Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, whose popularity as a War of 1812 hero inspired the naming of Ripley County when it was formed in 1818, was born April 15, 1782, in Hanover, New Hampshire. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1800, practiced law in Maine, and served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate. After the War of 1812 began, he joined the U.S. Army and took part in battles including Sackett's Harbor, Crysler's Farm, Lundy's Lane, and the Siege of Ft. Erie. He rose to brigadier general and received the Congressional Gold Medal. In the 1820s he left the military, continued in politics, and moved to Louisiana, where he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from the state's 2nd District from 1835 to 1839. He died March 2, 1839, in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, and was buried in Locust Grove Cemetery in St. Francisville, Louisiana.