RIPLEY, Ohio — Ohio Governor Mike DeWine visited the Rankin House Thursday morning in Ripley, along with some of his younger grandchildren for the last day of a three day trip around southern Ohio.
The Rankin House was home to Presbyterian Abolitionist John Rankin and his family and was built in 1828. The house was one of the original stops on the Underground Railroad, and partly inspired some of the story which became Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
DeWine said he has visited the Rankin House in the past with his family and it is one of his and his wife, Fran’s, favorite places to visit.
“Fran and I have not been here since the (Welcome Center) has been built and since there’s really any been the renovation here or the restoration here, so we wanted to have the opportunity to see that.”
When he and his family arrived DeWine’s grandchildren, and several other kids who were in the right place at the right time, were first given a lesson of the underground railroad and its importance to the abolitionist movement during the era of slavery in America.
The group then left the Welcome Center, where the tour began, and headed toward the Rankin House itself, all the while the group was taught about the Ohio River and how different the body of water had been in the past. Betty Campbell, Site Manager for the Rankin House, said the Ohio River was much more narrow and shallow before dams had come in to change that, which made travelling the river much easier for slaves escaping to the north.
Once inside the house, the group then learned of the Rankin family and their efforts to assist escaping slave find their freedom in the face of vengeful masters and bounty hunters. The group also took a chance to look out from the hill that the house sits on to see Ripley and the Ohio River below.
“It’s been great,” DeWine said. “First of all, it’s a spectacular view of the Ohio River, second, the story of the Rankin family is really an inspiring story and it’s a story that we need to continue to tell and it’s a story that children need to hear.”
Campbell said that having DeWine stopping by to visit the Rankin House, shows to her that he understands the value and importance of tourism and it’s relation to economic development.
“We’re so pleased that the governor and his family are here today and he understands the importance of tourism, and what we’re talking about here today is heritage tourism, which is the fastest growing segment of tourism in the United States.”
To DeWine, this trek around southern Ohio with his family, along with being for leisure, is one of the ways he tries to bring places like the Rankin House into the forefront of people’s minds and to promote what Ohio has to offer.
“This is a personal trip, but it’s also a trip where we’re trying to showcase Ohio,” DeWine said. “Fran and I travel a lot in the state, going to different places and trying to take some of these pictures from today and put up on our web page. As we promote Ohio tourism, if you look at Brown County, Adams County and Scioto County, there’s a great potential for tourism in this part of the state. The biodiversity, for example, is just phenomenal in these southern Ohio counties so for people who like to hike, people who care about the outdoors, but it’s also got great historical sights such as the Rankin home. So we just have a lot more potential for tourism”
