John Rankin (abolitionist)

John Rankin (February 4, 1793 - March 18, 1886) was a Presbyterian minister, educator and abolitionist. Upon moving to Ripley, Ohio in 1822, he became known as one of Ohio's first and most active "conductors" on the Underground Railroad. Prominent pre-Civil War abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe were influenced by Rankin's writings and work in the anti-slavery movement.

"Freedom's Heroes"

In 1892, six years after his death, a monument to John Rankin and his wife, Jean Lowrey, "Freedom's Heroes", was dedicated on the grounds of the cemetary in Ripley.

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