The history of habitation in the area goes far back, since objects from the Tjonger culture were found.
In 1326, Duke John III of Brabant issued municipal rights over the Bakel Peel to the surrounding communities. The posts that were to indicate the boundaries between the areas assigned to the various municipalities were made of wood, were demolished or were sometimes moved. All this gave rise to conflicts, so that eventually the border was re-established in 1544 by Emperor Charles V. Then, among other things, the Ripse Paal was erected, and this is indicated on a map from 1669. The village is indirectly named after this. [2]
Until the end of the 19th century, the Peel between Bakel and Oploo was one large heathland owned by the municipality of Bakel and Milheeze and used by the inhabitants for pasturing sheep and stabbing peat and turf.
After the borders between Helmond, Aarle, Beek and Bakel were well established in 1864, the municipalities were able to sell the land they owned.
Between 1880 and 1920 a large part of the heath was sold by the municipality to capital owners from other parts of the country. These were exploited, mostly by Heidemij, where a lot of forest was planted. The nature areas Stippelberg and Beestenveld result from this.
In 1871 400 hectares on the Stippelberg were bought by the industrialist Cornelis Carp in Helmond, and in 1874 a certain Huyskes bought another 402 hectares and then founded a farm in 1875 called De Rips. This is named after the former border post.
In 1884, Walther Simon Joseph from Waterschoot van der Gracht, together with the Van Ogtrop family, purchased the Beestenveld measuring 362 hectares, while in 1883 the land of Cornelis Carp was purchased by banker Abraham Hendrik Ledeboer from Twente. He also bought De Sijp in 1895 and built a house on the Stippelberg. In 1899, Walther van Waterschoot bought De Rips van Huyskes estate.
In 1915 the Union Financière et Terrienne also bought land in De Rips. Van Waterschoot sold De Rips, Beestenveld and a part of the Klotterpeel to J. van Dijck, who was a timber trader in Swalmen. This resold it to the Union Financière.
Others also presented themselves, such as ms. E. Massee, who bought 167 ha on the Klotterpeel and sold it on to Cornelis George Vattier Kraane, who was an Amsterdam industrialist. Mayor Verkuijl van Boxmeer, who is also a cigar manufacturer, bought De Rips in 1919.
The Beestenveld came into the hands of the Society for Exploitation of Mines Laura and Vereeniging, and in 1920 the Klotterpeel also became the property of Vattier Kraane.
After 1920, family farms were founded by farmers from Brabant on new land reclamations, while a number of existing estates were also divided. For these farmers and the workers, the village De Rips was founded in 1920 according to a plan of the Heidemij with a Roman Catholic church and school and a number of workers' houses. Gradually, more tradespeople settled in the village. In 1921 the church, built in neo-Byzantine style, was consecrated.
In 1938 the Klotterpeel was sold to the egg mine in Roermond.
A new, modern church was completed in 1965. This was dedicated to Saint Margaret-Maria Alacoque. The church, in modern style, was designed by L.C. van der Lee. It has a strange saddle-shaped roof. Another bell from the old church hangs in the concrete bell tower. The latter had become too small and expansion of the building turned out not to be cheaper than the construction of a new church.