(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) (lively music) - [Narrator] From roughly 1880 to 1919, Peoria was the whiskey capital of the world as the Peoria / Pekin Tax Distri arguably generated more revenue for the federal government than anywhere else in the nation through the sale of raw alcohol.

Essential ingredients like corn, barley and rye were bountiful and limestone rich water, essential for distilling, bubbled up freely from aquifers under the river bluffs and large oak timber forests provided the raw materials cooperages needed to produce barrels for aging and transport of the finished product.

A bustling network of riverboats and trains powered both the supply of materials and product distribution to the nation's markets.

However, it was the wealth of immigrants who came from Germany, Ireland and other European countries skilled in the art of distilling and brewing that played the most crucial role.

German-born entrepreneur Andrew Eitle is credited with building Peoria's first brewery in 1837 and Almiran S. Cole built the first commercial distillery in Peoria in 1843 on the banks of the Illinois River.

Many others followed with names like Leisy, Gipps and Pabst, but in 1919, everything changed.

The Volstead Act enforcing the 18th Amendment brought prohibition to America.

Distilleries closed, breweries fell silent.

Almost overnight an industry that had helped build Peoria's economy evaporated.

But its legacy remained, a story of abundant resources, expanding opportunity, and the immigrants who transformed both into one of the most powerful industries central Illinois had ever known.

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