21 Facts About Jigger Johnson

Albert "Jigger" Johnson was born on May 12,1871, in Fryeburg, Maine, to parents of Yankee stock.

One evening, a few newcomers decided to talk during dinner, and continued to talk after the young Jigger Johnson politely asked them to stop.

Old loggers who worked for him, such as Stewart Holbrook, claimed that Jigger Johnson had few equals as a woodsman at a time when a man working in the woods was judged by the smoothness of the scarf of his axe's undercut.

Jigger Johnson was well known to be an honest, hardworking boss, who would pay his men high wages to work for him.

Jigger Johnson would walk into saloons at Berlin, New Hampshire, and Sherbrooke, Quebec, and could convince drunken loggers to work for him driving logs down the most dangerous parts of the Connecticut River.

On one occasion during a river drive, Jigger Johnson told his men to wait at camp while he went to recruit more log drivers in West Stewartstown, New Hampshire.

Once he returned to camp, Jigger Johnson realized at once where the missing men had gone and immediately left for the Line House.

Jigger Johnson managed to grab a hold of Lapointe's feet and lifted him up and placed him onto a hot wood stove and held him there for a few minutes, all the while Lapointe bellowed.

When Jigger Johnson finally let up, he proceeded to jump into the air and grabbed a hold of a kerosene lamp from the ceiling and smashed it over the bouncer's head.

Jigger Johnson trekked from New England all the way to the Great Lakes States and then to the great pine forests of the Southeast, before deciding to turn back to New England due to a sprained ankle and stomach problems.

Jigger Johnson then continued to work for the remainder of his logging career on the Androscoggin River.

Shortly after the end of his logging career, Jigger Johnson found a profession as a fire warden for the United States Forest Service and was stationed at their lookout tower on Mount Chocorua, and later at Carter Dome.

On one occasion while the Jigger Johnson worked on Carter Dome, he and a friend, Robert Monahan, set off from "The Dome" to Berlin to replenish his potato supply and to stock up on bootlegged hard liquor.

Bob and Jigger Johnson banded together and won the race, with the prize being a half-bushel of fresh potatoes.

Jigger Johnson erected a crude cabin in the White Mountain National Forest near Douglas Brook in Albany, New Hampshire.

Once, the Jigger Johnson used a deer carcass to lure two bobcats under a tree that he had climbed.

Jigger Johnson agreed, and captured two bobcats and tied their feet together and started out for the train station, occasionally hitting their heads together to keep them quiet.

Jigger Johnson ended up hiring a taxi driver to drive him to Portland, and he hand delivered the cats himself.

The next morning, after realizing he had not checked his traps in over 24 hours, Jigger Johnson hired a man to drive him back to Passaconaway.

The car ended up sliding off the road just as the Jigger Johnson was about to get out of the car, pinning him to a tree.

Jigger Johnson was taken to the Memorial Hospital in Conway, where he died on March 30,1935.