Joseph Francis Sinnott (1837-1906)
Joseph F. Sinnott, Whisky Distiller, of Philadelphia
Joseph Sinnott came from a devout Catholic family in Ireland that had taken up with the rebels in the Rebellion of 1798. Several of his family emigrated to America and in 1854 he went out to visit his grandmother at Charleston, South Carolina. On arriving at the Port of Philadelphia, he learned that an epidemic of Yellow Fever had swept across Charleston and claimed the lives of his relatives. He stayed in Philadelphia and two years later became an assistant book-keeper to John Gibson & Sons, distillers. He eventually took co-ownership of the firm that was renamed Moore & Sinnott before becoming its sole proprietor in 1888. His distillery was the largest producer of rye whiskey in the United States and his reputation saw him made a trustee of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and a director of the First National Bank etc. He died worth $2.2 million.
