Strong secondary synthesis for system structure; verify production totals, distillery counts, trust chronology, and corporate succession with local and archival sources.
The chapter moves from the material conditions of Peoria’s growth to excise politics, overproduction, the Whiskey Trust, and post-Prohibition corporate succession.
Cowdery describes Peoria’s whiskey economy as a coupled system of corn and water, river and rail transport, grain markets, feedlots, slaughterhouses, dairies, ice and cold storage, banks, insurers, immigrant labor, and support services; he then traces how the Whiskey Trust consolidated plants, closed competitors, and survived through later corporate forms.
PDF sheet 78
PDF sheet 73
Chapter 6 — Peoria, First Distiller of the Prairie
September 29 fresh review: all 283 supplied sheets read and surveyed visually, 13 enlarged details. This paraphrase and locator were reconciled. Verified means source fidelity, not independent confirmation of every historical claim.
Evidence
Cowdery describes Peoria’s whiskey economy as a coupled system of corn and water, river and rail transport, grain markets, feedlots, slaughterhouses, dairies, ice and cold storage, banks, insurers, immigrant labor, and support services; he then traces how the Whiskey Trust consolidated plants, closed competitors, and survived through later corporate forms.
Location and context
PDF sheet 73 through PDF sheet 78; Chapter 6 — Peoria, First Distiller of the Prairie.
The chapter moves from the material conditions of Peoria’s growth to excise politics, overproduction, the Whiskey Trust, and post-Prohibition corporate succession.
Assessment
Strong secondary synthesis for system structure; verify production totals, distillery counts, trust chronology, and corporate succession with local and archival sources.
September 29 verification
September 29 fresh review: all 283 supplied sheets read and surveyed visually, 13 enlarged details. This paraphrase and locator were reconciled. Verified means source fidelity, not independent confirmation of every historical claim.