Hall, Luhrs and Company of Sacramento

In my search for more Sacramento whiskey leads, I came across an interesting story. Perhaps some of you have already heard about the Hall, Luhrs and Company of Sacramento, but for those who haven't, it goes something like this...

Mr. Thomas Hall was born in Illinois on January 5, 1853. That year, his father moved to Sacramento to work on the Folsom and Placerville Railroad. This didn't pan out so well, and they left on the Yankee Blade, which wrecked off the coast of Santa Barbara. After being rescued and taken to Los Angeles, he returned to Sacramento, deciding that he was meant to stay out West. He bought a farm in Solano county and worked the farm there until he died in 1889.

Thomas grew up on the farm, gained a love for agriculture, and after his K-12 education in Sacramento, went on to the Pacific Business College of San Francisco. He became a porter at a wholesale grocery firm in Sacramento (Milliken Brothers), and after seven years, established his own business of Hall, Luhrs and Company in 1876. By the 1880s, he was the largest wholesale grocery business in the city of Sacramento.

His personal history shows a wide variety of positions and involvment, both local and global. From the military to the Masonic temple, from the freeholders to the framers of the city charter, it seems that Thomas Hall left his fingerprints everywhere.So why am I giving you a concise biography of Thomas B. Hall's life?

Well, according to Ralph Van Brocklin, an avid collector of antique bottles, "Hall, Luhrs and Co was a prolific distributor of whiskey and had at least five embossed cylinders, a couple of mini cylinders and a pumpkinseed flask. Dates of the business-- 1882 to Prohibition. Some of the early glop tops from the company (Snowflake Whiskey) are very pricey, but the tool-tops have never been hot sellers." I guess the top grocer was also the top distributor of whiskey for the locals!

I am sure that there are further investigations to be made and much more to discover about Hall, Luhrs and Company. Their name has already surfaced in a few old newspaper articles I've come across, and perhaps I will make it a side project for fun. If any of you have any information to add to their story, I'd love to hear it!


Our Taste Mackerel - #184, Hall, Luhrs and Company, California, 1885