Colonel James Poage, a veteran of the American Revolution, arrived in the free state of Ohio from Staunton, Virginia in 1804 to claim the 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) he had been granted in what was called the Virginia Military District.

Poage was among a large group of veterans who received land grants in what was first organized as the Northwest Territory north of the Ohio River for their service in the American Revolutionary War, and freed the people that they had enslaved when they settled there.

Poage and his family laid out the town of Staunton in 1812; it was renamed in 1816 to honor General Eleazar Wheelock Ripley,[4] an American officer of the War of 1812.

Given its location on the river, Ripley became a destination for slaves escaping from slavery in Kentucky on the other side.

Both black and white residents developed a network, making Ripley an early stop on the Underground Railroad, to help slaves escape north to freedom.

A number of prominent abolitionists lived in the town in the 19th century, mainly on Front Street near the river.

Rankin was also the minister at the Ripley Presbyterian Church for twenty-four years.

The town is surrounded by steep, rolling hills on the northeast, Red Oak Creek on the southeast, and the Ohio River on the southwest.