The Ward 8 appears to date back to 1898, and is one of the few drinks that can trace it's roots back to Boston. It was supposedly concocted for the victory dinner of politician Martin "The Mahatma" Lomasney, to celebrate his recent election. Most stories put this at the "Winter Palace Hotel" (known also as "Frank Locke’s" or "Locke-Ober"), but others reference "Lomasney’s Puritan Club", and there are a few stories which remove it from Boston all together.