The Village of Ripley
The Village of Ripley is a well-preserved example of an antebellum Ohio River town. Every major event that caused this town to grow and develop happened before the Civil War, and every impact is related to the town’s location on the Ohio River.
Hortense Parker Gilliam
First Mount Holyoke Alumna of Color and Noted Pianist and Educator
When she graduated as the valedictorian from Mount Holyoke College (then Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) in 1883, Hortense Parker Gilliam became the school's first known alumna of color.
In 1926, Mount Holyoke became one of the Seven Sisters colleges, a consortium of then-women's…
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Lewis Hayden
Abolitionist, Politician and Community Leader
Lewis Hayden was born into enslavement in Lexington, Kentucky on December 2, 1811 in the household of the Reverend Adam Runkin, a Presbyterian minister.
As a child, young Hayden witnessed the horrors of enslavement first hand observing the sale of his siblings at auction and the physical violence…
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Delia Webster, Calvin Fairbank, and the Escape of Lewis Hayden
Delia Webster and Calvin Fairbank emerged as fiery white abolitionists as well as Underground Railroad activists.
Delia Webster was born in Vermont in 1817, studied briefly at Oberlin College in Ohio, and moved to Kentucky in 1842. Calvin Fairbank was born in New York in 1816, studied for several…
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Village of Ripley
Important River Port and Underground Railroad Site
The community was founded on a portion of the 1,000 acres of Survey No. 418 of the Virginia Military District purchased by Colonel James Poage of Staunton, VA. Poage was determined to live in a free state and settled on his claim as early as 1804. His anti-slavery views attracted other souther…
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Red Oak Presbyterian Church
Church with Ties to the Abolitionist Movement in Ripley
Reverend James Gilliland was born in 1769 in Lincoln County, NC. In 1805, he became the pastor at Red Oak Presbyterian Church just north of Ripley. By some accounts, he was the first abolitionist in Brown County, and this is possibly the oldest congregation in Brown County and the state of…
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Gravesite of Rosa Washington Riles
Depicted Aunt Jemima in the 1950s
Rosa Washington Riles was born in 1901 in Brown County, OH. She was employed as a cook in the home of a Quaker Oats executive. Following the death of Nancy Green in 1923, the first Black woman to portray Aunt Jemima, Rosa was recruited to give food demonstrations across the US as one of the…
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John P. Parker House
Inventor, Entrepreneur and Underground Railroad Conductor
According to historian Wilbur H. Siebert, there were at least twenty-three ports of entry for freedom seekers along the Ohio riverfront, and Ripley was an active Underground Railroad stop.
Overlooking the Ohio River in Ripley, the John P. Parker House is now a small museum devoted to sharing the…
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Rankin House
home of abolitionist and Presbyterian minister
The Rankin House at 6152 Rankin Hill Rd. in Ripley was home to abolitionist and Presbyterian minister John Rankin, his wife Jean and their 13 children. It's estimated that over 2,000 slaves seeking freedom stayed with the Rankins, sometimes as many as 12 at a time. Though slavery was illegal…
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