coopers, salaries of employes[sic], etc from  October 15, 1874, to January 1, 1879, the large sum of $335,000 over $250,000 which was paid for grain alone.  The business of the distillery is conducted on a large scale, and that it is a great benefit to the people of Shelby county a thinking man will doubt.  The importance to the people of keeping, in active operation an institution of this kind is very great.  To the farmer is affords a convenient advantage in the disposition of his corn.  Mr. Beggs pays from one to two cents more on the bushel than any other buyer in this county,  and all wagons passing through the city of Shelbyville are charged no toll from that place.  
          Next biography in the "Smiling Shelbyville" newspaper article, Julius Joseph.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming
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