Following the Panic of 1837, Philadelphia distiller Thomas Gaff and his brothers James and John sought new opportunity in southern Indiana, where in 1843 they established T. & J.W. Gaff & Co. Distillery in Aurora, Indiana. The Gaff brothers soon operated several businesses and maintained a fleet of steamboats to transport products on the Ohio River, a connection reflected in the design of Hillforest, Thomas Gaff's Italianate mansion above the river, designed by Cincinnati architect Isaiah Rogers in 1853 with a front porch resembling a steamboat deck and a circular belvedere above in the style of a pilothouse. Open since 1956 as a historic property museum, Hillforest showcases the opulent Victorian lifestyle of the Gaff family, and in 1997 it received designation as a National Historic Landmark. Veraestau, another Aurora home high on the hills above the Ohio, began as a log house with a brick addition built in 1810 by Federal and Indiana Judge Jesse Holman, who named it by combining Latin words for spring, summer, and fall, hoping the omitted word winter would never touch his home. After a fire in 1837, Holman sold the brick structure to his son-in-law Allen Hamilton, who built a large frame house on the site while retaining the brick section as an ell. The home remained in the family until 1933, when industrialist and historic preservationist Cornelius O'Brien bought Veraestau as a country retreat for his family, and later additions brought the house to its current configuration. In 2004, The Cornelius and Anna Cook O'Brien Foundation donated the house to Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, and it became home to the organization's Southeast Field Office and a site for tours and events. The Gaff brothers also owned the Crescent Brewing Company, whose Aurora Lager beer was exported to Germany.
