The distillery was started in 1873 by J.W. Morton Field, who was married to a daughter of John E. Hanning, a distillery owner. Field bought the Old Reed Distillery in Reed and moved it closer to Owensboro to Pleasant Valley Road where Daviess County Middle School currently stands. He housed cattle at the distillery, feeding them slop from distillery mash.
Field sold his whiskey to saloons and restaurants in a series of ceramic jugs, from quart to several gallon sizes. He gained a reputation for producing good whiskey. But Mort Field died in 1903 at age 58. His son, J. Edwin Field, took over and continued to operate the distillery until Prohibition.
