Ripon, Wisconsin, USA
Created | Updated Aug 27, 2002
I grew up in Ripon so here are a few facts about the little town.
It tends to be very conservative in politics, being one of the places claiming the founding of the Republican Party also known as the GOP (Grand old Party). When I was young and naive I was a TAR (Teenage Republican; we helped celebrate the 110th anniversary.) The city is settled around several hills and it's original founders were in fact a communistic organization lead by Colonel Mapes. The Long House is still there where the settlement set up their commune. They called the settlement Ceresco and one of the Elementary schools in Ripon in that area is called Ceresco (or was in the 50's and 60's).
My families church there is called St. Peter's Episcopal Church and we celebrated 125 years or some such time marker when I was a young adult. The Bishop from Ripon, England came to join in the celebration. There are several churches in Ripon. St. Patricks and St. Wenseslaws (Roman Catholic), Grace Lutheran, plus many more.
Ripon has a small community hospital (struggling as are all small hospitals these days) that serves the area around Ripon. My father was a physician there for over 30 years. Ripon is in Fond Du Lac county of the State of Wisconsin. For non traveling guide readers the state of Wisconsin is immediately west of Lake Michigan.
Ripon was the home of Speed Queen manufacturing, now a Ratheon company and is still the home of Rippin Good Cookies owned by the Bumby family when I was young.
Ripon College is a small Liberal Arts college founded using Presbyterian and Congregational Church funding. Ground was broken in 1850 for Brockway College and in 1851 a Charter for Ripon Lyceum was granted by the state. January 29, 1851 is the day officially recognized as Founders Day on Campus. In 1868 formal ties to the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches were severed. 1956 WRPN and FM radio station was started on campus. 1964 The Red Barn Theater burned attracting city residents as it burned long into the night. I remember sitting on the hillside above and watching the firement work on the smoldering remains. Windows in the dorms nearby had been distroyed by the heat of the fire. It was quite frightening and amazing as most of us had gone to productions in the theater. I saw my first professional production of Shakespear’s MacBeth there. There is an excellent web site connected with Lane Library that has a cronology for the college.
There is a lovely little creek called Silver Creek that winds through town. There is a pond and dam that are part of the creek and in the spring the creek becomes a furiously roaring torrent which enchanted us as children. The power and roar of the creek in spring is awe inspiring.
Ripon has a festival each summer set to coinside with the 4th of July, called "Riponfest". I live in Oshkosh now about 20 miles northeast of Ripon. My favorite place in Ripon besides the libraries (I'm a librarian) is a place called "South Woods". This is a nature study area owned partially by the college and partially by ????. When I was a child my brother and I spent many Spring, Summer and Fall days wandering in the woods imagining ourselves to be pioneers. The trails in the woods are now mapped and marked (we just wandered)) but it is still a beautiful and relatively easy hike to go on.
It tends to be very conservative in politics, being one of the places claiming the founding of the Republican Party also known as the GOP (Grand old Party). When I was young and naive I was a TAR (Teenage Republican; we helped celebrate the 110th anniversary.) The city is settled around several hills and it's original founders were in fact a communistic organization lead by Colonel Mapes. The Long House is still there where the settlement set up their commune. They called the settlement Ceresco and one of the Elementary schools in Ripon in that area is called Ceresco (or was in the 50's and 60's).
My families church there is called St. Peter's Episcopal Church and we celebrated 125 years or some such time marker when I was a young adult. The Bishop from Ripon, England came to join in the celebration. There are several churches in Ripon. St. Patricks and St. Wenseslaws (Roman Catholic), Grace Lutheran, plus many more.
Ripon has a small community hospital (struggling as are all small hospitals these days) that serves the area around Ripon. My father was a physician there for over 30 years. Ripon is in Fond Du Lac county of the State of Wisconsin. For non traveling guide readers the state of Wisconsin is immediately west of Lake Michigan.
Ripon was the home of Speed Queen manufacturing, now a Ratheon company and is still the home of Rippin Good Cookies owned by the Bumby family when I was young.
Ripon College is a small Liberal Arts college founded using Presbyterian and Congregational Church funding. Ground was broken in 1850 for Brockway College and in 1851 a Charter for Ripon Lyceum was granted by the state. January 29, 1851 is the day officially recognized as Founders Day on Campus. In 1868 formal ties to the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches were severed. 1956 WRPN and FM radio station was started on campus. 1964 The Red Barn Theater burned attracting city residents as it burned long into the night. I remember sitting on the hillside above and watching the firement work on the smoldering remains. Windows in the dorms nearby had been distroyed by the heat of the fire. It was quite frightening and amazing as most of us had gone to productions in the theater. I saw my first professional production of Shakespear’s MacBeth there. There is an excellent web site connected with Lane Library that has a cronology for the college.
There is a lovely little creek called Silver Creek that winds through town. There is a pond and dam that are part of the creek and in the spring the creek becomes a furiously roaring torrent which enchanted us as children. The power and roar of the creek in spring is awe inspiring.
Ripon has a festival each summer set to coinside with the 4th of July, called "Riponfest". I live in Oshkosh now about 20 miles northeast of Ripon. My favorite place in Ripon besides the libraries (I'm a librarian) is a place called "South Woods". This is a nature study area owned partially by the college and partially by ????. When I was a child my brother and I spent many Spring, Summer and Fall days wandering in the woods imagining ourselves to be pioneers. The trails in the woods are now mapped and marked (we just wandered)) but it is still a beautiful and relatively easy hike to go on.
