George A. Dickel was a successful merchant living in Nashville when he visited Tullahoma with his wife Augusta in the late 1860s and decided to stay and produce the Tennessee sippin’ whiskey that bears his name today.
After giving some thought to the subject, Dickel decided to put the town’s limestone water to better use then drinking water. Because limestone water is so pure (uncontaminated with iron or other mineral deposits), Dickel decided it would make excellent whiskey.
He entered into a business partnership with the Schwabs of Tullahoma (to whom he was related to by marriage) and the Davises, another prominent local family.
Dickel opened a distillery in 1870 on Cascade Creek, located between Chattanooga and Nashville, six miles northeast of Tullahoma. He appropriately called his product Cascad Whisky (without the "e"). Shortly afterwards, he opened a general store for the distillery workers at Cascade Creek.
Cascad (sic) Whisky was made only in winter for quality control reasons; in the heat of the summer the business partners devoted their attention to maintenance and repair. The whiskey was sold locally and by mail primarily to other locations in Tennessee. It retailed for about $5.00 for 12 quarts.
After George Dickel’s death in 1894 at the age of 72 years, his wife Augusta managed the business with her relatives, the Schwabs. (The Davis family dropped out of the venture.) The Dickels had no heirs, but production continued under the Schwabs’ management.
By the time Tennessee went dry in 1910, George A. Dickel company was the oldest and one of the most successful firms in Nashville. So though the distillery had to be dismantled, the Dickel company picked up lock, stock and barrel and moved to Louisville. From 1912 to 1920, when Prohibition finally caught up with the rest of the country, Dickel’s whiskey was made according to the unique Cascade Hollow process, and from 1920 to 1933, Dickel was bottled under medicinal license.
Even after national Repeal, Tennessee remained dry until 1938 when liquor sales were permitted once again. However, Coffee County, where Dickel’s distillery had originally stood, still prohibited the making of whiskey. It wasn’t until 1958 that a special referendum allowed the Dickel distillery to be rebuilt, where the tradition continues today.