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Credit: NPS

Milling and distilling to modern industry:

a history of Larue Industry

For much of LaRue County’s and sold brands such as “Belle of Athertonville for his workers. At
history industry has been limit- of LaRue” and “Old Kentucky one time, over 200 people worked
ed to flour mills and distilleries. Home” to the local community. In at the distilleries and Athertonville
Hodgenville itself lends its name an age before supermarkets when had a rail line running from New
from the local mill owned by a many people grew their own food, Haven, a hotel, a large general
industry became the first mill to be founded County served as a backbone for community. The Atherton Distillery
the mills that once dotted LaRue
Robert Hodgens. Hodgens’ Mill
store, a post office, and a booming
was not only the largest employer in
on the Nolin River in 1789 and the
the local community.
Distilling whiskey goes back as
plantation land surrounding the
the county but was also considered
far as milling in the history of the
the largest sour mash whiskey dis-
mill owned by Hodgens’ was even-
tually used to create the town of
county Wattie Boone, cousin of
Prohibition in 1919 however spelled
Hodgenville in 1818. county. In the eastern part of the tillery in the world. The arrival of
Visitors to town might notice frontiersman Daniel Boone, found- the end to much of Athertonville’s
a large concrete grain silo on the ed the first distillery on Knob Creek prosperity. Even though whiskey
west side of town which is the around the 1780s around modern would be produced for several
only standing remnant of the day Athertonville. Thomas Lincoln, decades after the repeal of prohi-
Hodgenville Rotary Mill. The rota- father of Abraham Lincoln, is be- bition, it again never reached the
ry mill was in operation through the lieved to have once worked at the heights of pre-1919 Athertonville.
late 19th century to the early 1970’s Boone Distillery while they lived in Today, LaRue County hosts a
the area. The fine waters of Knob variety of new industries that both
Creek both provided drinking wa- provide employment for people of
ter for the future president but also the county and serve as a source of
served well for the production of pride for the community. Global
whiskey. exports range from car airbag
In 1867, John Atherton found- parts to wooden whiskey and wine
ed a distillery on Knob Creek, an barrels. LaRue County finds itself
operation which would find great strategically located in the heart
success. Atherton opened another of Kentucky with easy access to
distillery on the opposite side of major road arteries such as I-65.
Knob Creek and founded the town While Abraham Lincoln may be
LaRue County’s most famous claim
Above: Mather’s Mill west of to fame, the things that the county
Hodgenville was one of multiple produces continue to help the com-
mills in LaRue County.
munity thrive. - Cody McDowell
Left: A former distillery struc-
ture still stands in Athertonville.

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