Jack Daniel Distillery

In 1864 Jack Daniel learned whiskey making on the Call family farm from preacher Dan Call and Nathan "Nearest" Green, an enslaved man.^1,4,6 Green taught him the Lincoln County Process, still used here: new spirit drips through one of 72 vats of sugar maple charcoal, 10 feet deep, over 3 to 5 days.^1,4,6 In 1884 he bought the Hollow and Cave Spring outright, with 142 more acres, and the distillery has stood there ever since.^2,7 In failing health, he handed it in 1907 to his nephew Lem Motlow and to Richard Daniel, whose share Lem soon bought.^1,2,7

In 1910 Motlow moved distilling to St. Louis, Missouri, and Birmingham, Alabama.^2,7,8 None of the whiskey made there was ever sold.^2,7,8 Jack Daniel died in 1911, and Lem's brother Jess Motlow became master distiller.^1,2,7 The ban ended in 1937, and distilling resumed in Lynchburg in 1938 in a rebuilt brick still house.^2,3,7 Lem Motlow brought in column stills in place of the earlier pot stills, and the yeast strain still used dates from this restart.^2,3,7

Lem Tolley became master distiller in 1941.^1,7 In 1942, during World War II, the distillery stopped production so resources could go to the war effort.^1,7,9 Lem Motlow restarted it in 1947, once good-quality corn was available again.⁷ He died that year, and the business passed to his four sons.^2,10 In 1956 the sons sold the distillery to Brown-Forman, after receiving assurances that the whiskey would not be changed.^4,5,7