Sideroads: Charming Charley Ripley

Charles Henry Ripley, 1866

The clan of William Young Ripley was not only tight-knit, but incredibly interesting from a historical perspective. Two were Generals in the Civil War, two were lost at sea (different seas, different years), one would marry and her daughter would marry a General, and one was the adoptive mother of the first woman Chiropractor in Vermont (License #1, issued in 1909). I could go on about the rest of the twigs and branches of this family tree, and hope to share a few of the more interesting.

Charles Henry Ripley was the youngest son of William Young Ripley of Rutland, Vermont and his second wife, Jane Betsey Warren - learn more here

In summary from"With Pen or Sword: Lives and times of the remarkable Rutland Ripleys," by Robert G Steele:

He was a poor student. He was still in school when the war broke out, and was with difficulty restrained by the family from immediately following his brothers into the service. When in the second year of the war, Mr Lincoln issued his call for additional volunteers, the spirited youngster could no longer be kept on a leash. Unlike his brothers, he cared nothing for officer status and the implications of responsibility it carried. Charley signed up for nine months as a private soldier. His first act on receiving his enlistment bounty was to come home and pay, as far as the money went, the debts he had managed to run up in two years of idleness. This gesture prompted his brother William to express the pious hope he would return safely after his service, "free from bad habits."

In October, 1862, not long after William's  return from the battlefields, the younger brother went off to join his regiment, the Twelfth Vermont Infantry. His sister Agnes came home from school to see him off. If Charley Ripley's army career is remarkable for anything, it is for the fact that it did not include any fighting whatsoever. On the way south he had time to do some sightseeing in Washington before his unit was ordered into camp across the river in Virginia. There he was assigned to guard and picket duty at various locations, and to work on the construction of barracks and shelters for troops. In his letters home, his main concerns were getting food sent to him and to keep awake on guard duty, in that order. From Wolf Run Shoals he wrote his sister Mary, "Please send me ten or twleve pounds of butter (put up in a sound wooden box), fifteen or twenty pounds of good strong cheese, two or three gallons of thick maple syrup, a few (say at least a half dozen) mince pies, a few sweet pickled cucumbers or citron or anything else you can get without any trouble. You may think that I have sent for a good deal, but even that amount will not last long down here. The rest of the boys get more boxes from home than I do, and we always share. Button has had as much as 20 pounds of butter and forty pounds of cheese."

Tiring of guard duty, Charley dreamed of the luxury of being an officer, or even a noncom. Edward,  himself a paroled war prisoner at the time, saw a sergeancy opening up in his own regiment and tried vainly to have Charley transferred. 

At the end of his enlistment, he came back home and was mustered out of service 14 Jul 1863. He had earned corporal's chevrons.

Perhaps here is the place to record that for Charley Ripley, the pursuit of happiness was often enhanced by the imbibing of alcoholic spirits Despite the total abstention of their parents, all three of the Ripley boys drank on occasion, but only Charley had difficulty putting on the brakes. 

Charley worked briefly int he office of the marble works, but his heart was not in it. For all his waywardness, Charley was endowed with a special kind of innocent charm which not only attracted strangers to him but also roused the protective instincts of his siblings.
Since no job suited him in Rutland, his parents invented one hoping to keep his adventurous spirit and incurable wanderlust in check. They sent him off to the Wild West of his dreams for the ostensible purpose of investigating the mining possibilities in the Montana territory. In the Spring of 1866, with is mother's bible in is pocket, and gold coins in his moneybelt, with promises to be good, to stay sober and tent strictly to business, Charley Ripley left on his long trip, eager for any adventure.

The story of his trip west can be read starting on page 288 of Pen and Sword. After many months, he returned when his money and credit ran low.

In 1870, he, with his mother's blessing headed West to The Colorado Territory with Henry Strong as his assistant and John Gilliland. He purchased 40 acres of virgin land Las Animas. The ranch took shape over many months. It was hard going and he had to rely on his brothers for financial assistance and for improvements to the ranch. By 1877, he was able to ship steers to market in Kansas City because the trains had arrived. But in 1878 and 1879 Charley experienced a series of losses that would devastate him both emotionally and financially. His days as rancher were coming to an end. He returned to Rutland to determine what would be next.

Eight Modern Views of Famous Places in Tokyo of Great Japan (Dai Nippon Tokyo kaika meisho hakkei no zu), 1875

He boarded a tramp steamer referred to as "Kate" bound for New York with a cargo for Yokohama, Japan.  He was its sole passenger. It made its way around Cape Horn and across the oceans. He arrive in the land of the Empire of the Rising Sun in the spring of 1879 and fell in love. Tokyo had a small colony of Americans and Europeans. He took up residence in a hotel that many of them stayed in. From his home base in Tokyo, but without the slightest intention of keeping to the limits of the cities to which he was restricted by law, Charley set out to explore the interior. Dressed in native garb, he climbed mountains, swam in the lakes, sought out the byways, wandering at will throughout the land. Enemies by edict became his friends by the simple applciation of the Golden Rule. He quickly adapted to the customs of the country and observed all the taboos, thus was welcome everywhere. 

After two years there, he tired of staying in hotels. The income left to him by his father was more than $3,000 per year, and the exchange rate between the dollar and yen was sharply in his favor. He was able to rent a house in Toyko for $9 per month and that he could run it with a man cook and his wife as housekeeper for $9 more. He lived at 33 Tsukji where he lived for the remainder of his life.

He also traveled to neighboring lands like the interior of China, Hong Kong and to Siam and Cambodia and wrote letters back about his travels and adventures, also published in Pen and Sword.

After six years in the Orient Charley planned a return visit to Rutland. He brought gifts and photographs and spent many months visiting old friends and haunts. In the fall of 1886, he said his last farewells to the family and returned contentedly to his adopted country, his faithful servants, his tatami mats, his futon, and his Kiku San (whose duty was to play the samisen).

"A local steamer as old as the hills, lean like a greyhoudn, and eaten up with rust worse than a condemned water tank," This description by Joseph Conrad, in his most famous novel, of the fictional Patna, could as well be applied to the actual Lorne as she lay at anchor alongside the Saigon jetty in November, 1887. The ship's officers were English, the crew polyglot, and for the Patna's Moslem pilgrims, substitute Chinese workers returning to their homeland.

It was typical of Charley Ripley, returning from yet another expedition in India and Siam, to scorn the ease of the regular passenger steamers and take passage on this creaky rust-bucket. Except for the officers, he was the only white man aboard. Cargo loaded at last, the ancient vessel crept slowly out of Saigon harbor. November 29th found her clanking and wheezing as she plowed through the placid South China Sea towards Hong Kong.

Six days later, at midnight, off the coast of Hainan, the Lorne struck an uncharted rock and immediately began to fill. There was instant pandemonium aboard as passengers and crew became panic-stricken and unmanageable. In the efforts to get the lifeboats lowered several were swamped or damaged. Charley worked valiantly and unceasingly with the crew to get the boats filled and free, after which the tackle was cut and they pulled for shore. At the end only five ship's officers and Charley remained on board the sinking ship. The six survivors clung to the keel of the remaining overturned boat, but clung to it in order to remain afloat.

As daylight came, the weakened men dropped off one by one. Charley hung on for more than ten hours, and then slipped away. Only one survived to tell the tale-he had held on for 30 hours.

Sideroads: The Remarkable Ripley's William Young Ripley, Part 2

Vermont Marble Co Quarry, West Rutland,
Vermont about 1865, by Carlos W. Nichols, photographer

See the first part of the story here.

William Young Ripley joined in partnership with a fellow named William F Barnes. Barnes had been the first in the area to marble quarry in about 1840. Marble was used in public building construction and high-end homes. The rich vein of carbonate lime was a boon to the area and the partnership flourished, enriching both, for over a decade. Barnes was the guy in charge of quarrying and Ripley the sawing, cutting, and marketing.

The quarry wasn't far from the Ripley home, called "The Center." As it is described in With Pen and Sword: Lives and Times of the Remarkable Rutland Ripley's, by Robert G. Steele, it had "four chimneys, one at each corner, ample and inviting porches on front and sides of the main building, and behind this a large greenhouse and spacious English garden with gravelled walks between the flower beds radiating from a magnificent elm in the center."

Rutland was the marble center of the state and some even said, of the country. The railroad built a spur into the quarry yard to help transport the marble to banks and courthouses all over the country.

The fruitful partnership came to an end in 1850  when Barnes sold his interest out to Vermont Marble Co. Ripley continue his work under his own name with the marble provided by Vermont Marble. In the meantime, not to rest on his really wealthy laurels, he became president of the Rutland County Bank at age 65. His boys were off serving in the Civil War. Upon their return, he turned the business over to his three sons. Charley, who was ill-suited, left soon thereafter to pursue other adventures. Edward eventually left for New York City, and William Young Warren Ripley remained behind, ultimately selling the marble business to Vermont Marble and Redfield Proctor.His son William also sat on the board of directors and later as president of the Bank.

In 1868, he built an opera house in Rutland.  It's reported in Steele's book to not have been a beautiful building and it may not have been needed in small Rutland, Ripley wouldn't allow it to be used for other musical entertainment, so it became a white elephant. It burned down - with little fanfare - in 1875 about the time he fell and broke his hip. He died at 77 of complications.

Each of his children would forge their own lives and each became an interesting historical subject on their own.  I'll share a couple of stories next.

Sideroads: The Remarkable Ripley's William Young Ripley, Part 1

William Young Ripley was the third child of Nathaniel and Sibbel Huntington Ripley. He was born 13 Dec 1797 in Middlebury, Addison, Vermont.

He never spent a day in school, but he and his sisters and brothers were all educated at home. At 12, he was hired out to a farmer, working at a rate of about 19 cents a day for a month. By 13, he was found buying and selling horses on his own and driving long distances, delivering goods. Thirteen was also his age when his mother died. His father had by this time moved to his own farm in Weybridge.

According to With Pen and Sword: Lives and Times of the Remarkable Rutland Ripley's, by Robert G. Steele, Ripley stated, "I fully expected to be a farmer, and live and die in Weybridge. But on the morning of September 11, 1814, I went up to Middlebury, my worldly possessions being some clothes tied up in a handkerchief. There I hired as clerk for Mr Hager's store for $30 a year, and my board and washing."

His wages grew to the princely sum of $150 and he spent four years with Mr Hager. Now 21, he took his employer's "recommendation"  and character references signed by no less than the governor of Vermont and 34 other noted citizens, and joined his brother Samuel in Charleston, South Carolina.

According to Julia's story in With Pen and Sword, his brother did not greet him warmly, thus leaving William to fend for himself. After a couple of unsuitable job, he went to work for Mr. Bryan at his dry goods store for an annual salary of $450 plus lodging and a good discount.  Within a year, his wages had been raised to $750 and he was able to pay his brother Samuel back the small amount he owed him. While living with the Bryan's he met his future wife, Zulma Caroline Thomas.

Zulma was the daughter of Londoner Jean Jacques Thomas and Susanne De Lacy and was born on 29 Mar 1801. She was orphaned at a young age and was raised by Captain William Hall.

In 1822, William went into business for himself and married his bride on 05 Dec 1822. They boarded

Poet Julia Ripley Dorr

with the Bryan's for several months before purchasing a home for $1,000 - William wanted to owe no man according to his report.  Finally came the birth of their only child, Julia Caroline, on 13 Feb 1825. Julia would grow up to be the famous poet, Julia Ripley Dorr.  William purchased his only slave, Nancy, who was to be a nanny to Julia, but "She did not behave well, and I would not send her to be whipped, as was the custom. She took advantage of this leniency; and so I sold he to get rid of her, for just five dollars more than I paid for her." When they moved to their home on King Street, they had three servants: cook, chamber maid, and nurse. All three were cumulatively paid the princely sum of $22 per month.

Zulma's health was failing so the Ripley's had her bed loaded aboard a steamer in the Charleston Harbor. They made it to New York and then finally reached Nathaniel Ripley's house in Weybridge on 29 Jul 1826. After a brief rally, she died on 02 Aug 1826. According to Julia Ripley Door, "Prominent among the early settlers of Middlebury, were the Youngs and the Warrens, close friends and intimate neighbors of the Ripleys." Both families were in attendance for the Ripleys in those dark days.

Once Zulma was gone, William set about closing up his affairs in Charleston. Julia was left in the care of Mrs Hastings Warren. Julia remembers those two years fondly. By the time her father had established his firm of Ripley, Waldo & Ripley, commission merchants in New York, and had called for his daughter, she had forgotten him. She did adjust and off they went to the home of Mrs Westcott who ran a boarding school for a small group of girls. Julia spent two years there. Then, it was back to Vermont and Grandfather Nathaniel's house. It was there that William announced to her he was remarrying. She was six. The wedding to Jane Betsey Warren, was held  on 10 Feb 1831.

Her first sibling would arrive two years later - William Young Warren Ripley on 31 Dec 1832. Julia again found herself shipped out soon after his arrival to a boarding school in Plattsburgh, run by Mrs Harriet Adams, a sister of "Grandmother Warren." It sounded, from her description, to be a less than happy time spent there.

In 1834, she returned to find a sister, Mary, born 17 Jun 1834. She spent a lot of time from that point forward at the Warren's in Middlebury, attending school in bits and pieces here and there.

William, in the meantime, had wearied of the farm life, having not reached 40. He invested in a glass factory in Lake Dunmore. He also sold the farm and moved to Rutland. Here he would embark on his second and most successful career.

Told in Part 2.

Sideroads: The Remarkable Ripley's - Generation 5/6

David was the son of John Jr./III, born 30 Jul 1744 in Kent County, Rhode Island. He married Susan Priscilla Dunbar on 15 Dec 1764 in Hanover, Plymouth, Massachusetts.  They had five boys, three of whom survived infancy.

David left Massachusetts after 1765 and is found in New York before 1768; there his military service starting before ('colony') 1776 is recorded.

Note that after their marriage which is well documented, David and Priscilla moved to Washington County, New York, and occupied lands which had become opened after the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, and made available as a settlement frontier. This land was formerly occupied by some Loyalist farmers, but mainly by Six Nation Indians who were also largely Loyalists. All of these made their way to Canada, in small family and group treks, under the leadership of Chief Joseph Brant, where they were resettled in a wide swath of hinterland around the Grand River in Ontario, sweeping from Middlesex County in the west, eastward to Fort York, the site of modern Toronto. There is a gap of several years, where records - for both groups - are lacking. This is because they did not yet have organized churches with clergy who made and filed records, and lacked towns with clerks to keep records. Thus records were not kept in an organized way, and cannot now be located readily. The family history shown here has been made of a composite of whatever records could be found, and historical notes and records made from memory, years later. Changes may occur as new records emerge.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~westxan/4759.html

David and Priscilla spent some time in Warren County, then Hoosick, Rensselaer County, and finally settle in Spafford as one of its earliest settlers on land that was referred to as "Ripley Hill." Both he and Priscilla died in Spafford. Their sons James and Jonathan remained in the area and extended the family holdings. Youngest son Joshua becomes part of the next story.

Ohio Association Land Purchase
 (see link at left)

Joshua Ripley, the fourth son of five and third surviving son of David and Priscilla, was born 12 Feb 1772 in Columbia, New York, He married Rhoda Corey in 1793 in Troy, New York. Joshua served with Captain John Griffin's Company in Col Joseph Wilcox's Cavalry Regiment (New York) during the War of 1812. After service, now a Baptist minister he and Rhoda moved to Gallia County, Ohio.

Gallia County, in Southeast Ohio in Appalachia, was first established in 1803 (read more here about how land partitioning and ownership occurred). The Ripley's and John Lee arrived sometime between 1816-1820 (depending on source). They started a branch of the Sandfork Baptist Church and began building their congregation. The first church was built on land donated by the William Smith family in Harrison Township, Gallia County, in section number seven near the junction of Rock Lick Creek, and Big Bullskin creek. This church burnt in 1826 and unfortunately the first record book was destroyed and all records of the first several years of the existence of the church were lost. It is said that the building was built of logs, and that each log was of buckeye timber. The first building was furnished with seats made from split logs and located 11 miles from Gallipolis, in a near due east direction, and it was the first church built on the south side of Gallipolis for more than 30 miles. Some time around 1832, the congregation decided to invite Jacob Ward to be their preacher.

Some of Joshua's children headed West to Iowa in the 1840s. It is believed by some that Rhoda died at Linn Township (not to be confused with Linn County) in 1847.  Census records, of course, didn't call out family members by name prior to 1850. Joshua was in Linn Township in 1850 living with his daughter Roxie Ripley Dovenor's family.  In 1860, at age 87, he was living with the family of son Amos in Patriot. Since we don't know if Rhoda made the trip west, we can assume one of three things: 1) She died in Cedar County but since no death records were kept in those early days, she was buried there and only a stone marked her life in Ripley Cemetery in Gallia County; 2) She died in Cedar County and her body was returned to Gallia County where it was interred in Ripley Cemetery which would have been an arduous journey before rail lines reached the area; or 3) She did not make the trip to Cedar County and the Ripley/Dovenor family's made their trip after her 1847 death and burial in Gallia County. No one seems to know the answer, so the mystery remains unsolved.

This generation would mark the first with ties to Iowa, where roots are still deep.

---

Nathaniel Ripley, son of Joshua, Jr and Elizabeth Lothrop, was born 14 Feb 1768 in Windham, Connecticut. He was four times married. His first wife was Sibel Huntington, the mother of his first seven children. Sibbel was described in With Pen or Sword, The Remarkable Rutland Ripleys by Robert G Steele, as having had white hair at a very young age. She always covered it with a turban to hide it.  Nathaniel did what generations of members of this family had not - he moved.  He settled in Rutland where he purchased land

"Nathaniel was described in the same book as, "He was a tall, spare man, rather severe in aspect, masterful in manner, and very reserved. He had even more than the common New England reticence of that day. What he knew, he knew absolutely. His word was not to be disputed or gainsaid."

"He was a carriage maker and a farmer. I think he was not a successful man financially, because I know that my father, his second son William--supported him for many years, making his last days care-free and happy."

Nathaniel's son William Young Ripley is the next generation we'll focus on, but his other children of Sibbel do bear mentioning, so I do so briefly here:
Samuel Painter Ripley (1792-1857) moved to Charleston, South Carolina and became wealthy. His son Bentham was stationed at Fort Moultrie, Sullivans Island, South Carolina during the Civil War as part of the CSA. The fort fortified Charleston, South Carolina and saw action during the Revolutionary War. It also saw some of the earliest action of the Civil War. Bentham did not marry, dying at age 26.
Julia Ripley (1794-1858) married Jonas Rice and they resided in Bridport, Vermont. Jonas had had three previous wives but still had two daughters with Julia.
Erastus Ripley (1801-1802)
Laura Ripley (1804-1846) was the first wife of Rev Nelson Barbour.
Elizbeth Ripley (1806-1851) married Rev John Stocker and died in Iowa.
George Huntington Ripley (1808-Unknown) During the Texas Revolution, government officials in Washington-on-the-Brazos, decided to establish an official navy. In January 1836, agents purchased four schooners: Invincible, Brutus, Independence, and Liberty. Under the command of Commodore Charles Edward Hawkins they helped win independence by preventing a Mexican blockade of the Texas coast, seizing dozens of Mexican fishing vessels and sending their cargoes on to the Texas volunteer army. By the October of 1837, all of the ships had been lost at sea, sunk by the Mexican Navy, run aground, captured, or sold, and replacements were being procured. It is possible that George died at sea or in battle.

From Pen or Sword, The Remarkable Rutland Ripleys by Robert G Steele. References to Julia Ripley Dorr's earlier book: "George was a gay, debonair young scapegrace, handsome, admired, and fond of leisure and pleasure. Like his brothers, he drifted southward, going to New Orleans. What he did there I never knew. I never saw him but once when he visited the North in 1834, or thereabouts; but I well remember how he looked, and how fine I thought he was. Two years later, whe he was 28, he entered the Texas Navy, and that was the last his family ever knew of him."

Who knew Texas ever had a Navy? I learn something new every day.

I'm going to dedicate an entire post to William Young Ripley, so look for that next.