Michter’s traces its roots to 1753, when John Shenk founded a whiskey distillery in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania. The distillery later became Bomberger’s, and in the 1950s owner Lou Forman created the modern Michter’s name by combining parts of his sons’ names, Michael and Peter. Prohibition forced the distillery to close, ownership changed repeatedly after repeal, and the old Pennsylvania operation finally collapsed in 1989. In the 1990s, Joseph J. Magliocco and Richard “Dick” Newman revived Michter’s in Kentucky.