John David Willett (born in 1841) found his feet in the bourbon world having worked as master distiller for the Moore, Willett & Frenke Distillery, which he had formed with his brother-in-law Thomas S. Moore of Bardstown, and a Mr. Frenke of Louisville. In 1876, Willett fell ill and sold his interest in the company. The resulting company became the Mattingly Moore Distillery.
His son, A. Lambert Willett (born in 1883), picked up his father's profession at aged fifteen. After working for Max Selliger & Co. Distillery for twenty years, Lambert Willett later purchased a farm and, together with his sons and especially led by Thompson Willett, founded the Willett Distilling Company on the site. They used John David Willett's bourbon recipes as the basis of the whiskey that they would distill there and brand as Old Bardstown.
The construction of the Willett Distilling Company began in the Spring of 1936 (soon after the 1933 repeal of alcohol prohibition in the United States). The company produced its first batch of 300 bushels (about 30 barrels) on March 17, 1937.
Even Kulsveen and his wife, Martha Harriet Willett (Thompson WIllett's daughter), purchased the company and the property on July 1, 1984, and renamed the company to Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD), Ltd. KBD increasingly began to purchase its bourbon from other distilleries and operate as an independent bottling company, and restocked its barrel-ageing facilities with purchased barrels. The next generation of the family have since continued the tradition which began all those years ago.
On September 19, 2019, Even Kulsveen was inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame and recognized with a Parker Beam Lifetime Achievement Award by the KDA, who described Kulsveen as "a beloved icon who patiently resurrected one of the state's most historic distilleries and returned the family-owned brand to global prominence".
