This riveted bucket was used by the Water Line Association, formed in 1817 at Lexington, Kentucky. Because it is riveted and not hand-sewn, it was most likely produced in the mid to late nineteenth century.
Note: The W.L.A. was some sort of community organization, but its exact purpose is unknown. It could have been involved in supplying water for firefighting, or it might simply have been a fraternal organization that had its own buckets. The W.L.A. is not listed in the Lexington city directories for 1818 or 1859-60, and it is not mentioned in William Henry Perrin’s History of Fayette County, Kentucky or in Allen Share’s Cities in the Commonwealth: Two Centuries of Urban Life in Kentucky.
