THE STORY OF NEAREST & JACK - THE MAN WHO TAUGHT JACK DANIEL HOW TO MAKE WHISKEY
The picture above hangs in Mr. Jack Daniel’s old office in Lynchburg, Tennessee. The Black man in the photograph above, we have reason to believe, is George Green. Along with being Jack’s friend, George was also the son of Nathan “Nearest” Green. And it's Nearest Green who taught Jack Daniel about making whiskey at a still owned by the Lutheran minister, Reverend Dan Call.
The late 1850s
A young Jack Daniel came to live and work on the Reverend Call’s farm. Before the Civil War and Emancipation, the Call still was under the watch and care of an enslaved man, Nearest Green. The Reverend Call and his distiller, Nearest, taught Jack how to make whiskey. However, most of that mentoring fell to Nearest, who worked side by side with Jack and taught the young distiller what would become his life’s passion.
The early 1860s
Once Nearest took Jack Daniel under his wing, he taught him the art of mellowing whiskey through charcoal, which gives Jack Daniel’s distinctive smoothness and character. While slave labor was a part of life in the South before the Civil War’s close, Jack not only never owned slaves, but he worked side-by-side with them as a hired hand to Call.
1865, Post Civil War
After the Civil War, Dan Call decided to sell his business to Jack. When it came time to establish his own distillery, Jack’s crew were all hired men. Now a free man, Nearest was hired by Jack and became the first head/master distiller of the Jack Daniel Distillery.
1866
The Jack Daniel Distillery is officially established, making it the very first registered distillery in the US.
1881
Nearest continued to work with Jack as his first master distiller until Jack moved his operation to the Cave Spring Hollow sometime after 1881. There, Nearest’s sons George and Eli and his grandsons Ott, Jesse, and Charlie continued the Green family tradition, working at Jack’s distillery in the Cave Spring Hollow.
1967
“Jack Daniel’s Legacy” book written by Ben A. Green, shares more detail about Nearest and Jack’s story.
2016
A New York Times article on the friendship between Jack and Nearest sparked new interest in Nearest Green’s contributions to Jack Daniel's and the spirits industry.
Today
More than 150 years have passed since Nearest and Jack first began making whiskey together, and to this day, there has always been a member of the Green family working at the Jack Daniel Distillery.