The first fundraiser for Rippey’s 150th birthday celebration will be on Saturday, August 24, beginning at 5:30, with a free will donation meal of pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, chips, bars, and a beverage.
The Town and Country Band will be providing toe tapping music on the lawn of the Rippey Community Room at 6:30, 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 for its sesquicentennial on August 1, 2020. This fact may seem surprising to some Greene County residents, as 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. A subscription (they paid to attend) institution where up to 60 young men between the ages of 10 and 25 were enrolled. Thirty two of those men enlisted with their teacher Azor Mills into 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 Rail Road route.
This is your invitation to enjoy a slice of Iowa in Rippey on Saturday evening.
– Mary Weaver