By CINDY LADAGE
Illinois Correspondent LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — Around 400 people are employed at the Jack Daniels Distillery, which is the oldest registered distillery in the United States.
Established 1866, just one year after the Civil War, Jack Daniels is a major tourist attraction that brings in visitors from all over the world. The tour is free, and a great way to learn about how corn, rye and malt barely are used along with spring water to create the famous Jack Daniels whiskey.
It is rather ironic that one of the world’s largest distributors is in Monroe, a dry county and after the tour visitors receive a sample of lemonade or coffee.
Songs are written about the drink and Jack Daniels himself is held up as a bit of a legendary icon. Who was he and how did he become a distiller? Jack Daniels official name was Jasper Newton and he was called Jack. There are some disputes as to the exact date of this diminutive man who stood five-foot-two in his stocking feet. At the distillery they think his birthdate was September 1850, although the website adds, “no one knows the exact date because the birth records were destroyed in a courthouse fire. If the 1850 date is correct, he might have become a licensed distiller at the age of 16.”
Growing up in a large family, Jack Daniel was one of 13 children of Welsh and Scottish descent. During the distillery tour they also explain that at the age of seven he went to live with a Lutheran minister named Dan Call, who besides teaching the word of the Lord also taught Daniels how to run his whiskey still. Daniels learned to make whiskey using the sour mash process, and to distill the Lincoln County Way which is a process of filtering the whiskey through charcoal chips.
Visitors at the distillery learn when Dan Call decided to follow the Lord fulltime, he sold Daniels the still, and at 13, he was in business. Although too young to be a solider, he used horses and a wagon and took whiskey to the battle front to sell it to the soldiers.
It was the iron-free water from the limestone cave in Lynchburg, Ky. that caught Daniels interest and made him choose to build his distillery at its present site, according to the distillary tour. The water flows at 800 gallons per minute and remains a constant 56 degrees. The nearby Sugar Maple trees are what Daniels used to filter the whiskey. No chemicals are used in this process.
This distinctive way of creating whiskey is referred to as Tennessee whiskey and the maple charcoal filter used before the whiskey is placed for aging in casks is what defines it as Tennessee whiskey and provides the distinctive taste.
Although known in local circles, it was in 1904 that Jack Daniels whiskey earned the Gold Medal Award at the St. Louis World’s Fair competing with older, more established products from Europe that his brew gained nation and worldwide acclaim.
Although he was said to be a bit of a ladies man, Daniels never married, and did not have any children. It was to his nephew, Lem Motlow, that he taught the secrets of distilling. Motlow supposedly had a head for numbers, and was soon doing all of the distillery’s bookkeeping. In 1907, due to failing health, Daniels gave the distillery to his nephew. Motlow then passed on the family business to his children after his death in the 1947: Robert, Reagor, Dan, Connor and Mary”.
Daniels died in 1911, at the age of 61 – sources claim that his death came as a result of blood poisoning from an infection. The legend is that this all began when Daniels injured one his big toes early morning at work by kicking his safe in anger when he could not get it open.
All was not always rosy at the distillery, when Tennessee passed statewide prohibition laws in 1910, preventing the legal distillation of Jack Daniels in the state Motlow moved the distillery to St Louis, Mo. and Birmingham, Ala. Once prohibition went into effect, it wasn’t until Motlow, as a Tennessee state senator, helped repeal these laws allowing that Jack Daniels was able to go back into production. The distillary officially restarted production in 1938.
Then distillation was halted once again between 1942 and 1946 because of the war effort. Motlow did not allow the production of Jack Daniels to restart again until 1947.
The company is now incorporated as “Jack Daniel Distillery, Lem Motlow, Prop., Inc.” Tours of the distillery are free and they are open everyday, but major holidays from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. To find out more details about the distillery and the tour, log onto their website at www.jackdaniels.com |
