There were great sacrifices that Fawn and Keith Weaver made to ensure that the Uncle Nearest whiskey brand would not fail.
Today, Uncle Nearest is recognized as a force within the spirits industry, reflecting the resilience of Fawn, whose story is one of overcoming adversity with triumph. She dropped out of school in 10th grade, bounced between homeless shelters, and attempted to take her life twice. She viewed her struggles as affirmation of a higher calling — one that has materialized into an award-winning whiskey brand that has topped a billion-dollar valuation and is the fastest-growing American whiskey in history, as AFROTECH™ previously reported.
The inception of Uncle Nearest resulted from relentless research Fawn conducted in Lynchburg, TN, to uncover the story of Nathan “Nearest” Green. Enslaved at the time, Green was responsible for teaching Jasper Newton “Jack” Daniel how to make whiskey using the technique known as “sugar maple charcoal filtering.” Some call this the Lincoln County Process today. However, a visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture debunked the notion that the technique started with Daniel himself, and instead the credit goes to enslaved communities that had long used it to produce illicit alcohol, as noted in Fawn’s book “
Green continued to teach Daniel, who began selling whiskey throughout Lynchburg and other areas. Daniel’s whiskey business rose to prominence during the Civil War, which began in 1861. Five years later, the Jack Daniel Distillery was established with Green serving as its master distiller. He is recognized as the first African-American master distiller on record in U.S. history.
Fawn’s deep dive into Green’s story was sparked by an image she came across in a 2016 New York Times article titled “Jack Daniel’s Embraces a Hidden Ingredient: Help From a Slave,” while she was traveling in Singapore.
“What’s so beautiful about the story of the origin of Jack Daniel’s is that Jack and his descendants were so intentional in making sure that the story wouldn’t be able to be erased,” Fawn told AFROTECH™ in an interview during the “ Feb. 5 Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Because if you think about it, when the last of Jack’s descendants passed away in ’78, Reagor Motlow, the story of Nearest Green and his boys that were always a part of their company history, their tours — all the rest of that — that stopped between ’78 and ’79, within a year of Reagor passing away. But because Jack and his descendants made sure that they put it in the press, you got a picture where Jack is seen in the center position of the entire photo next to an African-American man. They literally set it up where even if America tried to wipe out this Green family legacy, we wouldn’t be able to. And that, to me, is the story, as Africans in this country, we have along the way had people that were allies, that did stand up for us, that did do what was right.”
Decision To Launch Uncle Nearest As Chief Historian
At its core, Uncle Nearest honors the story of Nearest Green, preserving a legacy that had remained largely hidden for over a century. Fawn and Keith, both seasoned real estate investors beyond their respective careers, purchased the Dan Call Farm — Jack Daniel’s childhood home and the site of his first distillery — for $900,000. At the Church of Christ in Nashville, TN, Green’s descendants gathered to hear the totality of Fawn’s research. During the meeting, the family shared a clear call to action for Jack Daniel’s: They wanted Nearest Green to have his own bottle — a whiskey that would rightfully bear his name.
Fawn did not trust that the Jack Daniel’s company would do right by Green as even its tour guide failed to acknowledge his existence during the four to five visits she made. She had already filed trademarks for “Uncle Nearest” and “Nearest Green” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, along with bottle label filings with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, and had enough knowledge to produce a whiskey bottle that would honor Nearest and the family.
She wasn’t alone in this mission. Sherrie Moore, who had spent 31 years as the director of whiskey operations at Jack Daniel’s before retiring, vowed to return to work if Fawn ever decided to release a bottle. Keith, a former Sony executive for over two decades, had represented the company in 70 countries globally and became one of Fawn’s biggest supporters as well.
Uncle Nearest officially launched in 2017, with Katharine Jerkens joining its team a year prior as senior vice president of sales and marketing.
For Uncle Nearest to secure a firm grip in the market, this required no ego. In fact, Fawn took on the title of chief historian for Keith — who she regards as her biggest supporter — to serve as CEO and founder.
When it was time to search for a distiller and bottler, the outreach efforts of the three-woman team was met with silence — calls went unanswered. Fawn attributed this to the industry’s deep-rooted exclusivity, often dominated by white men. She decided to ask Moore and Jerkens to compile a list of the unresponsive contacts. That list was then passed to Keith, who, in stark contrast, received a response to every single call he made. Instead of becoming bitter, Weaver describes feeling “invigorated.” Sales, marketing, and PR doubled, and for several years Keith would present himself as the leading voice of the whiskey brand.
“If you go back to any interview in 2017 or 2018, what you will discover is that CEO and founder was not my title. My title was Chief Historian. Why? Because I cared about succeeding, and I wasn’t going to let anything remotely close to an ego keep me from that,” Weaver told the audience gathered for the book tour in Houston. “If the people in the industry needed the voice on the other end to be a dude, no problem.”
She added, “So, he would make the phone calls. He had the conversations, and then he said, ‘Hey let me have my wife follow up. She does the marketing.'”
Keith stood beside Fawn with various business decisions, which included the $900,000 farm purchase and investing his entire paychecks into Uncle Nearest, including salary costs. However, there was one move he wanted to unsubscribe from, and that was maintaining the title of founder and CEO. He decided to step away from the role after an individual in the industry told him in a phone call that he had done a cardinal sin in business by allowing his wife to be involved in operations.
“After that, he made the decision that he would not be called co-founder,” Fawn revealed. “That I will solely be the founder and CEO because he said, ‘You’re building it. I’m not gonna let them give me credit for what you are building.”
Today, the pair continues to work in unison. In fact, Keith launched hospitality company, Nashwood Inc., with restaurant venture Humble Baron listed under its portfolio. It currently has the world’s longest bar at 518 feet long and is situated within the Uncle Nearest distillery located in Shelbyville, TN. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, the hospitality company seeks to invest $100 million into the community and has aspirations to launch an annual music and art festival as well as invest in real estate for housing and creative purposes.
