where they were interrogated. Most were released, but 45 were arrested, taken to the fairgrounds, then sent to Harrisburg and ultimately Philadelphia. They were held at Fort Mifflin in horrifying conditions. The reason we brought the Fishing Creek Confederacy into this story is that Rohr McHenry and his oldest brother, Samuel, were some of the men arrested. Rohr spent two months in jail before he was released. Samuel was imprisoned four months and seventeen days, before he was released. Fourteen men were tried between October and January. Eight were found guilty and spent two years of hard labor. Six others were released. Now back to McHenry Whiskey. As noted, business was booming for the distillery. They built the “Bond House,” which was a ten-story brick building that could hold 17,000 barrels of aging whiskey. As the whiskey completed the aging process, they were removed, and new barrels were brought in. John G. was bringing in more sales than they could handle. Rohr passed away in 1912, and John G. took over the booming business. This proved taxing for him, as just before his father's passing, the Bond House burned to the ground. Of the 17,000 barrels of aging whiskey, only one was saved. Most of the buildings were saved in that fire, but it takes time to make good aged whiskey. Even though production continued, sixteen months later, talk of bankruptcy trickled into the McHenry empire. After John G. returned from a Democratic Convention, he was said to be ill and looking poorly. John was placed in a sanitarium in New York for treatment, but returned later to go to Atlantic City, then Mercy Hospital in Philadelphia. The Bank he founded had to appoint a receiver for the distillery. A peach farm he had created with the intent to use the fruit in his distillery was foreclosed. On that night, John G. passed away at 46. The distillery was closed after John’s passing in 1913.
The remaining property was run as a museum for many years after John’s passing. John Paden was the caretaker and operator of the museum and lived on the property. In 1962, he almost lost his life when the boiler house caught fire and reduced it all to rubble. John and Helena are buried in Stillwater. Rohr and Caroline are buried in the Benton Cemetery, as is John G. and his wife, Mary Wolfe.
COLUMBIA MONTOUR Quarterly
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