Isaac Wolfe Bernheim

Isaac Wolfe Bernheim (November 4, 1848 – April 1, 1945) was an American businessman notable for starting the I. W. Harper brand of premium bourbon whiskey (a historically important brand currently owned by Diageo). The success of his distillery and distribution business helped to consolidate the Louisville area as a major center of Kentucky bourbon distilling. Bernheim was also a philanthropist, establishing the 14,000-acre (5,700 ha; 22 sq mi) Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Bullitt County.

Isaac Bernheim was born in Schmieheim, now part of Kippenheim in Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1867 with $4 in his pocket. He originally planned to work in New York City. However, the company where he wanted to work went bankrupt, and he was forced to follow a different line of work. He became a traveling salesman or "peddler" traveling throughout Pennsylvania on horseback selling household items to housewives and made a respectable living. However, he was forced to stop peddling when his horse died.

Following the death of his horse, Bernheim moved to Paducah, Kentucky, where he worked as a bookkeeper for a wholesale liquor company, Loeb, Bloom, & Co. He was able to save enough money to bring his brother Bernard to America. He quickly moved on, however, and with the help of his brother Bernard Bernheim and their friend Elbridge Palmer as a silent partner, he was able to open up his own liquor sales firm called Bernheim Brothers in 1872.

In 1875, Palmer's interest in the business was bought out and Isaac's brother-in-law Nathan Uri (the brother of Isaac's wife Amanda) became a partner in the business, and the company was renamed as Bernheim Brothers & Uri. Because of their business's proximity to large waterways, the company grew rapidly.

Bernheim Brothers & Uri moved its operations from Paducah to Louisville (on Main Street between 1st and 2nd) in 1888, and Uri left the business in 1889. The company then continued under its prior firm name of Bernheim Brothers and continued to expand.

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