In 1800, brothers William, Caleb, and Joshua North, members of a prominent local family, built the Rock Oak Tannery on this site as Millerstown's first industry. After a business sojourn in Thompsontown, they returned in 1814, enlarged the tannery, and renamed it the Jordan Tannery. Isaac McCord bought the property in 1816 and built the adjacent stone house on Market Street. McCord's heirs sold the business in 1849 to Henry Hopple, who introduced team power in 1867, and Hopple later sold it to Joseph Howell of Philadelphia, who erected a new tannery before running into financial difficulties. In 1882, Howell sold the operation to Newport tanner Charles A. Rippman, who moved his family into the McCord home and, with his sons J. G. "Harry" and Charles A. Jr., modernized the tanning process with new machinery. The tannery prospered in both productivity and quality, winning the highest award for oak sole leather at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. In 1901, Charles sold the tannery to his two sons but continued working there until his death in 1923, by which time he had been in the tannery trade longer than any other man in Perry County. As markets expanded, the company in 1907 leased a lot and buildings from the Pennsylvania Railroad across the Juniata River Bridge near the Millerstown Railroad Station, which eased the receipt of hides from around the world and shipment of finished leather to every state and Canada. The tannery employed as many as 20 workers. After Harry Rippman's son Charles Eugene died in 1925 and no heir apparent remained, the two brothers closed the business in 1928. In 1942, after Harry Rippman's death, the equipment was sold and shipped to a South American firm. Ray C. Savercool Sr. bought the buildings and used the property as a sales yard for his clay and brick business, then later rented the tannery buildings along Market and Apple Streets to Precisionware, a cabinet manufacturer. In 1955, the former tannery burned to the ground. The McCord-Rippman-Savercool stone home, the smokestack, the tannery office, and some other buildings still survive as reminders of Millerstown's industrial heritage.