Family Influence on the Bourbon Industry and Bourbon, Brass & Beyond

Family legacies in bourbon lore are deeply rooted in the stories behind many of the products which the distilleries produce.  Stories of the night bonded warehouse guard (John E. Fitzgerald and Larceny) or various made up stories of confiscated family recipes found and remade.  What I truly find interesting, are the true stories of family lineage and the family members who strive to continue those into the future.

We have covered the Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle lineage of bourbons in our podcast.  It is truly a story of perseverance by a family bringing remarkable bottles to market.  Reading But Always Fine Bourbon…the Pappy Van Winkle and Old Fitzgerald Story by Sally Van Winkle Campbell and Pappyland by Wright Thompson immersed me into the family story.  To me, it gives the bourbon character greater than just taste and smell.  It brings the bourbon to life.  It had a past and purpose. 

Making bourbon is a craft.  I’m a pilot.  Being a successful pilot is mastering your craft and always striving to learn more about your craft.  If you are a passenger on a plane while flying through (or around) bad weather- your pilot is doing everything they can to prevent you from even knowing that the weather is bad.  Best compliment in the world would be “didn’t seem bad to me.”  I would think being a bourbon owner/distiller would be a little different.  Saying that a bourbon was not only wonderful, but it told me a story.  It reminded me of something, it evoked a positive emotion.  It made me want to drink it again.

When I try a bourbon, I do nose and taste it.  I also want to see how it evolves between subsequent sips.  Sometimes, the first time I try a bourbon I am unimpressed, but when I come back to it a second time, it is amazing (Old Forester President’s Choice 10 yr for me).  I also want to know the backstory.  The backstory is something my Grandfather would have told me and would have appreciated. 

I first learned about Bourbon, as a boy, from my Grandfather Elbert Seagle.  Grandpa was the youngest of 10 kids, and his family was originally from the Hickory, NC area.  The family was known as horsemen, fiddle makers, and ‘stillers and (later) moonshiners.  My Great-Grandfather Albert Seagle was a steam shovel owner/operator, and he followed wherever there was work.    This brought them up to western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio shoveling coal. 

Elbert married his high school sweetheart Janet, and after serving on an aircraft carrier for the Navy during the Korean War, they had 7 daughters:  Leigh, Lori, Linda, Libby, Laura, Lana, and Leslie.   By luck, I was born the first Grandchild and Grandson.  There was actually a newspaper article title “Seagle Family Gets First Boy.” 

I was Grandpa’s buddy and sidekick.  My Grandparents lived three houses down from where I grew up.  Sunday mornings going to church, Easter Sunrise services, Weekend Projects, driving me to school with my youngest Aunt (Leslie was only 5 ½ years older than me), building my Labrador’s first Dogbox- which he would never tell my Grandma how much money he actually spent on lumber; playing golf, going to airshows and airplane rides with his Navy buddies (which is where I got my love for aviation), and listening to big band music in the garage while working on projects (which is probably why I am a trumpet player).

My Grandpa would always find an excuse for us to go get Chocolate Malk Milkshakes at the DQ or Dairy Mill in East Palestine, Ohio.  The Dairy Mill didn’t have inside seating. Everybody would order and then go sit in their cars and eat their ice cream.  Grandpa would have bigband music playing in the background on the AM station, and this is when he would tell me stories about him growing up and the family. 

One of my favorite stories, was about when my Grandfather was young.  He had a Great Uncle who was a fiddle maker and moonshiner.  He actually made a fiddle for my Grandfather to learn to play, and told him once he got good enough, he would put a finish on it.  Unfortunately, grandpa didn’t take to it.  But- I still have his unfinished fiddle. 

When Grandpa and his siblings would go stay during the summer in North Carolina, Grandpa’s morning chore was to go out to the logstill (this was 1936-37), and retrieve a quart of whiskey for his great Uncle who would sit on the front porch of the cabin and work on fiddles.  The porch would have fiddles hanging and curing the entire length of the roofline.  Grandpa would carry the open quart jar and hand it to him.  Whatever spilled on his hand he would try it.  Grandpa always said he preferred JW Dant Bourbon, because it reminded him of the taste from those quarts. 

After the Navy, like many in Northeast Ohio, Grandpa worked in the Steel Mills.  He worked in the office because he had good typing skills.  Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm, for 40 years Grandpa worked in the mills.  Many days he would come home and fix a drink- a highball.  JW Dant Bourbon and Grapefruit Soda.  It had to be the right color of light Amber.  He would say, “there’s a good color on that.”  I remember the smell of the bourbon as it poured over the ice and then the smell of the fizz lifting up the bourbon as the grapefruit soda was added.  I loved smelling it.  And to this day both of those smells remind me of my Grandpa.

In 1993, after JW Dant was sold to Heaven Hill, Ohio stopped carrying that brand in their State Liquor Stores.  And I spent the next couple decades always trying to find it for Grandpa and later my Grandma.  I called it “searching for Grandma’s cough syrup.”  Her Garden and card club friends would drink highballs made with it.

Grandpa passed away in 2000, a month and a half before I was hired at the airlines as a pilot.  He was my first passenger after getting my Private Pilot Certificate in 1997.  For me, Bourbon is a bridge to the times I remember about him and the stories he shared.  Many times, I wish I could have recorded all of the stories.  Doing this podcast is my way of recording these stories for my kids.  And, it would have been wonderful to share this experience with him.

End of November 2008, I was traveling from Nashville back home to Ohio, and I decided I was going to get something branded JW Dant for my Grandma from the distillery.  I stopped at Heaven Hill, went in to the little gift shop, and there was not one thig with the JW Dant name on it.  When I asked the sales person, they looked at me like I had a third eye.  After getting home, I began my history research on JW Dant and the brand. 

Over the last 15 years, my palate has expanded greatly, but I always love returning to that familiar taste and smell that I remember from when I was younger.  Recently, while researching the JW Dant Family I found Monk’s Road Bourbon from Logstill Distillery, and I was eager with anticipation.  An Ode to the family recipe.  I wish Grandpa was here for this moment, but I somehow feel he is…

Although the family and the brand are no longer associated- The JW Dant Brand is owned by Heaven Hill distillery, and  JW “Wally” Dant, founder and President of Logstill Distillery, is not associated with the brand owned and operated by Heaven Hill.  Log Still Distillery now holds the original family DSP-47 designation and their distillery is on the original family distillery grounds in Gesthemane, KY.

Wally is a direct descendent of Joseph Washington Dant, founder of JW Dant Bourbon.  Wally and Logstill Distillery make Monks Road Bourbon and Gin, Rattle & Snap Tennessee Whiskey, and Remington Reserve Bourbon Whiskey. 

Here at Bourbon, Brass & Beyond we are very lucky to be doing a Podcast and Interview with Wally.  We are traveling down to DSP-47 and Log Still Distillery on February 21st, 2026.   We are staying at a Bed & Breakfast on property- the Heritage House.  This was Wally's Grandfather's home.  Jonathan Wallace Dant Sr., the last president of JW Dant Distillery.  He stayed on with the distillery from its sale in 1943, until Shenley moved operations in 1961.   Look for announcements when this podcast episode comes out!  

Please see our other podcast about Rattle & Snap, one of Log Still Distillery's other brands!