The first fundraiser for Rippey’s 150th birthday celebration will be held Saturday, Aug. 24 beginning at 5:30 p.m., with a free-will-donation meal of pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, chips, bars and a beverage.
The Town and Country Band will provide toe-tapping music on the lawn of the Rippey Community Room at 6:30 p.m., with a break at mid-concert for a pie auction.
In case of inclement weather, the band will be playing in the Rippey Community Room.
The town of Rippey is planning to celebrate its sesquicentennial Aug. 1, 2020. This fact may seem surprising to some Greene County residents because Grand Junction and Scranton, while further north and west in the county, celebrated this past summer.
Rippey is actually celebrating 165 years as the town of Old Rippey, located about 3 miles west of the current town, was originally the first settled area of Greene County. The first white settler, Truman Davis, and his family lived near there.
The Brand School was located in Old Rippey. It was a subscription institution — they paid to attend — where up to 60 young men between the ages of 10 and 25 were enrolled. Thirty-two of those men enlisted along with their teacher, Azor Mills, in the Civil War, also known as War of the Rebellion.
The town literally picked up some of its houses in 1870 and moved to the east to be on the Des Moines Valley Railroad route.
The public is invited to enjoy a slice of Iowa history in Rippey Saturday evening.
