Duane Bullard

Tippah County (Images of America) Duane Bullard

Tippah County received its Chickasaw name as one of the 10 original counties formed from the Chickasaw Session of 1832. Ripley, the county seat, was named in honor of Gen. Eleazar Wheelock Ripley, a Congressional Gold Medal holder and War of 1812 hero. As is typical of many early Southern settlements, Ripley was built in the form of a square with a courthouse as its center. The first railroad was chartered in 1859 but was not completed until after the Civil War in 1871. The railroad was owned by Col. William C. Falkner, the great-grandfather of Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner, who also lived in Ripley as a child. The county averages more than 30,000 visitors per month who visit the 50-acre traders location. The market has never missed a First Monday weekend since it began on July 4, 1893. The county is very proud of its past and excited about its future.