By Howard F. Dyson, 1918
Ripley in 1859 was known as "Jug Town" on account of its extensive pottery business, and on
July 4th of that year one of the potters made a world's record turning out jugs. The item reciting this record reads as follows:
"The citizens of Ripley on the Fourth of July witnessed one of the greatest displays of
workmanship that was ever recorded, by turning out 636 one gallon jugs in eleven hours and thirty-two minutes. Those who are not acquainted with this particular branch of
the business may perhaps think that the man certainly cannot be found in Jug Town that can and has beat the world. Increditable as it may appear it is emphatically so, and
that man is George H. Vincent.
"The above great feat was witnessed by more than forty persons. The excitement was intense, Jug
Town was alive with patriotism, and not until a late hour of the night could anything like quiet be thought of."