River Mile: 417

Population: 1,591

U.S. Census Profile

Col. James Poage laid out the town of Staunton in 1812 on land he received in a grant to veterans of the American Revolution. Four years later the town was renamed for Gen. Eleazar Wheelock Ripley, a hero of the War of 1812. Because of its location on the river, across from the slave state of Kentucky, Ripley became a key point in the Underground Railroad, with Black and White residents establishing a network to help enslaved people find freedom. Among several important abolitionists who called Ripley home, the Rev. John Rankin was famous for signaling to escaping slaves with a lantern on a flagpole at his house, where he would provide shelter and which stands to this day as a National Historic Landmark. It is estimated over 2,000 people seeking freedom stayed with the Rankin family.