Ripley’s Keepers of Freedom’s Flame 

By Judge Thomas F. Zachman

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center has opened its doors to the world and in the course of time hundreds of thousands will visit this magnificent civic, cultural, architectural, and historic museum located on the banks of the Ohio River.  Men and women of every age and station in life will come to learn, remember, and reflect within its walls upon the poignant stories of mankind’s yearning for freedom and struggle for dignity. During the initial weeks of introduction and celebration it is altogether appropriate and proper that the attention of a nation will be focused upon the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center at Cincinnati, Ohio, but once the dedication ceremonies and tours are concluded we should as suggested by the Center’s exhibits and documents venture forth and experience first hand the myriad of stories, sights and sounds along the many stations of the Underground Railroad.  Communities both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line have histories to relate about local personages in their cities and towns who impacted the Underground Railroad movement in one way or another.  But of all of the Underground Railroad sites dotted across this great land one stands alone as perhaps the true epicenter of the abolitionist movement in Ohio.  Almost two centuries ago in a tiny village located approximately fifty miles upriver from rapid pace of the modern urban environment surrounding the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center hundreds of men and women of conscience both openly and secretly stood shoulder to shoulder against the forces of evil.  What happened in that little river town nestled in a majestic valley would forever change a nation and aspire to rank as pivotal and seminal moments in the heritage of a free people. That place is Ripley-Freedom’s Landing in Ohio

Like a silver arrow in a great earthly compass, the waters of the Ohio River flowing by Front Street in Ripley, Ohio point directly to the North Star, a symbol of stability in the heavens and a graphic beacon to past freedom seekers, gently reminds us that Ripley’s river history is more than just of ship building, commerce and cargos. Her history is an aspiring and breathtaking saga of a town’s defiance and determination in the face of adversity and oppression.  Here is a special place that touches the heart and soul of a free people in this land and those that aspire to be free in any land.

When you walk the streets of Ripley and climb the steps of Liberty Hill you are on hallowed ground.  Courage, compassion, and moral outrage against slavery dwelled in the hearts and minds of men and women who lived and walked here. Their words and deeds are not of our time, but have shaped our time and their stories are stories for all time and all mankind.  Their words speak to us even today in voices clear and courageous: 

                        As one Ripley abolitionist wrote in a local newspaper. 

                        “I would remind my friends across the river that if they murder Mr. Rankin, destroy his property and even burn down the town of Ripley, they will never save one slave by it.  I would also say to them, while they are talking about taking lives, burning property and towns, that they have houses, property and towns as well as we. And I will say more that we are not to be deterred from our duty by the threats they can make. God has given us the rights of hospitality and we will never surrender it but with our lives.”    

Ripley’s words of defiance and determination in the face of adversity and oppression were backed up by steel and fire. When Col. Richard Morgan led his Confederate cavalry through Brown County only here at Ripley stood organized armed resistance arrayed against the invaders.  Sharpshooters flanked by the Ripley cannon, a three inch rifled artillery piece purchased by Ripley citizens, assembled at a barricade across the Georgetown Pike at Cornick’s Run poised ready and eager to defend the town. In the distance Union gunboats were anchored in the Ohio River preventing Morgan’s troops from crossing into Kentucky.  The “damned abolitionist hellhole” would not fall to Morgan and his southern raiders on that day or ever. 

 The character, compassion, courage, and words of Ripley’s valiant men and women such as John Parker, Reverend John Rankin, in concert with Collins, McCague, and Campbell speak even today to our better angels. Their vision of equality and freedom remain as bedrock principles constant, eternal, and timeless. Our country was transformed by their courage and example, but in this time of national remembering upon the occasion of the opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center let us not forget those Ohio and Brown County citizens that over the course of decades kept alive the accounts of Ripley’s sung and unsung heroes and heroines and by their scholarship and civic zeal renewed the flame of freedom burning bright in our collective memories.  

Over the last hundred years, many have labored to preserve and protect the heritage and pride of this little town with a big heart.  Each has built on the work of their predecessors creating ripples of history in the past culminating in waves of understanding in the present.  Let us recall and honor those citizens of Ripley that have nourished the light of freedom by their able efforts in documenting and preserving for all time a glorious and courageous past.

In the last century one of the first keepers of freedom’s flame Frank Gregg loved Ripley as a child and honored its heritage as a man.  A skilled reporter for a Cleveland Ohio newspaper and entrepreneur   Gregg would be responsible for preserving the John P. Parker legacy by painstakingly and accurately in the space of but a few hours recording and preserving Parker’s words and accounts for all time. Later the Gregg-Parker manuscript with the cooperation of Duke University would form the foundation for the book His Promised Land, The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Frank Gregg was also responsible in 1912 for spearheading and personally funding the Ripley Front Street and Presbyterian Church abolitionist and civil war, markers, memorials, and tablets project and the Liberty Monument at the foot of Main Street to in his words “…rescue these men from oblivion and make them national characters rather than men of only local renown”.  As a result of Gregg’s work and to forever preserve the legacy of Reverend John Rankin, often referred by many writers of the mid eighteen hundreds as the “father of abolitionism”, the Ohio State Historical Society secured public funds to purchase the Rankin House in 1937. Rankin’s home, a lighthouse for freedom, would be dedicated as a State Memorial in 1948 and later as a national Historic Landmark in the year 1997.

In our time the next Ripley citizen to continue in Gregg’s footsteps was Eliese Bambach Stivers a noted local historian.  Under her direction the book Ripley, Ohio Its History and Families would be published in 1965.  As a result of the work of many Ripley citizens serving on the Sesquicentennial Historical Committee and her research efforts this book collated into a single source many previously unknown accounts of the heroes of abolitionism.  Her work on historical preservation during the mid twentieth century would act as a catalyst for the creation the Ripley Museum in 1976 as a result of the generosity of her daughters Miriam S. Zachman and Jane C. Dyruff.   From this genesis would arise the formation of the Ripley Historical District completed in 1985 under the auspices of Miriam S. Zachman, Leora Campbell, and Betty Dragoo Campbell.  During that time the John P. Parker house was identified as a site worthy of protection and national recognition, and due to the efforts of Charles Nuckolls and Robert Newman of Cincinnati, Ohio and many others, the John P. Parker house was purchased, saved, lovingly resorted and ultimately designated by the National Park Service as a second National Historic Landmark in Ripley, Ohio.

Another contemporary keeper of the freedom’s flame Betty Dragoo Campbell is no stranger to historic preservation and education in Ripley, Ohio.  She acts today as the President of both the Ripley Heritage Inc. and the John P. Parker Historical Society, Inc. Through her tireless efforts, the stories of Parker and Rankin have been personally communicated to thousands of visitors to Ripley.  She and her husband Bob Campbell, a direct descendent of Dr. Alexander Campbell, United States Senator and one of Ripley’s first abolitionists, continue to this day acting as Ripley’s ambassadors to those seeking to learn of the skirmishes in the “war before the war”. 

The next noted resident keeper of freedom’s flame in this century Ann Hagedorn became a citizen of Ripley by choice rather than by birth or family affiliation. A journalist by training and author by acclamation, Hagedorn, intrigued by the abolitionist movement, came to Ripley and began to skillfully and rigorously garner many of the secrets and stories of the “Ripley Line” of the Underground Railroad. Her award winning work Beyond the River, The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad is now required reading by docents for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and tells a riveting tale of the drama and passions of those fighting against slavery on the “Ripley Line”.  Her retelling of the slave Eliza and her child crossing the Ohio River stepping from one broken ice floe to another and climbing the hundred steps to freedom on Liberty Hill to seek temporary refuge from her pursuers at the home of Reverend Rankin recalls the emotional impact of Eliza’s plight as recounted in fiction by Harriet Beecher Stowe in the immortal pre civil war novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Through Hagedorn’s pen and pursuit for truth the history of Ripley and the courage of her noble band of brothers and sisters of long ago have been reborn and live once again in our mind’s eye.

Perhaps most unassuming and underappreciated of Ripley’s current keepers of freedom’s flame is Alison Gibson, Library Director for the Union Township Public Library.  A multitalented, seasoned, and vaunted research librarian and local historian, she has for years personally guided scores of authors, scholars, and educators toward original and secondary source materials dealing with the Underground Railroad and the Ripley story.  Her efforts have been acknowledged in numerous books and articles recently published concerning the Underground Railroad.  She continues to field questions almost daily from the press, writers, and the public concerning the triumphs and tragedies of those brave Ripley souls past and present engaged in the struggle over human rights, individual freedom and the responsibility of morality and conscience.  Without her guidance and good will many of Ripley’s stories would have remained unheralded and unknown to thousands.

Thanks to these and other keepers of freedom’s flame Ripley’s timeless and legendary stories are being retold again and again in brick and stone, word and song, glory and honor. Because of them and hundreds like them in our time Ripley, Ohio that almost forgotten fledgling outpost of abolitionism is now destined to be become known worldwide as a proud lighthouse of liberty against the darkness of oppression and slavery where thousands would find freedom on the Underground Railroad. We join with our sisters and brothers of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in commemorating these special days of enlightenment and renewal.  As you walk the streets of this beautiful town and admire the buildings and monuments recall once more the courage and sacrifice of the few that saved the many and may their greatness and the glory shine forever at Ripley-Freedom’s Landing in Ohio.