The Whiskey Merchant's Diary: An Urban Life in the Emerging Midwest

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Ohio University Press, 2007 - Biography & Autobiography - 378 pages

Joseph J. Mersman was a liquor merchant, a German American immigrant who aspired--successfully--to become a self-made man. Hundreds of the residents of Mersman's hometown in Germany immigrated to Cincinnati in the 1830s, joining many thousands of other German immigrants. In 1847, at the age of twenty-three, Mersman began recording his activities in a bound volume, small enough to fit into his coat pocket. His diary, filled with work and play, eating and drinking, flirting and dancing, provides a unique picture of everyday life, first in Cincinnati and then in St. Louis, the new urban centers of the emerging Midwest.

Outside of Gold Rush diaries and emigration journals, few narrative records of the antebellum period have been published. Illustrated with photographs, maps, and period advertisements, the diary reveals how a young man worked to establish himself during an era that was rich in opportunity.

As a whiskey rectifier, Mersman bought distilled spirits, redistilled or reprocessed them to remove contaminants or increase the alcohol content, and added various flavorings before selling his product to liquor retailers. In his diary, he describes scrambling for capital, marketing his wares, and arranging transportation by steamboat, omnibus, and train. Although the business that he sought to master was eliminated by the passage of the Pure Food Law of 1906, Mersman, like most rectifiers, was a reputable wholesaler. Merchants like him played an important role in distributing liquor in nineteenth-century America.

Mersman confronted serious disease, both as a sufferer from syphilis and as a witness to two devastating cholera epidemics. Unlike other residents of St. Louis, who fled the relative safety of the countryside, he remained in the city and saw the impact of the epidemics on the community.

Linda A. Fisher's extensive, insightful, and highly readable annotations add a wealth of background information to Mersman's story. Her professional training and career as a physician give her a particularly valuable perspective on the public health aspects of Mersman's life and times.

From inside the book

Contents

Two Immigrant Families and Their Start in America
1
1 Jenkinss Boarding House
11
2 Theater and Circus
31
3 Music and Dancing
55
4 The Miami and Erie Canal
75
5 Cigars and Saloons
85
6 In Charge of the Store
113
7 Moshers Boarding House
131
10 Seeking a Cure
215
11 Courtship and Marriage
243
12 Settling Down
263
Epilogue The Rest of the Story
287
Acknowledgments
301
Appendix
305
Annotated list of persons places and businesses
313
Sources cited
349

8 Farewell to Cincinnati
151
9 Starting in St Louis
181

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Page 362 - A MANUAL OF POLITENESS, COMPRISING THE PRINCIPLES OF ETIQUETTE AND RULES OF BEHAVIOUR IN GENTEEL SOCIETY, FOR PERSONS OF BOTH SEXES. „ 18mo., with Plates. *• Book of Politeness. THE GENTLEMAN AND LADY'S BOOK OF POLITENESS AND PROPRIETY OF DEPORTMENT DEDICATED TO THE YOUTH OF BOTH SEXES. BY MADAME CELNART. Translated from the Sixth Paris Edition, Enlarged and Improved.