Lemuel Oscar Motlow (1869-1947) - Find a Grave Memorial

Businessman. He was the owner and operator of the famous Jack Daniel Distillery. Jasper "Jack" Daniel took over the distillery just after the Civil War. Its ownership eventually passed to Daniel's nephew Lemuel Motlow. Prohibition had begun in the 1920s and he moved his distillery to St. Louis, Missouri and in 1923 he made a deal to sell the distillery and all of its stored whiskey to a St. Louis businessman named Don Robinson. Motlow and Robinson, were accused of bootlegging.On the way back from St. Louis to Tennessee, Motlow shot and killed a train conductor named C.T. Pullis. Motlow survived his bootlegging charge and his murder charge; in the end, the jury was persuaded that he had been double-crossed by the people to whom he was trying to sell his business. He was able to retain ownership in his Tennessee distillery. In 1931 he was elected to the State Legislature, where he served six years. Prohibition was repealed in 1933, and by the end of the decade he had rebuilt and reopened his family business in Lynchburg.

Bio by: Graveaddiction