Jack Daniel’s Was A Friend Of Mine

Separating Fact From The Legend Of Jack Daniel

By Father John Rayls

A part of Toby Keith’s “Hit It” song goes:

C’mon
There’s a gentleman down in Lynchburg
On the south side of Tennessee.
He started cookin’ that homemade whiskey
Had his own little recipe.
Now his name’s on a million labels
And you can see it on a billboard sign.
Got a lot of good ol’ buddies
But Jack Daniel’s is a friend of mine.

Lyrics like these demonstrate only part of the cultural penetration of the enterprise known as the Jack Daniel’s Distillery. From its beginning, the company has been blessed with repeated strokes of marketing genius and good fortune. The historical facts and actual sales figures are argued over, but it’s obvious that Jack Daniel’s is one of the best known American brands in the world, on top of being the best selling American whiskey worldwide.

It has been very publicly used to automatically label a person in the most positive of terms. The famous from Slash, Keith Richards and the iconic Frank Sinatra to John Houston, Jackie Gleason, Hunter S. Thompson, William Faulkner and even Winston Churchill (to name just a few) have been very publicly identified with the whiskey. Beyond celebrities, Jack Daniel’s is found repeatedly in literature, songs and movies. Yet the glamor and the marketing success sometimes make it difficult to separate fact from fiction.

Jack was the 10th child in a large family and was born around 1849-1850. He lost his mother early in life, and was attached as an apprentice to a Primitive Baptist Pastor, Dan Call, who also ran a general store and a still.

Apparently Jack proved a quick learner and was soon running the distilling operation alone. The still was sold to Daniel when some newly righteous and aroused church leaders began pressuring the pastor to distance himself from whiskey. At the age of thirteen, and still mourning his father’s recent passing, he firmly stepped out on his own and into his life’s work.

He discovered a limestone cave in Lynchburg, TN with a fresh water supply, which gave him the iron-free water so valuable to whiskey distilling. As important, he recommitted himself to the Lincoln County Process he learned from the Reverend Call. This is the method of whiskey filtration through sugar maple charcoal, and Daniel began replacing his charcoal much more frequently. By the time he was 21, he had significantly improved his whiskey aging process and leap-frogged his nearest competitors.

Jack Daniel’s had an excellent reputation in Middle Tennessee, and Jack certainly believed it was one of the best American whiskeys available. He backed up his sentiments when he took his whiskey to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, where it earned a gold medal and was named the “best whiskey in the world.” He repeated this event again in 1905 at a similar competition in Belgium. Once again, his whiskey was named the very best in the world. It was also around this time that the instantly recognizable square bottle permanently became the icon for Jack Daniel’s Whiskey.

It wasn’t until 1944, long after Jacks passing, that the whiskey finally picked up its eventual surname of Tennessee Whiskey, and a new genre was born. The Tennessee Whiskey definition was enshrined in state law in 2013, a law which to date has withstood two years of political and legal challenges.

Of course, there are many myths, legends and simple untruths surrounding Jack and his Old No. 7. He liked it that way. In a 19th Century lesson on “marketing truth,” it didn’t matter what people said for the most part, so long as they continued to remember him and buy his product.

He dressed and talked the part of the stereotype Southern gentleman distiller, and grew into his image. He would deliberately change his story of origin and even change the dates if it helped him.

Was his distillery registered in 1866 as advertised?  The facts don’t seem to back it up, but it certainly adds to the legend. Why is Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey named Old No. 7?  Many stories exist involving seven girlfriends, seven stores owned by a friend selling his whiskey, the number of the train hauling his barrels or even the number of the tax district assigned to him by the government. I personally like the last one because the tax district number was arbitrarily changed to No. 16 and he then began displaying the name Old No. 7 prominently in a tax protest.

At least one story has circulated about his only known attempt at marriage. The father of the potential bride refused to grant permission when Jack wouldn’t give him his actual age declaring him too old for such a young bride.

Finally, even his death is enmeshed in myth. Apparently becoming somewhat absent-minded as he aged, he forgot the combination to his safe and kicked it violently. He immediately began walking with a limp and his big toe developed an infection as a result. This led to gangrene, amputation of his leg and his eventual death 5 years later. This version is so taken for fact that it is routinely repeated in books, newspapers and television documentaries, but the modern biography of Jack Daniel, Blood & Whiskey, disputes it.