In the colonial period, the safety of drinking water was uncertain, so people drank cider, wine, and distilled spirits instead. Plantations made their own beverages with cider presses that extracted juice from fruit, which could be consumed fresh, fermented into slightly alcoholic hard cider, or distilled into highly alcoholic apple jack. Isaac Handy also produced brandy. Beverages from this and other Eastern Shore plantations were shipped by way of the Wicomico River and Chesapeake Bay to ports along the Atlantic Coast and beyond. The Pemberton Hall Plantation cider press stood close to this spot, and at the time of his death in 1762, Isaac Handy owned distillery equipment and 100 gallons of cider.