Jack Daniel’s Distillery Founders
(NOTE: FOUNDERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
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Jeff Arnett
Arnett, who was already a Tennessee Squire at the time, went to work as a quality control engineer at the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN. He began that position, which very importantly took him all throughout the distillery grounds. He met the challenge of being a part of each aspect of the distillery. So, when Jimmy Bedford stepped down as Master Distiller in 2008, Arnett became the 7th.
Jimmy Bedford
THIS FOUNDERS HISTORY WILL BE PUBLISHED SOON
Frank Bobo
To locals Frank was not only known as “Frog”. He was also known as a US Army Korean War veteran, a true southern gentle, a Raider fan, and a man with a deep, abiding love for his beloved wife, Avalee. According to his grandson he was also known as “the guy who got the calls to go fix something at the distillery in the middle of the night.”
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Chris Fletcher
Jess Gamble
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Jack Daniel
Jasper Newton “Jack” Daniel was born in Tennessee in 1849, and opened a distillery in Lynchburg. Because of the confusion and disarray after the Civil War, most distilleries in the South didn’t register their stills with the government, but young Jack did and became the country's Number 1 distillery.
After graduating, he worked as a laboratory technician at Brown-Forman from 2003-2008 and a production support group leader from 2008-2011. In April of 2011, Chris left Brown-Forman to become the lead chemist at Buffalo Trace. Just over 2 1/2 years later, though, he would not only return to Brown-Forman, he would return to Lynchburg. This time as assistant Master Distiller under Jeff Arnett. When Arnett stepped down, Chris Fletcher became the 8th master at Jack Daniels in November 2020.
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J. Reagor Motlow
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“Nearest” Green
Uncle Nearest, as his family and friends in his hometown of Lynchburg, Tennessee called him, was the first known African-American master distiller. Born in Maryland around 1820, around the mid-1800s, Green’s enslavers were a firm known as Landis & Green, who “leased” Nearest Green for a fee to local preacher, the Rev. Dan Call. He began working on the farm of the country preacher and distiller in Lincoln County.
Jess Motlow
In Jack Daniel’s 150-plus year history, only eight men have served as master distiller of the Jack Daniel’s distillery: first, of course, was Jasper “Jack” Daniel’s. Number two on the list, inheriting this responsibility from Jack, was Jess Butler Motlow, Jack’s nephew, and the younger brother of Lem Motlow.
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Lem Motlow
Lem had a close relationship with his Uncle Jack, who took Lem under his wing into the whiskey business. Lem had a head for numbers, and In 1883, just 14, he started working in the distillery, handling the distillery's bookkeeping. In 1907 due to failing health, Jack gave the distillery to his nephew, Lem.
Lem Big Hide Tolley
On July, 26 1898, Lillian gave birth to Lemuel Lee Tolley in Moore Tennessee, making Lem Jack Daniels grandnephew. Lem was a tall, rugged man with a thick skin and stern demeanor earning him the nickname ‘Big Hyde’. Lem ‘Big Hyde’ Tolley was a second generation distiller (his father also work at the Jack Daniels distillery) and in 1941 he would become only the third master distiller at Jack Daniels.
Lexie Phillips
Just as she has done for the past ten years, Lexie Phillips makes her short daily drive from where she was raised in Estill Springs to the Jack Daniel’s distillery. It is down the quiet, two-lane stretch of smooth country blacktop, past the polite, white-frame houses of small-town Tennessee. Except these days, Lexie has been named the first female Assistant Master Distiller at the renowned whiskey works, operating side-by-side with Master Distiller Chris Fletcher.