Thomas Batman was a leader in the distilling industry in Louisville in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was known as the “Brandy King” because he bought apple brandy he could get from all of the brandy distilleries in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. He was associated with the Crystal Springs Distillery in Louisville and stored his brandy in their warehouses. The distillery was located on 1st Street in what is now Old Louisville. In fact, he purchased the distillery in the early part of the 20th century when T.H. Sherley passed away. He also played a major role in bringing the Union Army veterans to Louisville for the GAR reunion in 1897. He was a civic leader in Louisville at that time.
The image I have of him is from a book titled Kentuckians As We See Them: Louisville Newspaper Cartoonist printed in 1905. It is a collection of cartoons drawn by the cartoonists for the Louisville newspapers of the time. It shows Thomas Batman with a body of a brandy barrel with the wings of a bat and a crown on his head and “The Brandy King” across the barrel. Batman was the person to purchase aged apple brandy from in Louisville. Apple brandy was very popular at the time. There were several hundred brandy distilleries in Kentucky and southern Indiana before Prohibition and over a dozen Whiskey distilleries that also made brandy. Brandy distilleries were not like whiskey distilleries. They tended to be small, farmer distilleries. Unlike whiskey, brandy can only be made for a short time after the fruit is harvested. This meant that most of these distilleries were only distilling part time. They would have a pot still and fruit press. They would make the cider and distill it, making about 20 to 50 barrels each season. Thomas Batman would then purchase these barrels and place them in the warehouses to age.
You could purchase brandy that ranged in age from brandy just made to several years old. It was a popular drink in taverns and bars and the Jack Rose cocktail was a popular drink of the era. Brandy was also sold for medicinal use. Besides apple brandy, peach and pear brandies were being made at the time, but apple was the most common. Apples grew better than other fruits in Kentucky and southern Indiana and was what these farmer distillers tended to make each year. It was common for a farm to have an apple orchard and the apples of the time tended to be cider apples. Cider apples are not as sweet to the taste to eat, but yielded a very good cider.
Thomas Batman was known as the “Brandy King”. He was a civic leader and Union veteran. He is remembered through this cartoon, if not for anything else. His image here is a fun Image of the Past.
Photos from the archives of Michael Veach