Though Joseph Washington Dant didn’t have the money for fancy copper stills, he still became a popular distiller back in 1830s Kentucky by making his own still out of a hollowed-out tree trunk. MacGyver, eat your heart out. He eventually got his own distillery (with stills not made from hollowed-out trees or various decorative gourds that he had lying around or what-have-you), and his family would continue to be active in the world of distilling for years to come. It was his family that eventually named a sour mash bourbon after J.W. Dant in the 1950s, which is when the brand came into existence. The folks from Heaven Hill purchased the brand in the early 1990s, and continue to produce it today.