Some Bardstown, Kentucky residents argued for an alcohol ban as early as the mid-1800s despite the fact that whiskey and bourbon were local staples. When Prohibition finally arrived, independent and inventive residents secretly kept the city wet. A deacon once stored whiskey in a baptismal pool. Seventy-year-old Aunt Be-At Hurst allegedly made her homebrew out of her bathtub. Some locals even burned distillery warehouses to cover up thefts. Crime ran so rampant that revenue collector Robert H. Lucas threatened to have the governor summon the state militia. Join historians Dixie Hibbs and Doris Settles as they detail the history of Bardstown booze.
Dixie Hibbs is a Bardstown and bourbon historian. In 2004, she became the first woman inductee for the Bourbon Hall of Fame. Dixie is also responsible for Wickland Mansion's “Half a Pint of Whiskey History with a Shot of Humor” program. She is the former mayor of Bardstown and has been a Nelson County Historian for thirty years.
Doris Settles is a freelance writer and former University of Kentucky professor and journalist for Kentucky Standard Newspaper. Her work has been published in Bluegrass, Kentucky Monthly, Kentucky Living, Courier-Journal, Lexington Herald-Ledger and other local and national publications. Doris holds a bachelor's degree in English/journalism and has a master's degree in instructional systems design.