Ridge Spring is populated by descendants of early settlers as well as others drawn by its beauty and friendly people. A public road opened in 1770 connecting the village to nearby cities, and a 1771 document reveals that King George awarded a land grant to settler John Anderson, but the town was not incorporated until 1882. Its name comes from the natural ridge on which the town sits and the spring behind Ridge Spring Baptist Church. The land has been farmed since the 1700s, and in the 1900s local orchards produced the first commercially grown peaches in the Southeast. Today the area is home to the nation's third largest peach producer, and its rich soil also yields pecans, soybeans, asparagus, wheat, cotton, and other crops. The railroad, completed by 1861, still links the village with other markers.