Ripley, John Bingham

Ripley, John Bingham, a Presbyterian minister, was born in Ellsworth township, Mahoning Co., O., April 18, 1824. He was converted when eighteen years of age; graduated at Jefferson College, Pa., in 1846, and at the Theological Seminary at Princeton, N.J., in 1850. His labors in the ministry began in Burlington, N.J., where he was invited to settle, but did not do so. He subsequently accepted an agency from the American and Foreign Christian Union, and labored in Ohio and Michigan. He was ordained and installed by the Philadelphia Presbytery as pastor of the Mariners' Church, Philadelphia, in 1854, and here he continued to labor until his death, March, 1862. This was a very interesting charge. The sailors were his friends, and nothing that he could do for them by the instrumentality of books, visits, letters of entreaty, and prayer was ever omitted. He sought the mariner at the tavern, the cellar, the refectory, the boarding house, the sailors' home, and on board of ship. Besides many articles in the religious press, he was the author of several works, viz.: — Thoughts for the Forecastle: — Seven Diamonds: — Plain Words for Young Men, besides several Tracts. See Wilson, Presb. Hist. Almanac, 1863, p. 200. (J.L.S.)