Bynum R. DEMONBREUN - Nashville saloon-keeper
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Bynum R. DEMONBREUN - Nashville saloon-keeper
| Ken Zabel (Denise DeMumbrum) (View posts) | Posted: 30 May 2006 12:31AM GMT |
Classification: Query
Surnames: Boucher, Demonbreun, DeMontbrun, Montbrun
Can anyone tell me about Bynum R. Demonbreun, his Nashville Saloon, and how he is related to Jacques-Timothe Boucher Sieur de Montbrun?
Demonbreun saloon location cleared in '70s urban renewal
Nashville, Tennessean Wednesday, 05/10/06
By GEORGE ZEPP
Nashville saloon-keeper Bynum R. Demonbreun was actually a great-grandson of the early Nashville settler honored in the naming of Demonbreun Street.
His ancestor, a Quebec fur trader whose real name was Jacques-Timothe Boucher Sieur de Montbrun (1747-1826), arrived here about 1769. De Montbrun is remembered for having spent some of his earliest days in a still-visible bluff cave along the Cumberland River. The family name later became Anglicized.
Bynum Demonbreun's saloon on the south side of Nashville's Public Square, opposite the courthouse, appears in city directories at least as early as 1889, when it was two doors down at 109 Public Square. Both there and at 113 he apparently lived in residential space above the saloon, something once common for shopkeepers.
Demonbreun's token, designed to encourage patrons to spend more than its worth, was a common promotional device, past and present. The current Boscos Nashville Brewing Co. on 21st Avenue South has issued a wooden one in recent years good for a free beer.
In B.R. Demonbreun's time, he faced great competition. By 1899, when he was in the three-story building at 113 Public Square, his saloon was one of 156 listed in the city directory. By contrast, only 57 restaurants were listed that year.
The easy availability of intoxicating drink and its effects on the Nashville citizenry eventually spawned an opposition movement.
A "moral wave" gained strength among church groups and others the first years of the 20th century, targeting strong drink and gambling. Even in earlier decades, the temperance movement was viewed by business and agriculture industry leaders as a way to improve working habits among the laboring class.
"Before and after the Civil War and into the 20th century, southern leaders wanted to deny liquor to blacks and poor whites out of fear that alcohol would inflame passions and increase crime," now-retired Tennessee Tech University historian Calvin Dickinson wrote.
In late November 1908, the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Union met to join forces by organizing the Temperance League. Politicians and newspapers took sides.
Democratic Gov. Malcolm R. Patterson responded to the growing movement by sending the entire legislature a message in January 1909: "Prohibition is profoundly wrong as a governmental policy, and in a country where the largest measure of freedom is accorded, it becomes intolerable."
Legislators didn't listen. The same month prohibition passed in the state Senate and House, and withstood the governor's veto.
Manufacture of liquor also became illegal in the state that February, with all distilleries and breweries required to close at midnight Dec. 31, 1909.
With so many Nashville saloon keepers facing economic ruin, a businessmen's group formed to help them find other jobs.
Demonbreun's saloon along with most of the rest suddenly appeared in the city directory under a different heading, "Soft Drinks." Few could generate even the rent money off that market. The new directory heading was soon missing entirely.
Access to intoxicating beverage didn't disappear, but went underground. Nashville's bootleggers, basement and back alley speak-easy restaurants and clubs
Demonbreun saloon location cleared in '70s urban renewal
Nashville, Tennessean Wednesday, 05/10/06
By GEORGE ZEPP
Nashville saloon-keeper Bynum R. Demonbreun was actually a great-grandson of the early Nashville settler honored in the naming of Demonbreun Street.
His ancestor, a Quebec fur trader whose real name was Jacques-Timothe Boucher Sieur de Montbrun (1747-1826), arrived here about 1769. De Montbrun is remembered for having spent some of his earliest days in a still-visible bluff cave along the Cumberland River. The family name later became Anglicized.
Bynum Demonbreun's saloon on the south side of Nashville's Public Square, opposite the courthouse, appears in city directories at least as early as 1889, when it was two doors down at 109 Public Square. Both there and at 113 he apparently lived in residential space above the saloon, something once common for shopkeepers.
Demonbreun's token, designed to encourage patrons to spend more than its worth, was a common promotional device, past and present. The current Boscos Nashville Brewing Co. on 21st Avenue South has issued a wooden one in recent years good for a free beer.
In B.R. Demonbreun's time, he faced great competition. By 1899, when he was in the three-story building at 113 Public Square, his saloon was one of 156 listed in the city directory. By contrast, only 57 restaurants were listed that year.
The easy availability of intoxicating drink and its effects on the Nashville citizenry eventually spawned an opposition movement.
A "moral wave" gained strength among church groups and others the first years of the 20th century, targeting strong drink and gambling. Even in earlier decades, the temperance movement was viewed by business and agriculture industry leaders as a way to improve working habits among the laboring class.
"Before and after the Civil War and into the 20th century, southern leaders wanted to deny liquor to blacks and poor whites out of fear that alcohol would inflame passions and increase crime," now-retired Tennessee Tech University historian Calvin Dickinson wrote.
In late November 1908, the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Union met to join forces by organizing the Temperance League. Politicians and newspapers took sides.
Democratic Gov. Malcolm R. Patterson responded to the growing movement by sending the entire legislature a message in January 1909: "Prohibition is profoundly wrong as a governmental policy, and in a country where the largest measure of freedom is accorded, it becomes intolerable."
Legislators didn't listen. The same month prohibition passed in the state Senate and House, and withstood the governor's veto.
Manufacture of liquor also became illegal in the state that February, with all distilleries and breweries required to close at midnight Dec. 31, 1909.
With so many Nashville saloon keepers facing economic ruin, a businessmen's group formed to help them find other jobs.
Demonbreun's saloon along with most of the rest suddenly appeared in the city directory under a different heading, "Soft Drinks." Few could generate even the rent money off that market. The new directory heading was soon missing entirely.
Access to intoxicating beverage didn't disappear, but went underground. Nashville's bootleggers, basement and back alley speak-easy restaurants and clubs