STILES W. O., at St. Joseph's Infirmary, Friday, December 12. 1941, at 9:20 a.m.. age 57 years; residence, Bardstown, Ky.: beloved husband of Nancy Rapier Stiles: father of Jack Stiles. Mrs. Dan Arnold. Saragene Stiles and Betsy Beam Stiles, all of Bardstown, Ky. Funeral Monday, December 15. at 9 a.m. at St. Joseph's Cemetery, Bardstown.23

Lewis Ogden Stiles wrote, “(William) is a capitalist and trader, a man of wealth and prominence in his community."

He and his family traveled extensively, seeing every state in the US, plus Canada, Mexico, and Cuba.

Avid horse racing fans, he and Nancy frequented Churchill Downs, and owned a Derby Box. They also frequented the Hialeah track while in Miami, FL.

Co-owned the Bardstown Loose Leaf Tobacco Warehouse Co. with Thomas Smith and C.R. Barnes in 1920.

Opened the Old Ky. Home Sweete Shoppe in November, 1921. Sold it to Lewis Conrad, Conrad & Co., the following year in March.

According to Sam Cecil in “The Evolution of The Bourbon Whiskey Industry in Kentucky”, just prior to Prohibition, Jim Beam sold the Clear Springs Distillery to W.O. Stiles, Garfield Barnes and Lambert Willett, and they continued bottling for a short time.” The Nelson County Courthouse records indicate that the property was sold to Joe Downs on December 30, 1924 and then back to W.O. Stiles on October 9, 1926.

Clear Springs Distillery was located near Nazareth, KY, and the distillery lake supplied water to Nazareth. It was with W.O. Stiles that the Sisters made arrangements for piped water during the 1930 drought. After considerable discussion back and forth, arrangements were made for the Sisters to pump water from the lake on Mr. W.O. Stiles’ property. Mr. Stiles was given an acre of land in exchange for the use of the water in the lake. Once the arrangements were made, approximately one mile of new pipe had to be laid and much of the old, 1918 pipe had to be replaced. A gasoline powered pump was installed and a man hired to operate it in order to pump water from the Stiles lake to Nazareth. The pipe line from the Stiles property was completed on November 15, 1930.24

President of the Nelson County Fair, 1930.

In a partneship with Charles Neumann, W.O. starts making bourbon at the new Bardstown Distillery, formerly the Clear Springs Distillery on Feb. 16, 1934. First barrels filled Feb. 21, 1934. Jane Neuman, Aimee, Rebecca T. and Nancy Stiles go to distillery and take photos. First barrels sold and shipped to CA. Mar. 21, 1934. They marketed their bourbon to Chicago, IL , New York, NY and New Orleans, LA..

1930 Federal Census of KY has Sallie Tichenor, mother, age 70 and Beatrice Thompson, servant, age 32 living with the family.