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| John Parker describes Ripley
in 1845.
From: The
Autobiography of John P. Parker, His Promised Land, edited by Stuart
Seely Sprague, published by W.W. Norton "To give you the real background of my activities, it is necessary to tell you about Ripley in 1845. At that time it was busy as a beehive. There was no town along the Ohio River except Cincinnati that was in its class. There was a group of live men there that made it the center of industry and finance. There was Samuel Hemphill, Archibald Leggett, the Boyntons, Thomas McCague, James Reynolds were the leaders. "There were the upper and lower boatyards, busy the year round. The upper boatyard was the oldest and larger of the two, located at the mouth of Red Oak Creek. There was a jut of land below the creek which gave the boatyard a safe harbor, winter and summer. One hundred flatboats were made here in one year for Vevay, Indiana, to float hay down the river. ... "In winter steamboats were on the ways. The entire riverfront was filled with flatboats loading cargoes for New Orleans and all waypoints. Winter and summer there flowed down the river highways into the town a continuous stream of logs night and day. Only pork was packed, as the south did not feed beef to its slaves. The slaughterhouses were in full blast at all seasons. Flour mills, both water and steam, ground up the grain of the neighboring farms. ... "All winter long the farmer and his family were busily engaged making pork and flour barrels, and tobacco hogsheads. There were brought to town either on sleighs or by four-to-six horse teams. At times the farmers killed (and) packed their own hogs. A woolen mill made most of the jeans for the town and the flatboats.... "This little town was so rich [that] in the Panic of 1837, it sent its funds to help New York banks over that depression. It was as busy as a beehive and as thrifty as it was busy."
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