JOSIAS R. RIPLEY. The present police magistrate of Staunton, was born at Alton, July 18th, 1836. His father, George Ripley, was born in Virginia, and when a boy (his parents having died) came to Illinois with an uncle, Tilman West. He grew up in St. Clair county near Belleville. At Edwardsville, he married Martha P. Randle, who was born in Georgia, near Savannah, and was the daughter of the Rev. Josias Randle. Her father settled at Edwardsville, Illinois, in 1818, and was the first recorder of Madison county after its organization. In 1837 he moved from Edwardsville to St. Clair county, and in 1848 came to Staunton, Macoupin county, and in 1849 moved to a farm in Madison county, two miles south of Staunton, where he died August 5th, 1855. Josias R. Ripley, was the second of five children. He attended school at the various places where his father lived, and in the winter of 1856-7 was a student at Marshall College in Clark county, Illinois, to which part of the state his mother had removed in the fall of 1856. In the fall of 1858 the family came back to the farm in Madison county. Mr. Ripley was living there till March, 1864, when he entered the Quartermaster's department of the Seventh Army Corps, as clerk in which capacity he served till August, 1866. During this time he was stationed at Little Rock, and at Duvall's Bluff on the White river in Arkansas. The last year of his term of service he acted as Quartermaster's agent.

After his return from the army in 1866 he was farming in Madison county till 1873. He was in southeast Missouri till January, 1875, when he became a resident of Staunton, where he has since acted as agent for the United States express company. April, 1878, he was elected Police magistrate, and the following November, received a commission as Notary Public. He is also the representative of several insurance companies. He was married August 6th, 1868, to Miss Sarah M. Sturges, of Montgomery county, Illinois, a daughter of Isaac Sturges. He has four children. He has been a republican in politics. On the construction of the Toledo, Wabash and Western railway in 1870, he was appointed one of the commissioners to condemn the right of way through Madison county. He is a member of Staunton Lodge, A.F. & A.M. No. 170, and Staunton chapter, No. 116.