BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 17, 2021
His name was Albert “Jigger” Johnson, and though the stories told about him are larger than life, he was actually a real person who worked the woods and waters of Maine and New Hampshire in the late 1800s— an authentic northern New England lumberjack. Those tall tales about Johnson and his exploits inspired Hermon-based Devil’s Half Acre Distillery to name its flagship gin after the man, as well as after Fan Jones, the legendary Bangor brothel keeper whom Johnson likely encountered when he came to the Queen City to blow off some steam after months in the woods. “He really represented that kind of Maine wilderness. He was the archetypal lumberjack character, when that was what Maine was all about,” said Larry Murphy, one of the co-founders of the distillery. “We figured Paul Bunyan would have been way too hokey. Jigger Johnson was the real deal.”