JOHN R. RALLS - Jefferson Co. Okla

Jefferson County, Oklahoma

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Information below was copied from:
"History of Oklahoma" by Luther Hill, published in 1908"
      
       JOHN
R. RALLS, vice-president of the First
National Bank of Ryan, Jefferson county, was for many years a
successful merchant of that place and is now not only a strong
financial factor in the community, but has extensive ranching interests
in the state of Texas. He comes of a prominent family of Georgia
planters, and is himself a native of that state, being born in Monroe
county, on the 13th of November, 1862. John
R. Ralls grew up on the ancestral
estate which has been located in that county for several generations
and received a thorough preparatory education under the tutelage of
private teachers. He had reached the senior year in college, which he
was about to enter, when, by the death of his father, the management of
the plantation was thrown upon his shoulders. Profiting by the
experience furnished by the latter in his unfortunate speculations in
cotton, the son determined to devote himself solely to the growing of
the crop, and to this occupation he confined himself for three years;
but the management of negro labor was distasteful to him, and he
therefore decided to remove to the southwest and engage in some
commercial enterprise, locating in Bowie, Texas, he became a member of
the grocery firm of Hardy
Ralls,
which soon expanded into a wholesale business. By the admission of Wade
Atkins to the firm, the firm
became Atkins, Hardy & Company. In a few years Mr. Ralls bought out
Mr. Hardy, and remained a member of the, firm until Mr. Atkins sold his
interest in the business at Be1cherville, whither the firm had removed.
Ralls & Garrison succeeded the old firm of Atkins & Ralls, and
in 1893 removed from Belcherville to Terral, Indian Territory, but the
panic had struck this locality with such force that, after a year, the
business was transferred to Ryan, then just platted. 

       
  Mr. Ralls became one of the original purchasers of the town
site. In 1898 the firm of Ralls & Garrison was dissolved, and the
former continued in business alone until 1905 when he exchanged his
stock and business for a ranch in Crosby county, Texas. This embraces
ten thousand acres of land, with thousands of head of cattle. In the
same year that he came into its ownership he was chosen president of
the First National Bank of, Ryan, and was made its vice president in
1907. The successful conduct of such extensive interests mark Mr. Ralls
as one of shrewdest and broadest, business men in this section of the
state. He is executive, farsighted, a student of conditions and has a
profound understanding of correct principles of finance and business.
Mr. Ralls is a member of Ryan Lodge No. 66, A. F. & A. M. and of
the Consistory, Valley of Guthrie.

       
  John
R. Ralls comes of German ancestry,
the original spelling being Rahl. His grandfather, John
R. Ralls,
was born in the fatherland, was an officer of the German army who
emigrated to the United States and became a soldier in the war of 1812.
He afterward settled in Virginia, but removed to Monroe county,
Georgia, and there entered land in 1818. He became an extensive
planter, owned many slaves, and the estate which he founded is still in
possession of his posterity. His two brothers went to Ohio and
Kentucky, but all trace of them was lost. He had two sons, John
R.,
the father of our subject, and William,
who settled in Florida and there reared a family. Like the grandfather,
the father was an extensive planter, but lost much of his wealth during
the Civil war and by the panic of '73, yet before his death in 1880 was
able to recuperate partially, both from his profits as a grower and
dealer. He married Fannis
Bird,
daughter ofBraxton
Bird,
who came to Monroe county, Georgia, from the Old Dominion. She died in
Ryan, in 1906, at the age of sixty years, the mother of the following: John
R.,
of this sketch; E. Manton, cashier of the First National Bank, of
Comanche, Oklahoma; Percy
B.,
a merchant of Ryan; Mrs. Minnie
C. Winship,
of Macon, Georgia; and Alice
V.,
wife of Jack
Blalock,
of Columbia, South Carolina, who there holds the position of state
agent of the Aetna Life Insurance company. John
R. Ralls was married in Henrietta,
Texas, to Dollie
Martin daughter of John
S. Martin,
who is a Missourian engaged in the real estate business at that place
for many years. 