Ripley Maine

An Abundant Way of Life

2011-03-01T21:01:00.002-05:00

I found an additional agricultural schedule that was attached to the US Federal Census.

It lists the names of the farmers in a town and what they produced on their farms in the past year.

The amount of data was overwhelming.

I have started with 1860, which is the first year this information was gathered at census time. The information reported was for the year starting on July 10, 1959, and ending on July 10, 1860.

I have included images of the original documents..........

as usual....click on the images to make them larger...........

I also organized the data into a more readable table format.......
The farmers are listed in alphabetical order.......

I knew that our forefathers grew many things they needed. After looking over these Ripley farms and what they produced, I have a better understanding of how truly self sufficient they were.

There were 12 thousand 8 hundred and 30 POUNDS of butter produced in our town in a year!!! I think that is amazing.

Tripp Road, -- Ripley, Somerset, Maine

2009-10-15T05:55:00.022-05:00

It occurred to me to ask the question: Why is it called the “Tripp Road”?

Is the answer “because the Tripp family lived on it? If so Where? And When…..

I knew the Tripp Cemetery was located on the Tripp road – or was it?

When I went to take some pictures, I realized it was the John Goodale cemetery.

When I looked at the stones, I realized that there was only one Tripp buried there – Lucy Ann Goodale Tripp, wife of Pascal Tripp.

I guess I needed to dig deeper. The first Tripp I found in the U.S. Census Records was William Tripp.

Rev. William Tripp,

Was a son of William and Keziah (Thompson) Tripp, was born in Sanford, Maine June 17, 1794. His father was a Revolutionary War soldier. He spent his boyhood and early life in his native town and in adjoining towns. He worked on his father’s farm and learned the shoemaker’s trade, at which he worked more or less for years after he entered the ministry. At the age of sixteen he was converted. He was first a Freewill Baptist, and later became a Methodist and at the age of twenty was an exhorter (evangelist). During the War of 1812, he was a soldier, and received a pension for his service. In 1817, he bought a small farm in Bethel, and became a local preacher. Fourteen years later he sold out, and joined the Conference as a traveling Elder. In 1836, he settled in Cambridge, Maine as a local preacher, and in 1839 on a farm in Harmony. During his five-year residence there he served one year in the legislature. In 1844, he bought a farm in Ripley, Maine, where he spent the remainder of his days working and preaching as he had in other places.

The Maine Register of 1856 lists three ministers living in Ripley: William Tripp (Freewill Baptist), Simon E. Ricker and Oakes Kingman.

Rev. William Tripp died in Harmony, February 22, 1875.

He is buried in the West Ripley Cemetery.

He was twice married. By his first wife, Lucy Tebbetts, of Wolfborough, New Hampshire, whom he married January 3, 1814, he had three children. William, the oldest, at one time president of the Maine Senate, became a lawyer and removed to South Dakota. His second wife was Naamah Bartlett. She was the daughter of Enoch and Anna (Hall) Bartlett of Bethel, Maine and was born October 13, 1798. They married September 17, 1822, and had four sons and four daughters. Rev. Tripp’s sons were Enoch B., (who moved to Utah) , Robert, who was a trader in Harmony, Paschal M., who was killed in the Civil War, and Bartlett, who was born in Harmony July 4, 1842. Bartlett graduated from Colby College in 1861. He was Chief Justice of the Territory of Dakota, US minister to Austria, and was a lawyer in South Dakota.

From – The History of Bethel, Maine 1661 – 1900 by Edwin Emery

William Morrell Emery Publisher 1901 by New York Public Library.

William Tripp bn. 17 June 1794 Sanford, ME d. 22 February 1875 Harmony, ME

Buried in West Ripley Cemetery

Married 1. Lucy Tibbetts 1789 – 1822 of Wolfboro, NH

Children:

Sarah -- -- 1815 - 1910

William –1818 - 1878

Lucinda – 1820 – 1823

Married 2. Naamah Hall Bartlett on 17 Sept 1822

Naamah bn. 1798 – d. 9 Oct.1874

Children:

Enoch 1823 - 1909

Robert 8 June 1825 – 30 September 1890 buried in West Ripley Cemetery

Lucy Ann 1827 – 1910 married Richard Nutter Jr.

Paschal 29 Dec 1829 - 1863

Naamah 1834 - 1834

Susan Allen 1836 - 1910

Bartlett 15 July 1839 - 1911

Julia Francis 1843 – 1903

When I followed the William Tripp family through the census records, I realized that according to their neighbors on each side (Jones and Trafton) they didn’t live on the Tripp road. They lived on what is now Rte. 154 near Todd’s Corner.

U.S. Federal Census 1850 Ripley, Somerset, Maine
(Remember that clicking on an image will enlarge it)

U. S. Federal Census, 1860 Ripley, Somerset, Maine

In the 1870 Census, only William and Naamah remained in their home near Todd’s Corner.

I went to my maps, to verify the location of the homestead…

In this close-up of the Todd’s corner area, you can see where Rev. Tripp’s home was…it is the third red dot from the left. (between Jones and Trafton!)

So, the William Tripp family didn’t live on the Tripp Road. I scanned the map and Census Records for more Tripps.

In Ripley Village, near Rogers Pond, I found a P.Tripp .

After checking the 1860 US Census records, I determined that this was Paschal and LucyAnn Goodale Tripp.

Paschal M. Tripp, of Ripley Maine married Lucy Ann Goodale, also of Ripley on 27 May 1857. Lucy was born 12 March 1837. They had one son, Clarence Eugene who was born 29 June 1860.

Paschal enlisted in the Union Army on 29 August 1862 at the age of 32. He was in the 20^th Maine Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to Full Corporal in1863 and died on the field in the Battle of Gettysburg on 3 July 1863. He was buried on the field.

In 1870 Lucy and Clarence were living with her parents in Ripley. She was listed as working in a cotton mill, and Clarence at 9 was working on the farm.

Lucy died 3 Jan 1888.

Lucy A. Goodale Tripp & Paschal M. Tripp

Children:

Clarence Eugene – b. 29 June 1860

Here was a TRIPP living on the Tripp Road!

C. E. Tripp eventually inherited the Goodale farm. It was located on the Tripp Rd. to the North of the Goodale Cemetery.

This was a large farm. There was frontage on Rogers Pond, and it abutted his uncles’ land to the South. (but that is another story)

C. E. Tripp married Martha Ida Prescott c.1883

Martha bn. 22 Oct 1859. She was a Ripley schoolteacher. She taught in both the West Ripley, and Head-of –the Pond schools.

Clarence was a prosperous dairy farmer. He was a breeder of Holstein-Friesian dairy cows. He was a member of the Maine Dairymen’s Association, Vice President of the Sebasticook Valley Holstein Breeders Association and had a registered herd with the Holstein-Friesian Cattle Association of America.

He served the town of Ripley as Treasurer and Selectman. The Tripp road may have been named after him. It may have been named in honor of a famous Ripley Civil War casualty…..Does anyone know for sure?

In the course of my research for this piece, I found an interesting story written by William Tripp’s son, Enoch. It is taken from: A History of Utah in Four Volumes – Biographical Vol. IV by Orson Ferguson Whitney. Pub. George Q. Cannon & Sons Co 1904

An abbreviated version follows…..

1886 Town Report

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These are the scanned images of the pages in the 1883 Ripley, Maine Town Report.
CLICK on images to make them larger.

Dorothy Woodcock -C. 1948

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Dorothy L. Woodcock was born in Ripley, Maine in 1913.
Her parents were Milton and Lois Peakes Woodcock.

1947 Fire Response

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In October of 1947, there were many forest fires in the State of Maine, 200,000 acres od forest land burned. In response, the men of Ripley formed four forest fire crews, each with a Deputy Fire Warden in charge.

The Fire Warden was John H. Gordon. His deputies were: James M. Laughton, Albert L. Sevey, Linwood "Tim" Haseltine and William Glidden.

{click on image to enlarge}

1830 Population and School Districts

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By 1830

The population of the Town of Ripley had grown to six hundred forty-five (645) individuals. There were three hundred thirty-five (335) males and three hundred ten (310) females. About half of the inhabitants of the town were age

0 - 15 years. Because of the number of young people, by the mid 1830's there were six school districts in the town.

An account of how the District 1 School came to be built still exists:

"To the Selectmen of Ripley

We the subscribers in the inhabitants of said town belonging to District No. 1 request you to establish a place to erect a school house in said District 1 near the center of the same.

Moses Bane
Jonathan Dickey
Francis Frost
Samuel Emery
Samuel Emery Jr.
Joseph Butler
Edward Leavitt Jr.

Ripley June the 18th 1823
This May entify that we have attended to the Location of the place for a schoolhouse in District No. 1 acording to a Request from Samuel Emery and others and we have Asertained the Distance as Near as we can by the plan and find the most convenient and central place for the said house at the corner of the old county and South Roads Near the House of Samuel Emery Jr. in said District to the Superentending School Committee of said district.

Elisha Bane
Joseph H. Perkins Selectmen of Ripley" (sic)

{click on images to enlarge}

The location of this school was on Dickey Hill on the "South Road" (this is now Rte. 154). By looking at the map, you can see where it was located in relation to West Ripley Cemetery. When traveling down the hill you can still see where the "Old County Road" used to meet the "South Road". Some of the names of the families who requested the school can be seen on the map. This school was known as the "Hillside School". The schoolhouse was later moved to the Laughton Farm on the "Laughton Road" now the Chadbourne Road.

Census of 1820, Ripley, Maine

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Ripley Census of 1820

In comparing the 1810 and 1820 census reports, we find that the population of Ripley has more than doubled from 117 to 325 in ten years. Of the original 24 settling families, 12 remain. These are: Cyphers, Davenport, Dickey, Emery, Fish, Hale, Leavitt, Libby, McFadden, Page, Randall and Sturgis.

Maine has separated from Massachusetts to become a state.

The Headings of the form are as follows:

Names of Heads of Families/ Free White Males/ Free White Females/ Foreigners not naturalized/ Numbers of Persons Engaged in Agriculture/ Numbers of Persons Engaged in Commerce

Under Free White Males the distinctions are as follows:
Under 10/ 10 and under 16/ between 16 and 18/ 16 and under 26/ 26 and under 45/ 45 and over

Under Free White Females the distinctions are as follows:
Under 10/ 10 to 16/ 16 and under 26/ 26 and under 45/ 45 and over

The 50 Heads of household in Ripley, Somerset County, Maine in 1820 are: (alphabetically)

Moses Bane
Joseph Butler
Metiah Cobb
Nathan Clark
Elijah Clark
*David Cyphers
Andras Cobb
William Dunlop
*John Deavanport
*Jonathan Dickey
Thomas Downing
Atkins Elice (Ellis)
John Emery
*Samuel Emery
*Browning Fish
Francis Frost
William Hoit (Hoyt)
Thomas Horn
*Jacob Heald Esq. (Hale)
Elijah Hambleton (Hamilton)
Earron Harris (Aaron)
Forrist Hatch (Forest)
Jonathan Hambleton (Hamilton)
Jessie Hambleton (Hamilton)
Jonathan Jones
Fosse Hambleton (Foss Hamilton)
John Jones
Zachens? Judkins
Benjamin Kimble (Kimball)
Ephraim Knowles
Abigail Jackman
Charles Leighton
Samuel Leavitt
*Edward Leavitt
Abraham Littlefield
Moses Leighton
*Winston Libby
Bela P. Morse
*James McFadden
William Hopkins
Edward Perry
*Josiah Page
Ephraim Pettengill
*David Randall (Daniel)
John Roggers (Rogers)
James Roggers (Rogers)
*David Sturgis
Samuel Sparr
Polly Thurstin (Thurston)
John Todd
Joseph Tyler
George Wild
Jonathan Watson
Ephraim Watson
Richard C. Roggers (Rogers)

* designates H. of Household from 1810 Ripley census.

Welcome to the Ripley, Maine Blog

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This blog contains historical Information and images from private collections featuring:

Ripley, Somerset County, Maine

from 1800 to the present.

This is a view of Ripley Village looking North from Water Street. Left to right are: Dot Hanson's General Store, Nora Hamilton's Dry Goods Store (which later also included the Crocker Free Library), horse stables, and Edgar Ramsdell's General Store. Two of the children in the foreground are Willie and Edgar Cross.

Ripley Census of 1810

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Ripley Census of 1810

Still a part of the State of Massachusetts….Ripley was known as Township Number 5 in the Fifth Range in the District of Maine.

This list comprises the first settlers of this township. Many of these men were taking up land grants given to them for service in the Revolutionary War. Some of them were sons or relatives of veterans of The War of Independence and were settling on grants purchased from others. There are 24 Heads of Household listed. The total population was 117 persons.

The Headings of the form are as follows:

Names of Heads of Families Free White Males Free White Females All Other Free Persons Slaves

Under "Free White Males" and Free WhiteFemales" the distinctions are as follows:
Under 10/ 10 thru 15/ 16 thru 25/ 26 thru 44/ 45 and over

Names included in this census* in order recorded and as spelled are:

Thomas Horn
Browning Fish
David Sturges
John H. Tucker
Stephen Tucker
Silas Emery
Joseph Gray
Isiah Brooks
John Gray
Nathan Burton
John Davinport
David Cyphers
David Maloon
Samuel Emery
Josiah Page
Daniel Randal
Edward Levitt
Abijah Sturtrvant
Jonathan Dickey
Nahemiah McDaniel
James McFadden
Winston Libby
Jacob Hale
Jonnas Field *Census conducted by Jacob Hale

For example:

Jacob Hale’s household consisted of himself (he was between the ages of 26 – 34), 2 males under 10 years of age, 1 female under 10, and one female 16 – 25.

The first white child born in T5 R5 was Jaal Field. In 1810 there was only one female listed in Jonnas Field's household... she was listed as 10 thru 15. If Jaal survived early childhood, this could be her, and would put her birth c. 1799 - 1800.

Map of Ripley c. 1860

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Ripley, Maine was settled at the turn of the 18th century. Some of the earliest settlers arrived in the late 1790’s. Township 5 Range 5 was an unorganized township North of the Waldo Patent. It was incorporated as a town on December 11, 1816. Maine became a state in 1820. The town was named for Eleazer Wheelock Ripley who was an officer in the War of 1812. On Feb 8, 1834, the northernmost part of Ripley was set aside and incorporated as the town of Cambridge. The East Branch of the Sebasticook River or “Maine Stream” forms the boundary between the two towns.
Ripley is , therefore, the Southern half of an original 6 mile square township.

**If you click on the picture it will give you a larger view.

Winter 1912

2007-01-15T12:26:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of Alvin and Daniel Randall. It is taken at the Randall farm in Ripley, Maine c. 1912. Alvin was born in 1894, his brother Dan in 1907. They were the sons of Mellen Alvin Randall and Estelle Crockett Randall. This view was taken looking north towards Cambridge. Note how clear the land was. It is all wooded now. Alvin lived most of his life in Ripley. He died in 1979.

1882 News Article

2007-01-14T16:57:00.000-05:00

This article from the Lewiston Evening Journal is from 1882. The article gives you a brief snapshot of what life was like in Ripley, in the winter.