Who Was Jack Daniel?

from World's Oldest Rodeo Program 2021

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The character of Jack Daniel’s, the whiskey with the iconic black-andwhite label on the equally iconic square bottle, is bound up in the character of Jack Daniel, the brand’s founder and first master distiller.

The Jack Daniel’s website suggests its founder Jasper Newton “Jack” Daniel was born in 1850 (the date on his tombstone); the Tennessee state library website lists his birthdate as Sept. 5, 1846; and in a 2004 biography, author Peter Krass says he was born in January 1849. Whatever his actual birthdate, his parents were Calaway and Lucinda Cook Daniel and he was of Welsh, Scottish, English and Scots-Irish descent.

Jack ran away from home after his father died and was taken in by a local lay preacher and moonshine distiller named Dan Call and he began learning the distilling trade. In 1875, after receiving an inheritance from his father’s estate, Jack founded a legally registered distilling business with Call. He took over the whole thing shortly afterward when Call quit for religious reasons. In 1884 Jack purchased the hollow and land where the distillery is now located.

A physically small man only 5 feet 2 inches tall, Jack Daniel devoted his time to the ideal of making a whiskey that, thanks to charcoal filtering and other factors, he could be proud to sell at a premium price. He wanted his whiskey to be special so he used only the iron-free cave spring water on his property, along with the finest grains, filtering it through ten feet of sugar maple charcoal.

Jack Daniel never married and did not have any children. However, he took his nephews under his wing – one of whom was Lemuel “Lem” Motlow, who was skilled with numbers and was soon doing all the distillery’s bookkeeping. In 1907, due to failing health, Jack gave the distillery to Lem and another nephew. Lem soon bought out his partner and operated the distillery for about 40 years.

Jack died in 1911. For July 4, 2011, Jack Daniel’s launched a media blitz to celebrate the independent American spirit. A poster from that campaign reads, “56 men signed the Declaration of Independence, one man put it in a bottle.”