Interview with Thomas B. Ripy, January 29, 2014
Project: Bourbon in Kentucky: Kentucky Bourbon Tales Oral History Project
Interview Summary
Thomas B. Ripy is the great-grandson of T.B. Ripy who operated a distillery in Tyrone, Kentucky. In this interview Thomas Ripy talks about Anderson County, Kentucky before Prohibition and the many distilleries that were once located there. He discusses the effects of Prohibition on the area and the difficulty many families had finding other employment.He talks about Mary Dowling who ran the Waterfill and Frazier Distillery after her husband's death and the raid of her house by government agents during Prohibition. He also discusses her decision to move her distillery to Mexico until the end of Prohibition.
He discusses the bourbon industry after the repeal of Prohibition and which distilleries reopened and why others did not. The interview contains information about historic distilleries and their sale to other companies as well as name changes distilleries have undergone over the years.
He discusses his family's involvement in the bourbon industry as well as the American Civil War. He talks about the restoration of the T.B. Ripy House.
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Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.
All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.
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Ripy, Thomas B. Interview by Al Young. 29 Jan. 2014. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Ripy, T.B. (2014, January 29). Interview by A. Young. Bourbon in Kentucky: Kentucky Bourbon Tales Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.
Ripy, Thomas B., interview by Al Young. January 29, 2014, Bourbon in Kentucky: Kentucky Bourbon Tales Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
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Persistent Link for this Record: https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7b8g8fj315