SIDEROAD: Remarkable Ripleys: Lovina Ripley Wood, Centenarian

Col Judge David C Ripley and wife Easter Griswold

The Ripley's are a family my family married into and adopted into. They also remain one of the most fascinating families in the old tree. They arrived from North Yorkshire in about 1642. One of the grandchildren of William married into the Bradford family who were here with the first Plymouth Rock landing of the Mayflower.

Some branches were far more well-to-do than others, but even those less wealthy were pretty interesting. I put into this group the great great grandfather of my uncle Marvin Ripley, Col Judge David C. Ripley, who lived a grand life of adventure and was a daring early pioneer into Iowa and Colorado. He was a territorial legislator and Ranger in Colorado and was the judge who ruled on the fractious battle for the Floyd County county seat that occurred in the 1850s.

Last photo of Lovina prior to her death

David and his wife had nine children, among them was Lovina, who was born in Gallia County, Ohio on 22 Nov 1822. She married James L. Wood on 15 Jan 1847 in Gallia County. James hailed from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and was born in 1821. In 1865, the couple followed many of her close relatives to Iowa and in 1883, they moved on to Illinois.

They kept moving and ended up in Denison, Texas by 1888. The couple had nine children, three having died, and three of whom settled in the Denison area. Son Asa Wood, DVM, a large animal vet, lived in Marble Rock in Floyd County, Iowa.

Here are a couple of excerpts from an article republished from the Denison Herald in about 1912:

"You will think it's funny, when I tell you, but we were married in jail. This is how it happened. Her father was sheriff and tended the jail and my wife has shut many a prison door behind a prisoner. Well, they lived on one side of the jail and as her father married us, it took place in the jail at Gallipolis. We started housekeeping on rented land without a dollar in the world, but we got along alright. We didn't have to spend so much in those days. I worked ten years for one man. We raised flax to make our own clothes and raised sheep for our woolen ware. My wife carded, spun, and wove many a hundred yards of cloth." The entire article, which was written upon the occasion of them being declared Denison's oldest citizens, is fascinating and posted below.

James died in 1915 at the ripe age of 94, but Lovina continued to be active and alert until past her 100th birthday. Her own statements indicate she never needed to wear glasses to read the paper and according to her family, her memory was great up to the end of her life. She finally passed away on 11 Mar 1923 in Denison. Six of her children survived, ranging in age from 59 to 74.