Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr.

Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr. (1830–1923) was a Kentucky distiller, businessman, and politician best known for purchasing and modernizing the O.F.C. Distillery in Frankfort, later Buffalo Trace Distillery, and for helping drive the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897. He is the “Father of the Modern Bourbon Industry” and credits him with industry advances such as copper fermenters, column stills, and climate-controlled aging warehouses. He also served in Kentucky public life, including as mayor of Frankfort and as a state legislator, before continuing to influence bourbon production into the 20th century.