Ripley Township, Huron County

How Ripley Township, Huron County began

Ripley Township's abundant maple trees made it a favored spring sugar-camp for Native people even after white settlement began, with bark sap troughs still found in the woods as late as 1830; a trail linking to better hunting grounds toward Black River also crossed the township. After a few transitory settlers in 1820, permanent settlement began in 1825 with the families of Moses Inscho, D. Broomback and James Dickson. The township organized formally in 1837 with a first election drawing fourteen voters, and is named for the Reverend Hezekiah Ripley, a Connecticut Firelands 'sufferer' who held a land claim in the township's third section.

Settled 1825 (Moses Inscho, D. Broomback and James Dickson, first permanent settlers), incorporated April 2, 1837 (first township election), by Moses Inscho, D. Broomback and James Dickson.

Where the name comes from

The township was named for the Reverend Hezekiah Ripley, of Connecticut, one of the Firelands' 'sufferers' whose losses were compensated with land, who held a claim in the township's third section; whether he personally settled there is not stated in the primary source, which describes him only as having 'located land,' though Wikipedia separately describes him as a pioneer settler.

Before the town

Ripley's abundance of maple trees made it a favorite spring camping ground for Native people even well after white settlement began, according to the 1879 county history: they came regularly to make maple sugar, and some of their bark sap troughs were still being found in the township's woods as late as 1830. Hunting was a secondary purpose, since better hunting grounds lay farther east, and Native travelers often passed through on a trail leading to the Black River country. The source notes no remembered conflicts or notable incidents between settlers and Native people in the township.

Timeline

1. 1820 — A short-lived settlement of transitory pioneers -- Seth Foster, a man named Decker, and a man named Jaralman and his son -- lives briefly in the township's southwest before Foster and Decker return east and Jaralman dies.
2. 1825 — The families of Moses Inscho, D. Broomback and James Dickson make the township's first permanent settlement.
3. 1825 — Abraham Stotts of Virginia buys land in lot twelve, section three, in the fall; his son John Stotts follows in spring 1826 and later builds the township's first brick house.
4. 1827 — Rev. Joseph Edwards preaches to the township's first religious gathering, twenty people representing seven families, at Abraham Stotts's house.
5. 1828 — Rev. Joseph Edwards, a Presbyterian minister, buys about 900 acres and settles permanently in the township's first section.
6. c. 1828 — The township's first mill is built southwest of Delphi on a small creek that usually has too little water to turn the wheel.
7. 1830 — The Presbyterian church is organized at Rev. Joseph Edwards's house.
8. 1830 — Deacon Timothy Austin of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, buys about a thousand acres north of Delphi along the new State Road hoping to found an 'Austin settlement', a project that fails.
9. 1831 — The township's first temperance society is formed this year or the next by the family of Rev. Joseph Edwards, whose short constitution is signed by eight family members; a larger society soon follows to which nearly all the township's families belong.
10. 1833 — John Bare and his sons from Niagara County, New York, the Fowler brothers, Walter Paine of Tompkins County and Sanford Sisson with twelve children arrive, and the settlement grows quickly over 1832-34.
11. c. 1835 — D. E. Merrill builds the township's first tavern, a log building at the center.
12. 1836 — A general revival begins in February with a two-day prayer meeting at a schoolhouse east of Edwards' corners, led after the young man F. C. Paine's conversion and with help from Fairfield preachers including Father Owen.
13. 1837 — Ripley organizes as a township with its first election on April 2, drawing fourteen voters and electing Samuel Case as clerk.
14. 1837 — Simeon Howard is elected the first justice of the peace on August 4 but does not serve, and Benjamin B. Holliday is chosen on November 13.
15. 1849 — A farmhouse is built on New State Road, among the oldest documented structures surviving in the township.

Stories

A temperance township

In 1831 or 1832, the family of Rev. Joseph Edwards -- himself, his wife Clarissa, and their children -- drew up a short constitution and formed what became the township's first temperance society. A larger society, drawing in nearly every family in the township, grew directly out of it soon after. The habit stuck: the 1879 county history notes that Ripley had built an enviable reputation as a temperance community, and that for most of its existence no place within the township's limits had ever sold liquor.

The prayer meeting on the knoll

In 1836 Ripley had three small churches but, as its historian put it, no general religious awakening. A young man named F. C. Paine, who by his own account had been 'wicked, vain and almost thoughtless', was moved while alone on a road forty miles from home to change his life, and began urging his friends to do the same. Prayer meetings spread through the township over the summer and autumn, and when winter came it was decided to hold a two-day meeting at the eighteen-by-twenty-foot schoolhouse east of Edwards' corners, on a knoll overlooking a swamp. A messenger was sent north to Fairfield for help, and on a clear, warm Saturday in February the people saw a group of strong, experienced men walking down from Fairfield: Father Owen, Elisha Savage, William C. Huestis, Harrison Wakeman and Alvin Allen. Father Owen led the first meeting, Savage the evening one, and the revival that followed became the township's best remembered religious event.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Willard City46% of residentsWest Branch Huron River, stored in Willard's upground reservoir
• Greenwich Village27% of residentsGroundwater wells (6 wells)
• Plymouth Village16% of residentsWest Branch Huron River, stored in Willard's upground reservoir
• Rural Lorain Co. Water A5% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells
• Shiloh Village5% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Northern Ohio Rural Water - SE District1% of residentsLake Erie

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 0 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-06-17

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