Ripon

By John P. Mangelos and Ripon Historical Society

Like California, the valley town of Ripon owes it beginnings to early adventurers. A group of Mormons looking for the “Promised Land” in 1846 were the first Europeans to settle along the Stanislaus River near Ripon. In 1850, another adventurous early pioneer, William H. Crow, settled in the region, and the first school to be established in the county was subsequently named for him 12 years later, in 1862. William H. Hughes purchased 1,300 acres in 1857, and in 1872, he gave the railroad a right-of-way and provided land for the depot known as Stanislaus Station. Amplias B. Crook, postmaster of this station, proposed in 1874 to rename the community in honor of his hometown, Ripon, Wisconsin. Hence California’s Ripon was established on December 21, 1874.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439640548

John P. Mangelos

Lifelong Ripon resident John P. Mangelos worked with the archives of the Ripon Historical Society to create this volume of vintage images. His hope is to bring the past to life in the present and to ignite a desire for future generations to embrace the great values upon which Ripon was founded.

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INTRODUCTION

The first Europeans to take up land along the Stanislaus River near where the Ripon settlement would develop were a group of Mormons under the leadership of Samuel Brannan in 1846. Sailing from New York, the party of 231 landed in San Francisco and immediately tripled the local population. Setting out by boat, they established a settlement, which they called New Hope, and planted the first wheat crop in the county. The Mormons abandoned their settlement after flooding in January 1847 inundated the country around their encampment. In May 1851, Henry Grissim took up the land that the Mormons had abandoned, selling in turn to W. H. Lyon, who sold it to H. B. Underhill.

Several ferry crossings were established along the Stanislaus River near where Ripon would be established. Murphy’s Ferry was established in 1865 by John Murphy, a Canadian who had come to California during the Gold Rush, mining in the vicinity of Sonora and Columbia in Tuolumne County. He became a naturalized citizen on March 21, 1859, at the district court of Tuolumne County. Unfortunately, Murphy lost an arm during his gold mining days. He was an innocent bystander when a miner, arguing with a colleague over a mining claim, pulled out his pistol and shot at his adversary. Murphy, in trying to deflect the shot, was instead wounded in the arm. The poor medical care he subsequently received necessitated the amputation of the damaged limb, and Murphy became known as One Arm John Murphy to differentiate him from others sharing the same name.

Murphy eventually acquired over 9,000 acres of land around the Salida area in nearby Stanislaus County. In 1867, he petitioned the board of supervisors of San Joaquin County for permission to build a road from his ferry across the Stanislaus to Tuolumne City. He wanted to provide a shorter route for area farmers who needed to connect with water transport to Stockton. In 1870, he made an additional petition for a road south to the San Joaquin Valley railroad, thence to a point on the Tuolumne River known as Davis’ Ferry. The development of a 30-foot-wide road was granted, and this route would eventually become part of U.S. Highway 99.

In 1869, railroad surveyors began to plan their route between Stockton and Fresno. They ran their route directly toward the old Murphy’s Ferry crossing of the Stanislaus River. By April 1872, the rail line had been completed between Stockton’s waterfront and the South bank of the Stanislaus River, about a half-mile below Murphy’s Ferry, running through land owned by William H. Hughes, who granted rights of way across his property.

A principal commercial street began to develop through Ripon by the 1880s. It was here that the town’s first commercial structures were erected. The street was not entirely devoted to commercial buildings, however, and through the years, dwellings were either demolished or relocated to make way for the central business district’s development. Substantial brick structures were constructed, commencing with the Riddle Building, which housed the Odd Fellows from 1884 to 1886. John W. Riddle of Ripon employed the services of Beasley and Costellow to design his prominent building in 1884. Charles Beasley and Wingfield G. Costellow were partners in the Stockton architectural firm. Their plan called for a two-story brick structure, with the lower floor used by Riddle for a store, and the second story divided into a meeting hall and anterooms. This structure represented the first brick building constructed in all of Ripon apart from warehouses.

The brickwork on the handsome structure was completed in early October 1884. In the 1884–1885 Stockton City Directory, an advertisement appears for the Ripon Brick Store with J. W. Riddle as proprietor and postmaster. He ran an enterprise offering general merchandise, dry goods, clothing, furnishing goods, groceries, etc. This building would later house Thomson Brothers.

The South San Joaquin Irrigation District was formed in 1908, and as irrigation was introduced, the area diversified from just dry farming (mainly grain) and cattle grazing to alfalfa, dairy cattle, grapes, peaches, apricots, figs, olives, corn, melons, tomatoes, and almonds. The almond, which is the crop the Ripon region is identified with today, was introduced near Ripon on a trial basis about 1900 by J. P. Watkins.

As a result of this advancing prosperity, an enthusiastic meeting of local residents was held in the Odd Fellows Hall in 1909 to organize a local board of trade. James S. Moulton presided, and Arthur Roberts was elected president; Stewart Thompson, vice-president; T. H. Uren, secretary; and Willard Porter, treasurer. The board of directors was comprised of Frank McKee, J. S. Moulton, Henry Groves, E. Goodwin, and Frank Hutchinson. The objective of this group was to improve the town, to encourage the coming of needed industries in that section and to induce people to settle within the new irrigation district. It was decided to send an automobile to the Gold Rush of 1949 celebration in Stockton to advertise Ripon’s virtues to potential investors.

The promotion started paying off in 1910 when the Bank of Ripon was constructed. Designed by Stockton architect Walter L. King, the structure added a handsome facade to the northeast corner of Main and Stockton Streets. James Moulton was its first president.

In 1910, the town boasted a church, a grammar school, a bank, three general merchandise stores, a hardware store, a drugstore and resident physician, a meat market, ice plant, two hotels, a plumbing shop, a livery stable, a blacksmith shop, a barbershop, a lumberyard, two hay and grain warehouses, skimming and cream-receiving station, a post office, and a telephone office with three rural lines running into the county.

The Ripon Record was established in April 1911 by A. J. Shaw and was sold to C. A. McBrian