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In 1906 John R. Ralls traded his store in Ryan, Oklahoma for a 10,000 acre ranch in West Texas.
He moved to Crosby County and stocked his ranch with cattle and built a home on the south edge of Emma. He was interested in the development of this area.
The town of Crosbyton was progressing. Santa Fe was planning to build a line to Crosbyton. When they did not build it as anticipated C.B. Livestock Company developed their own branch from Lorenzo to Crosbyton bypassing Emma, the county seat.
The right of way went through Ralls ranch. Mr. Ralls would not be outdone. He started a new town on the railroad, and named it Ralls.
Alice Brown was postmaster at Emma. Alice and E.C. Brown, John R. Ralls, W.E. McLaughlin and perhaps others lost no time in obtaining permission and getting the Post Office records and equipment moved to the new location.
Two railroad section houses had been placed on main street to be used until the Brown residence, which had quarters for the post office, could be moved. One was for the post office and the other one for the postmaster to occupy.
If I remember correctly, the first sack of mail delivered to Ralls had only one letter.
Mr. Ralls was very enthusiastic about his new town. He gave lots to all residents of Emma who wished to move to the new town and many homes were relocated, and the town began to grow.
He built business houses, donated to all of the churches. He later built the Crystal Theatre which at that time was the pride of this area. He also help build the school.
The first term of school as I remember was held in the Baptist Church. We sat on the church benches and used our laps for desks. High School was conducted in one side of the room and grade school in the other side.
We had two teachers - Mr. B.H. Taylor, superintendent and high school teacher. Miss Pearl White was grade school teacher. I don't know what the enrollment was, however I have a picture that was made of the entire school and I count 40 students.
At the beginning of the term Mr. Ralls offered a gold medal to be given to the student with the highest scholastic average at the end of the school term.
Much to my surprise I won the medal. It was presented in the closing program. I guess I was in shock when they called my name, I just sat there and one of my sisters had to come head me up the aisle to receive it.
I was so proud! I still have it and it is still beautiful! It is one of most prized possessions and I am grateful to Mr. Ralls for his interest in schools, his interest in children and young people, and for his investment in the town of Ralls.
Written by Ruby M. (Brown) Heard
The City of Ralls as it stands today is a living monument to its father, the late John R. Ralls, who coddled, planned, and contrived to make it a town where happiness and contentment might live in the hearts and lives of every citizen.
Coming to Crosby County via stage coach in 1911, Mr. Ralls donated the land on which the city is built, constructed a greater part of the business district, and contributed the lots plus half the cost of every church in town. the cost of the townsite, alone, amounted to $100,000.
He also donated twelve acres of land for the school site in the fall of 1911. His arduous and intrepid efforts secured the railroad for the town in 1916, when he paid the company $5,000 to end a lawsuit over the removal of the depot from Cedric, then a few miles west of Ralls.
�The most beautiful and complete theater this side of Fort Worth,� was the slogan used by the citizens Ralls after this great dreamer and builder constructed the Crystal Theater. He also built playgrounds and parks over the city for the amusement of the children and the beautification of the town.
Mr. Ralls was born in Culloden, Georgia, November 13, 1863, on a plantation. After the death of his father, he took complete charge of affairs. He received his education from a governess and in the public schools of Macon Georgia.
Moving to Texas for the first time, he located at Fort Worth where he worked in a grocery store driving a delivery wagon and serving as a bookkeeper. He went to Oklahoma in 1890, and in 1908 exchanged a business there for 10,000 acres of Crosby County land, later dividing the acreage into 160-acre farms.
He was married to Miss Dollie M. Martin, native of Missouri, October 31, 1890, in Henrietta, Texas, her home town. Mr. Ralls died October 19, 1921, fifteen years after the organization of the town, and was laid to rest alongside many of the contemporaries who assisted him in the materialization of an esthetic dream. He was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mystic Shriner, participating in lodge work until his death.
One of the later inspirations for Ralls was the location of Texas Technological College here in 1915, when he offered to endow that institution and give two thousand acres of land.
Source: "Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas" by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis ©1951; The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas, p. 440
Mrs. John R. Ralls
"Every inch a pioneer" amply describes Mrs. John R. Ralls, of Ralls, Texas, who has been an early day wife and community worker in two undeveloped territories during her lifetime in Crosby County and portions of Oklahoma.Moving as a bride with her husband, the late John R. Ralls, father of the town, to Terral, Oklahoma, and later to Ryan, Oklahoma, in 1890, she knows what it means to be among the first in a strange, unsettled land. Then in 1908 she came to Crosby County with her husband for the purpose of helping to build homes, churches and schools in another undeveloped prairie land. Her ever-ready assistance and bravery were the forces that guided her husband on to higher ambitions and worthy accomplishments. Before her marriage in 1890, she was Miss Dollie M. Martin, daughter of John S. Martin, an early builder of Henrietta, Texas. She served as organist in the Henrietta church for nine years. A charter member of the Eastern Star in Ryan, Oklahoma, and worthy matron of the organization, she took an active part in all lodge activities in Oklahoma, as well as all other places she has lived.
She assisted Mr. Ralls in all of his enterprises, always ready to carry her part of the burden. During the lean years she adjusted herself to meet existing conditions. She has been a diligent worker in the church and has taken an active part in social affairs during her lifetime of pioneering. One of the first hardships to befall her after moving here was the burning of the beautiful family home near Emma by a prairie fire in 1909.
She has continued to reside in Ralls after the death of her husband. She has had charge of the farms, business houses, and other property. In 1928 she built one of the most modern and spacious homes in the county, and has always been generous in offering it for the entertainment of her friends. Largely due to her contribution, the $35,000 Baptist church of Ralls was built in 1929. In 1949 Mrs. Ralls gave the First Baptist Church of Ralls Carillonic bells.
From the Ralls Banner, Friday, September 25, 1936.Source: "Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas" by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis ©1951; The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas, p. 430
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Burial Site
Ralls Cemetery
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- Plot 86
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Obituary
FUNERAL WILL BE HELD AT RALLS FRIDAY
- FOUNDER OF RALLS DIED AT HIS HOME WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
Masons From Lubbock and Other Points Will Join the Ralls Lodges in Conducting the Funeral Services at 1:00 O'Clock Friday Afternoon. Interment in the Ralls Cemetery.Word was received in Lubbock about three thirty Wednesday afternoon of the death of John R. Ralls, which occurred at his home in that city at 3:00 o'clock last Wednesday afternoon, following a stroke of appoplexy last Thursday, from which he never regained consciousness entirely, though at times was semi-conscious and while his many friends and the family would not give up hope for his recovery to the very last, the attending physicians could give but little hopes from the first, and agreed that it would only be a matter of days at the outside tillt he end would come.
John R. Ralls was born in Macon, Ga., in 1862. He came to Texas in 1882 and located at Bowie, Texas, and came to the Plains, and to Crosby county in 1905, where he invested in a tract of land, which was for a number of years used for ranch purposes. When the railroad was built from Lubbock to Crosbyton it passed through this tract of land, and it dawned upon Mr. Ralls that this would be an ideal place for a good town, so he at once got busy and laid ot the townsite of Ralls, began to sell town lots and when the removal of the county seat was spoken of the town of Ralls was placed in the race, but lost by a small margin. This did not daunt the founder of the town however, but he went right ahead to build a town that would out-strip any other in that county, and it is not necessary for us to say that his accomplishments have been entirely satisfactory to him and the people of that community, for the town of Ralls has made wonderful progress which can be attributed to his untiring efforts and liberal methods of dealing with the people. He has been a wonderful factor in the development of the entire South Plains and not only will his death be keenly felt by the people of Ralls and Crosby County, but the entire South Plains will suffer as the result of the departure of this good man, and we do not recall when we have regretted to report the demise of anyp person more than we do that of Mr. Ralls.
Mr. Ralls was a member of several secret organizations. He was a Thirty-Second Degree Mason, a member of the Odd Fellows and elks.
He is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Isaac Winship, Macon, Ga., Mrs. R. J. Blalock, Columbia, S.C., and two brothers, E.M. Ralls, Comanche, Oklahoma, and P.B. Ralls, of Ralls, Texas.
The funeral which will be under the direction of the Masonic organizations will be held at Ralls, and the remains laid to rest in the cemetery at that place. The Lubbock Masons and Ralls lodges will join in conducting the funeral, and will no doubt be joined by a large number of Masons from all over the South Plains, and the funeral will be attended by a large number of people from South Plains points, to pay their respects to the honor this good and useful citizen, and a man who has accomplished so much in the development of the Great South Plains.
The Lubbock Avlanche, Thursday, October 20, 1921
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