UNCLE NEAREST
The story of Uncle Nearest will stir you. It’s a story about America’s most known whiskey, its’ first distiller who was almost forgotten by history, and a preacher.
The story of Uncle Nearest will stir you. It’s a story about America’s most known whiskey, its’ first distiller who was almost forgotten by history, and a preacher.
The preacher’s name was Reverend Daniel Call. He was a Lutheran minister who lived in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Reverend Call had other projects than preaching to support his family. He also owned land and a general store. And, as any good minister would do in Tennessee, he distilled whiskey.
Nathan Green, known as Nearest Green or Uncle Nearest to those who knew him was a black man who worked for Reverend Call. Green was an enslaved man owned by a firm known as Landis & Green. He had been hired out to work for Reverend Call for a fee. It was together that Call and Greene distilled what was regarded as the best whiskey in the county.
Sometime in the 1850s, a young boy named Jasper Daniel went to work for the preacher at the general store. Jasper Daniel was youngest of ten children and tragically his mother had died in childbirth. Daniel would come to live and work on the preachers property. It was not long until Daniel took interest in the whiskey crafted by the Reverend Call and Nearest Green. Jasper Daniel was known as Jack.
Nathan Green taught the young boy how to distill and filter they whiskey through sugar maple charcoal. The story goes that when Reverend Call introduced Uncle Nearest to the young Daniel, the preacher said, "Uncle Nearest is the best whiskey maker that I know of."
Through the 1860's, as the Civil War tore through the heart of America, the Reverend Call and Uncle Nearest taught Jack Daniels everything they knew of the art of distilling whiskey. Call and Daniels would partner together to form a distillery named Daniel & Call Distillery. But, it was not long until the temperance movement would sweep through the States. Reverend Call was called to make a decision between spirits or spirituality: choose one, his congregation or the distillery. Daniel Call chose the church and sold his shares in the Lynchburg distillery to Jack Daniel.
Daniel would change the name of the distillery to Jack Daniel Distillery. One of the first decisions Jack would make was to hire the man who had mentored him in making whiskey. He hired Uncle Nearest to be his head distiller. Nearest Green would be the first Master Distiller of Jack Daniels. As time went on Uncle Nearest and his family were one of the most respected and wealthiest families in Lincoln County.
The story of the friendship between Reverend Call, Uncle Nearest, and Jack Daniels was almost lost in the darkness of American history. The story was recalled over a century after it began through the official biography, Jack Daniel’s Legacy, published in 1967. Nearest Green and his children are mentioned fifty times in the book. In the official biography of one of the most famous distillers in American history, the Green family is referenced more than anyone else in the book. It was a way to honor the influence that founded an institution.
In 2016, The New York Times ran a front page story about the 150th Anniversary of Jack Daniel’s. The story was titled Jack Daniel’s Embraces a Hidden Ingredient: Help from a Slave. The article caught the attention of Fawn Weaver, a bestselling author and investor. Weaver was enthralled with the story and began the patient and painstaking process to restore the history of Nearest Green. The process would lead her to establish a whiskey brand around his legacy.
Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey launched in 2017. It commemorates the first Black master distiller on record, posthumously by Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey. The whiskey was initially sourced from two other distilleries in Tennessee, and blended by the great-great-granddaughter of Nearest Green, Victoria Eady Butler. Since its release, Uncle Nearest has become the fastest-growing independent American whiskey brand in U.S. history.
The Uncle Nearest brand purchased the farm originally owned by Reverend Daniel Call where Nathan Green lived and worked and where he taught Jack Daniels how to distill whiskey. The company has been responsible for the restoration and renovation of the African American cemetery where Nathan Green is buried. Uncle Nearest opened its own facility is 2019, not only be a premium distillery, but to be a destination to hear the story. The story of Uncle Nearest, Jack Daniels, and Reverend Call. A story that stirs your spirit.
Jared Ray Mackey
Nearest Green | Jack Daniels
New York Times: "Jack Daniel's Embraces a Hidden Ingredient: Help From a Slave"
