Robert Gray
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2012
James W. Kelly: The Chattanooga "Carpetbagger" Who Stayed.
A youthful immigrant from Ireland, James W. Kelly saw opportunity in Tennessee during the Civil War selling whiskey to Union troops occupying Nashville. Although he eventually would move on to Chattanooga, he never left the state, in time becoming an honored citizen.
Deep Spring Tennessee Whiskey was Kelly's flagship label. He advertised it using slogans such as "The Whiskey Without an Unkind Thought," and "Made on Honor, Sold on Merit." His saloon sign for Deep Springs whiskey was among the most imaginative to emerge from the pre-Prohibition era. General Robert E. Lee on horseback is shown saluting his victorious Confederates as two "Reb" battle flags flutter in the background. In the foreground lies a casualty of the battle who is being given a glass of whiskey by a comely young woman. She has at her disposal a full case of Deep Springs Whiskey.
Despite accumulating, as one biographer put it, "a large fortune," Kelly was not a carpetbagger who would take his money and run back North. He stayed to become an honored citizen. As the same biography states: "Mr. Kelly has found leisure to devote to the promotion of the general interests of Chattanooga at home and abroad. He is one of the founders of the Lookout Rolling Mills and is a stockholder in the same. He is also a stockholder in the Merchants National Bank and is interested in other enterprises of the city....Mr. Kelly has unbounded faith in the South, and especially East Tennessee."
James Kelly died, according to one source, in 1907 at the age of 63. He is buried in Chattanooga's Forest Hills Cemetery, Section K 74 NE. His wife, Lizzie, lies by his side. It is said that Kelly was involved in the management of his liquor house right up until the end. The skepticism that locals must have had about this man from the North with an odd accent had long since dissipated. For more than 40 years James Kelly had proved that he was no carpetbagger but a true "son" of Chattanooga and devoted to its future.
Edited from an article by Jack Sullivan.
MemoriesandMiscellany
A Blog About More Things Than You Can Shake a Stick At.
A youthful immigrant from Ireland, James W. Kelly saw opportunity in Tennessee during the Civil War selling whiskey to Union troops occupying Nashville. Although he eventually would move on to Chattanooga, he never left the state, in time becoming an honored citizen.
Deep Spring Tennessee Whiskey was Kelly's flagship label. He advertised it using slogans such as "The Whiskey Without an Unkind Thought," and "Made on Honor, Sold on Merit." His saloon sign for Deep Springs whiskey was among the most imaginative to emerge from the pre-Prohibition era. General Robert E. Lee on horseback is shown saluting his victorious Confederates as two "Reb" battle flags flutter in the background. In the foreground lies a casualty of the battle who is being given a glass of whiskey by a comely young woman. She has at her disposal a full case of Deep Springs Whiskey.
Despite accumulating, as one biographer put it, "a large fortune," Kelly was not a carpetbagger who would take his money and run back North. He stayed to become an honored citizen. As the same biography states: "Mr. Kelly has found leisure to devote to the promotion of the general interests of Chattanooga at home and abroad. He is one of the founders of the Lookout Rolling Mills and is a stockholder in the same. He is also a stockholder in the Merchants National Bank and is interested in other enterprises of the city....Mr. Kelly has unbounded faith in the South, and especially East Tennessee."
James Kelly died, according to one source, in 1907 at the age of 63. He is buried in Chattanooga's Forest Hills Cemetery, Section K 74 NE. His wife, Lizzie, lies by his side. It is said that Kelly was involved in the management of his liquor house right up until the end. The skepticism that locals must have had about this man from the North with an odd accent had long since dissipated. For more than 40 years James Kelly had proved that he was no carpetbagger but a true "son" of Chattanooga and devoted to its future.
Edited from an article by Jack Sullivan.
MemoriesandMiscellany
A Blog About More Things Than You Can Shake a Stick At.
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