The Old Judge Distillery
RD #11, 7 th District
Franklin County, KY

Cecil (1999) suggests that the plant was located on Benson Creek outside Frankfort, but also perpetuates the myth that it was built by John E Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald supposedly moved to Hammond, IN. to run another distillery after selling out to S C Herbst of Milwaukee around 1900.

In reality, John E Fitzgerald was a Treasury agent who had a nose for good whiskey and tapped certain barrels for his own personal consumption. These barrels became known as "Fitzgeralds" and became the basis for a marketing scheme devised by Herbst to sell a blended whiskey under the Jno. E Fitzgerald brand name.

Herbst had first registered the Jno. E Fitzgerald brand name in 1884 and reregistered along with the Old Fitzgerald name in 1905. The company produced both Old Judge and Fitzgerald brands at the plant until Prohibition, when it was closed and dismantled.

Jerry Bixler was the plant's manager and master disiller from 1901 until Prohibition (Campbell, 1999).

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