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. Incredible 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.”

Source: The Rushville Times, 1918. Transcribed by Robin L. Peterson in 1999.