Old Horsey Rye Whisky 1839 T-Shirt

Inheriting land at Needwood in Maryland at an early age, Outerbridge Horsey - yes, that was his name - about 1839, determined not just to farm it, but to establish a distillery. His initial operations appear to have been small with mainly local whiskey sales, in keeping with the Maryland farmer-distiller traditions of that era. Horsey’s method of aging his whiskey was unusual for the times and brought fame to his operation. He sent barrels via ship around Cape Horn to San Francisco and then by railroad back to Maryland for bottling. His theory was that sloshing around inside barrels on the high seas mellowed and aged the whiskey in beneficial ways that sedentary storing in warehouses failed to do.