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Jack Daniel

Founder of Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey distillery.

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Jack Daniel

Unknown authorUnknown author · via Wikipedia: Jack Daniel · Public domain

No one knows Jack Daniel's exact birth date; it could have been 1846, 1849, or 1850 according to different sources.[1][2] Blood poisoning caused Jack Daniel's death on October 9, 1911, in Lynchburg.[3]

Key facts and history

His mother died shortly after his birth, likely from childbirth complications.[1][2] In 2016, the company stated that Daniel actually learned distilling from a man named Nearest Green, one of Call's slaves.[4][2] Green became the first African American master distiller in the U.S. after emancipation.[2] He took his nephew Lemuel "Lem" Motlow under his wing, who handled the distillery's bookkeeping.[5]

A mass murder of four black citizens occurred on Daniel's farm in November 1893.[6] Daniel's modern biographer asserts the story of him injuring his toe by kicking a safe is not true.[3] Calaway and Lucinda Matilda Daniel had ten children, and Jack was their youngest.[7] Company histories say that as a child, Jack Daniel worked for Dan Call, who was both a preacher and a distiller.[4]

Jack Daniel remained unmarried and had no offspring.[5]

What the cited sources add

The distillery won the gold medal for the world's finest whiskey at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.[2] Tennessee state prohibition in 1910 forced the distillery to relocate to St. Louis and Birmingham.[2] The distillery returned to Lynchburg in 1938 after a campaign by Lem Motlow.[2] Jack Daniel's Black Label now sells over 20 million cases a year and is exported to over 170 countries.[2]

The distillery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[2] The distillery's first license is claimed by the Jack Daniel's official website to have been issued in 1866.[8][9] Peter Krass writes that according to land and deed records, the distillery actually began operations in 1875.[9][2]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Jack Daniel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Krass, Peter, Blood and Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel, Wiley, April 29, 2004 (page 7: "after he was born in 1849" (the 1900 census for Lynchburg, M; "Jack Daniel's Distillery: The Legacy of an American Icon"; Krass, Peter, Blood and Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel, Wiley, April 29, 2004 (page 7: "after he was born in 1849" (the 1900 census for Lynchburg, M; "Jack Daniel's Distillery: The Legacy of an American Icon"; Krass, Peter, Blood and Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel, Wiley, April 29, 2004 (page 7: "af en.wikipedia.org
  2. "Jack Daniel's Distillery: The Legacy of an American Icon". facts only, no text reused. timsford411.com
  3. Wikipedia, "Jack Daniel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Krass, Peter, Blood and Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel, Wiley, April 29, 2004 (page 7: "after he was born in 1849" (the 1900 census for Lynchburg, M; Freeth, "Made in America: From Levi's to Barbie to Google", Voyageur Press, 2005; Krass, Peter, Blood and Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel, Wiley, April 29, 2004 (page 7: "after he was born in 1849" (the 1900 census for Lynchburg, M; "Blood and Whiskey: Jack Daniel", C-SPAN, May 20, 2004 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Jack Daniel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Risen, "Jack Daniel's Embraces a Hidden Ingredient: Help From a Slave", The New York Times, June 25, 2016; Alfs, "Ex-slave who trained Jack Daniel gets new recognition", USA Today, July 21, 2017; Risen, "Jack Daniel's Embraces a Hidden Ingredient: Help From a Slave", The New York Times, June 25, 2016 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Jack Daniel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Krass, Peter, Blood and Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel, Wiley, April 29, 2004 (page 7: "after he was born in 1849" (the 1900 census for Lynchburg, M; "Blood and Whiskey: Jack Daniel", C-SPAN, May 20, 2004; Ridgway Bigger, "Jack Daniel's Distillery and Lynchburg: A Visit to Moore County, Tennessee", Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Spring 1972, p. 3–21 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Jack Daniel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "More Mob Law: Tennessee Whitecaps Do a Wholesale Hanging: Colored People Swing," [Albany, Oregon] Weekly Herald-Disseminator, Nov. 9, 1893, p. 1.; "More Mob Law: Tennessee Whitecaps Do a Wholesale Hanging: Colored People Swing," [Albany, Oregon] Weekly Herald-Disseminator, Nov. 9, 1893, p. 1. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Jack Daniel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Krass, Peter, Blood and Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel, Wiley, April 29, 2004 (page 7: "after he was born in 1849" (the 1900 census for Lynchburg, M; Krass, Peter, Blood and Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel, Wiley, April 29, 2004 (page 7: "after he was born in 1849" (the 1900 census for Lynchburg, M (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Jack Daniel's official website, Brown–Forman Corporation.. facts only, no text reused. jackdaniels.com
  9. Wikipedia, "Jack Daniel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Blood and Whiskey: Jack Daniel", C-SPAN, May 20, 2004; Jack Daniel's official website, Brown–Forman Corporation.; Krass, Peter, Blood and Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel, Wiley, April 29, 2004 (page 7: "after he was born in 1849" (the 1900 census for Lynchburg, M (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Jack Daniel (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Test yourself

Three questions drawn from this entry’s sources. Pick an answer to check it.

1. In which place was Jack Daniel born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is Lynchburg, Tennessee, U.S..

2. In what year did Jack Daniel die?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 1911.

From the source: “Daniel died from blood poisoning in Lynchburg on October 9, 1911.”

3. In what year was Jack Daniel born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 1849.

From the source: “Daniel's date of birth is unknown, with various sources placing it in 1846, 1849 and 1850.”

Answers checked against the source article

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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