Cerebral hemorrhage - RT hemiplegim; Arteriosclerosis

1910 Federal Census - Urbana Township, Champaign, Illinois

Smith, Ralph - 31, Farmer
Ethel M. - 29
Roland - 6
Harry M. - 4
Mary G. - 2

1920 Federal Census - Urbana Township, Champaign, Illinois

Smith, Ralph T. - 41
Ethel M.- 39
Roland - 16
Harry - 13
Mary - 12
Rex - 6

“One story about your Grandfather Ralph that you might enjoy is as follows. When I got out of the Navy after WW-2, we lived on the farm for 2 years. A professor lived in Dr. and Bessie Smith’s house. They had wolf hounds that killed a crippled pet hen for us. Uncle Ralph showed up at their house one morning and asked if they were missing some dogs. They said no. Uncle then said he had some wolf hounds shut up in his hen house where they had killed all his chickens. He stated that he was going home and kill the dogs. As you can imagine the tune changed and I’m certain that Uncle was compensated for the chickens.”155

Another story concerns the period of time that Ralph and Ethel lived in Olney, Illinois—1940, 1941, and 1942. The families would go down every year to visit and pick blackberries. There was also a pond on the farm where the kids would go swimming, but the pond had leeches. One time, Roland, Hazel, and the kids were picking up Mary and Bill and their kids. Bill went around the house to make sure all the windows were closed and was inadvertently left. The children riding in the back of the truck tried to get the adults attention but their pleas were ignored. Uncle Harry, Aunt Leila and their children were living in Sidney, Illinois at the time and when Roland stopped to pick them up, they were surprised to see Uncle Bill already there—he had hitchhiked!307