History
From the Natchitoches Trail to the Current
In 1864 Union troops burned nearly all of Doniphan, but a county official had already hidden the records in a cave. This is the story of a border county on the Current River.
River and forest
A bluff on the Current
Ripley County sits on the Arkansas line where the Ozark hills meet the lowlands, with the Current River running through its middle. Lemuel Kittrell homesteaded on a bluff above the river’s east bank as early as 1819, and that bluff became Doniphan, the county seat. The old Natchitoches Trail, a Native American route to the Southwest that pioneers including Stephen F. Austin followed, crossed the county.
Much of the county is in the Mark Twain National Forest today, and the lower Current, below the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, is still the center of things: a wide, clear river for floating, with Forest Service campgrounds at Float Camp and Deer Leap just above town.
Founding and early years
A county seat on a bluff
Ripley County was organized on January 5, 1833, and named forBrig. Gen. Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, an officer in the War of 1812. Its seat, Doniphan, grew up on a bluff above the east bank of the Current River.
The Civil War
Hidden records and a burned town
Ripley County was border country between Missouri and Confederate Arkansas, and armies and raiders crossed it throughout the war; 1863 saw the most activity, as one side or the other fought for control. Seeing what was coming, county official William Russell took the record books out of the courthouse and hid them in a cave south of town.
On September 19, 1864, as Gen. Sterling Price’s Confederates crossed into Missouri through the county to begin the last great raid of the war in the state, Union troops under Lt. Erich Pape burned the courthouse and almost all of Doniphan. The records survived in their cave until the county clerk brought them back two years after the war, and the county didn’t build a new courthouse until 1871.
Doniphan
The county seat on its bluff over the Current. Almost the whole town burned on September 19, 1864, and it was rebuilt after the war around the courthouse square.
Naylor and Fairdealing
Towns in the county’s eastern lowlands, toward the Butler County line.
The Current River country
Ripley County was the doorway from Arkansas: Price’s army of 1864 came into Missouri through it.
Since the war
A courthouse, a tower, and a heritage museum
The courthouse Ripley County built in 1898–99 still stands on the square, though a 1929 tornado took its central tower; it’s on the National Register, and its centennial was celebrated at the 1999 Labor Day homecoming. Across the street, the Current River Heritage Museum keeps the county’s story, from Civil War swords to fishing gigs.
Much of the county is national forest now, and the Forest Service’s campgrounds along the Current and at Fourche Lake are favorite places to camp and float.
Keeping the history
See it for yourself
See the 1898 courthouse on the square in Doniphan, visit the Current River Heritage Museum across the street, and float the Current from Deer Leap or Float Camp into town.
The Ripley County Historical Society meets the second Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Doniphan Community Center.
Plan a visit
Current River Heritage Museum
The county’s free history museum, across from the courthouse in Doniphan, with two floors of local history and the well-known frog diorama.
- Location
- 101 Washington Street, Doniphan, MO 63935
- Phone
- (573) 996-5298
- Hours
- Weekdays 10 a.m.–3 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.–noon (latest listing). Call ahead.
Verify before relying on this. Compiled from Wikipedia, the Ripley County MOGenWeb history pages, and the U.S. Forest Service. Dates vary between sources.
