John P. Parker
1827-1900
Ex-slave, Abolitionist, Inventor, Entrepreneur, Father, Hero

John P. Parker was born into slavery in 1827, the son of a black woman and white plantation owner. He knew first-hand the scourge of being bought and sold and used like an animal. At age eight he was sold, chained to other slaves, and made to walk ragged and barefoot from his original home in Virginia to Mobile, Alabama. On this journey his spirit was ignited with the anger and hatred of bondage that would fuel his life-long passion for helping others to freedom.

In Mobile, Parker was sold to a doctor. There he was taught illegally by the doctor's sons to read. Several years later, Parker made multiple daring attempts at escape, but was returned to Mobile. His last 'owner' allowed him to purchase his freedom in 1845 by earning extra money at a foundry. Parker moved to Ohio, married Miranda Boulden of Cincinnati, and eventually settled in Ripley by 1849. Ripley was a thriving abolitionist town, with over 300 members in the Ripley Anti-Slavery Society.

In Ripley, Parker continued his iron foundry work during the day and helped fugitive slaves escape at night. Parker frequently crossed the Ohio River to bring across fugitive slaves into Ohio, keeping the Underground Railroad filled with passengers. Parker was well-known for his activities, and there was a $1000 price on his head in Kentucky. During the Civil War, Parker was a major recruiter for the 27th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (Colored) Regiment.

After the war, Parker continued his foundry work and was a successful entrepreneur and inventory. He has two patents for agricultural inventions, the earliest granted an African-American.

John P. Parker died January 1900.

Also see: http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/
parker.html

The African-American Experience in Ohio

New Undergroud Railroad book:
"the freedom stairs" by Marilyn Weymouth Seguin. Historic fiction, the story of Adam Lowry Rankin, Underground Railroad Conductor. For sale at the Ripley Library, or visit www.branden.com.  To contact the Ripley Library, call 937-392-4871 or email ripleyohio@aol.com  

Rev. John Rankin
1793-1886

John Rankin was born in eastern Tennessee in 1793, the son of a blacksmith. As a child, he attended school for only a few years, but he supplemented his education with private reading. Rankin was a deeply religious young man who at the age of twenty began studying with his local pastor. Thus prepared, Rankin entered Washington College to prepare for a career in the ministry. He married Jean Lowry, granddaughter of the college dean in 1814.

Upon graduation in 1816, Rankin's abolitionist views led the couple to leave Tennessee. For several years they lived in Kentucky, where Rankin preached in a number of communities. But in 1822, with the slavery question tearing churches apart, Rankin moved his growing family across the Ohio River to Ripley in the free state of Ohio. It was here, in 1828, that he built the house on Liberty Hill overlooking the Ohio River.

It was inevitable that the house became a stopping point on the Underground Railroad. With its proximity to the river and its owner's fierce opposition to slavery, the Rankin home was a perfect choice.

Rankin believed that the federal government should purchase slaves from their master and set them free. Upon learning that one of his brothers, who lived in Virginia, had acquired a slave, Rankin wrote a series of letters denouncing slavery to the editor of an Ohio paper. He then sent the letters to his errant brother. These editorials were published as the book Letters on American Slavery in 1826. Rankin also helped organize the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. 

At the same time, Rankin and his wife began to assist escaping slaves, hiding as many as 12 in their home at one time. The Rankin family (which included thirteen children) was proud of never having lost a "passenger." Most of the 2,000 escaped slaves who traveled through Ripley before the end of the Civil War stayed with the Rankins.

The Rankins' work inspired others to rally to the cause. William Lloyd Garrison, one of the most famous abolitionists, called himself a Rankin disciple. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the daughter of a Cincinnati minister, heard Rankin's account of a slave who carried her children across the thawing ice of the Ohio River and was saved from her pursuers when the ice broke up the following morning before the bounty hunters could reach the river. Stowe later included the story in her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.

In 1873, Rankin and his wife settled in Ironton with a granddaughter and her husband. Here Jean Rankin died in 1878. Her husband died at the age of  93 in 1886. Both John and Jean Rankin are buried in the Maplewood Cemetery in east Ripley.