Jake Daniels

Jack Daniel's is a brand of Tennessee whiskey.

According to the Tennessee state library website in 2013, records list his birth date as September 5, 1846.

The Jack Daniel's brand's official website suggests that its founder, Jasper Newton "Jack" Daniel, was born in 1850 (his tombstone bears that date ), but says his exact birth date is unknown.

The company website says it is customary to celebrate his birthday in September.

It maintains that the 1850 birth date seems impossible since his mother died in 1847.

The brand label on the product says "Est. & Reg. in 1866", but his biographer has cited official registration documents, asserting that the business was not established until 1875.

He took his nephews under his wing – one of whom was Lemuel "Lem" Motlow (1869–1947).

Lem, a son of Daniel's sister, Finetta, was skilled with numbers.

He soon took responsibility for the distillery's bookkeeping.

In 1875, on receiving an inheritance from his father's estate (following a long dispute with his siblings), Daniel founded a legally registered distilling business with Call.

He took over the distillery shortly afterward when Call quit for religious reasons.

By the 1880s, Jack Daniel's was one of 15 distilleries operating in Moore County, and the second-most productive behind Tom Eaton's Distillery.

After taking over the distillery in 1884, Daniel purchased the hollow and land where the distillery is now located.

He began using square-shaped bottles, intended to convey a sense of fairness and integrity, in 1897.

According to Daniel's biographer, the origin of the "Old No. 7" brand name was the number assigned to Daniel's distillery for government registration.

He was forced to change the registration number when the federal government redrew the district, and he became Number 16 in district 5 instead of No. 7 in district 4.

However, he continued to use his original number as a brand name, since the brand reputation had already been established.

Jack Daniel's had a surge in popularity after the whiskey received the gold medal for the finest whiskey at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

However, its local reputation began to suffer as the temperance movement began gaining strength in Tennessee.

Jack Daniel never married and did not have any known children.

In failing health, Jack Daniel gave the distillery to Lem Motlow and another nephew in 1907.

Motlow soon bought out his partner, and went on to operate the distillery for about 40 years.

Tennessee passed a statewide prohibition law in 1910, effectively barring the legal distillation of Jack Daniel's within the state.

Motlow challenged the law in a test case that eventually worked its way to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

It is produced in Lynchburg, Tennessee, by the Jack Daniel Distillery, which has been owned by the Brown–Forman Corporation since 1956.

An entirely different explanation is given in the 1967 book Jack Daniel's Legacy which states that the name was chosen in 1887 after a visit to a merchant friend in Tullahoma, who had built a chain of seven stores.

In the 2004 biography Blood & Whiskey: The Life and Times of Jack Daniel, author Peter Krass said his investigation showed that Daniel was born in January 1849 (based on Jack's sister's diary, census records, and the date of death of Jack's mother).

Jack was the youngest of 10 children born to his mother, Lucinda (Cook) Daniel, and father Calaway Daniel.

After Lucinda's death, his father remarried and had three more children.

Calaway Daniel's father, Joseph "Job" Daniel, had emigrated from Wales to the United States with his Scottish wife, the former Elizabeth Calaway.

Jack Daniel's ancestry included English, and Scots-Irish as well.

Jack did not get along with his stepmother.

After Daniel's father died in the Civil War, the boy ran away from home and was essentially orphaned at a young age.

As a teenager, Daniel was taken in by Dan Call, a local lay preacher and moonshine distiller.

He began learning the distilling trade from Call and his Master Distiller, Nathan "Nearest" Green, an enslaved African-American man.

Green was known to specialize in the Lincoln County Process, a distilling process that filters the whiskey through sugar maple charcoal.

This process created the distinction between bourbon and the Tennessee Whiskey known today.

While under Green as an apprentice, Daniel was taught the Lincoln Country Process. Green continued to work with Call after emancipation.

Packaged in square bottles, Jack Daniel's "Black Label" Tennessee whiskey sold 12.9 million nine-liter cases in 2017.

Other brand variations, such as Tennessee Honey, Tennessee Apple, Gentleman Jack, Tennessee Fire, and ready to drink (RTD) products brought the total to more than 16.1 million equivalent adjusted cases for the entire Jack Daniel's family of brands.