Edward Payson Ripley (October 30, 1845 – February 4, 1920), sometimes referred to as Edward P. Ripley or E. P. Ripley, was the fourteenth president of the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and ...

Youth and education

Ripley was born on October 30, 1845, in

Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester (colloquially referred to as Dot) is a Boston neighborhood comprising more than in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester ...

. Although his family had settled in the American colonies as early as 1638, his family's most prestigious quality was that there were nine

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

s in his ancestry. Ripley attended public schools, entering the workforce in 1862 at a dry goods merchant's in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Six years later, Ripley started his first job for a railroad as a freight agent for the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

. After two years, he transferred to the

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...

as a clerk. He worked his way up through various positions including New England agent, general eastern agent, general freight agent, traffic manager and finally general manager. In 1890 Ripley left the Burlington for a few years to work for the

Milwaukee Road The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experienced ...

Santa Fe leadership

On December 1, 1895, as the

emerged from receivership, Ripley became the Santa Fe's president. After the financial scandals that brought on the railroad's bankruptcy in the earlier part of the decade, Ripley had his work cut out for him to restore the public opinion of the railroad. He served as president until January 1, 1920. He is interred at Bronswood Cemetery in Oak Brook,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

Legacy

Liberty Ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...

, hull number 2690, was named ''Edward P. Ripley'' in his honor (see

List of Liberty ships This is a list of Liberty ships, a type of mass-produced cargo ships built to meet inexpensively the United States' World War II maritime transport needs. Because of the large number of entries, the list has been divided into five sections by the ...

Disneyland Railroad The Disneyland Railroad (DRR), formerly known as the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad, is a 3-foot () narrow-gauge heritage railroad and attraction in the Disneyland theme park of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, in the United St ...

locomotive number 2, a

4-4-0 4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four ...

built in 1954 by the Disney shops, was named ''E. P. Ripley'' in his honor.

Ripley, California Ripley is a census-designated place community in east Riverside County. It is located along State Route 78 (SR78) between Palo Verde and Blythe. The area is mostly agricultural lands irrigated by Colorado River water. The elevation is . The popu ...

, is a town named after him and established in 1920 in the endpoint of the California Southern Railroad's (unrelated to the railroad linking San Diego and Barstow) line from

Rice, California Rice, formerly named Blythe Junction, is a former town in the Rice Valley and the southern tip of the Mojave Desert, and within unincorporated area, unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County, southern California. A ...

through

Blythe The name Blythe ( or ) derives from Old English ''bliþe'' ("joyous, kind, cheerful, pleasant"; modern ''blithe''), and further back from Proto-Germanic ''*blithiz'' ("gentle, kind"). People *Blythe (given name), including a list of people named ...

; the line was envisioned to be a shortcut to San Diego. The

Arizona and California Railroad The Arizona and California Railroad is a class III short line railroad that was a subdivision of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF). The ARZC began operations on May 9, 1991, when David Parkinson of the ParkSierra RailGroup purchas ...

last operated trains in this line in 2007 before abandoning most of the line in 2009.

Ripley, Oklahoma Ripley is a town in southeastern Payne County, Oklahoma, United States.

, once on Santa Fe tracks, was also named after him. EP Ripley Park, was established in the heart of Marceline Missouri (Boyhood Hometown Of Walt Disney)in 1898. Walt Disney Hometown Museum Marceline was established by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1888 as a division point between Kansas City and Chicago.

Footnotes

References

* * * 1845 births 1920 deaths Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway presidents Businesspeople from Boston {{US-rail-bio-stub