distilling alcohol To be a distiller was no more shameful than to be a miller on up to the days of the Civil War.  During those days  prohibition ran high, so high that in Wenrich’s Church the minister ordered the “glingle sack” (collection bag) passed over Joseph Wenrich’s head because he was a distiller.  “His money” he said “was tainted money”.  Joseph Wenrich was the grandfather of J. Joseph Wenrich who was killed at the Gettysburg battle and Amos M. Wenrich who drowned in the Potomac when a member of 46 Reg. Co. D during the Civil War.  The family felt doubly bad when the minister slighted them, quit going to Church, and are buried elsewhere.  [Back to tales of 1700s and 1800s ]