Red Oak Presbyterian Church is a historic church on Cemetery Road in

Ripley, Ohio Ripley is a village in Union Township, Brown County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River 50 miles southeast of Cincinnati. The population was 1,750 at the 2010 census. History Colonel James Poage, a veteran of the American Revolution, ar ...

. The church was founded in 1798 and was the first church in Brown County. Its building, constructed in 1817, is a one-story vernacular stone building associated with southern Ohio abolitionist Reverend

James Gilliland James Gilliland (11 May 1866 – 27 December 1952) was a British trade unionist. Born in East Rainton, Gilliand grew up in Crook and became a coal miner at an early age. He was elected as a checkweighman at Lintz Green Colliery in 1897, the ...

. Gilliland, along with Ripley reverend John Rankin and West Union reverend Dwyer Burgess, is claimed to have assisted hundreds of escaped slaves, and also preached and held rallies about abolition. The church is listed on the American Presbyterian/Reformed Historic Sites Registry. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1982.

References

Presbyterian churches in Ohio Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Churches completed in 1817 Buildings and structures in Brown County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Brown County, Ohio {{Ohio-church-stub