Ripley: Noun; A small rivertown community located on the banks of the Ohio River. Ripley Ohio got it's start when Colonel James
Poage came to Ohio from
Staunton, Virgina to claim his 1000 acre land grant. That he recevied for his service in the military. Originally he named the town Staunton and him and his family laid out the town in 1812. But by
1816 he renamed the town becuase there was another town named Stauton in Ohio. He renamed the town Ripley in honor of General
Eleazar Wheelock Ripley who was in the War of 1812. The proximity of the river and of the slave state of Kentucky on the opposite shore led to
Ripley's role as an early stop on the Underground railroad, a network of citizens sympathetic to slaves escaping north to freedom. A number of prominent abolitionists lived in the town in the 1800s, mainly on Front Street near the river, including John Rankin, former slave
John Parker, Thomas McCague, Thomas Collins and Dr. Alexander Campbell.
Ripley has since
seen it's share of ups and downs. In the mid 1900's(1940-1969)Ripley had at one time 21 bars. Now Ripley's Night Life consists of
5 main bars that are year round...19th Main,
Snappers, The Meeting Place, The Riveara, and
Town and Country by the high school. It has a Boat Club that during the summer months also has a bar and resturant. Grocery stores Ripley has one...Jubilee which was formerly Clydes SuperValue. It also host a Farmers Market on the corner of Main and Second Streets. This building used to be a clothing store back in the 1960' and up until the earlie 2000's was an antique store.
Ripley at one time had a lumber yard, a rail road going through town, several grocery stores like
Krogers and several butcher shops. It also at one time had a nice Hotel called the Bodemer Hotel, that now the building sits empty. A phantom of it's former glory. Also during Ripley's history they had a movie theater and a swimming pool. The movie theater is now a
laundry mat(constructed after the theater burned down).
Ripley even has it's own festival...The Ohio Tobacco Festival. Held usually the second to last weekend in August. Tobacco at one time was Ripley's main
cash crop. Now since the buyouts farmers aren't making what they used to cause they have one set contracted price vs. a price that was determined by what it was auctioned off at during auction. So the tobacco warehouse are now used as an auction house, a flea market and general storage.
Ripley isn't short on stories...or ghosts and cemetaries.