Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Volume I and Volume II, Lewis
Publishing Company, 1904, pp. 112-115.  Caldwell Co.

RODOLPHUS BUKY RATLIFF

     Rodolphus Buky Ratliff, president of the First National Bank of
Princeton, Kentucky, was born on Salt river, in Bullitt county, this state,
November 10, 1818.  His grandfather was a Virginian, and his father,
Charles Ratliff, was one of the pioneers of Bullitt county, Kentucky, where
his life was passed in agricultural pursuits, and where he died at the age
of seventy-five years.  In Nelson county, Kentucky, Charles Ratliff married
Elizabeth Stone, a native of that county.  She died in Bullitt county at
about the age of forty-five years.  They were the parents of nine children,
six sons and three daughters, R.B. being the eighth in order of birth.
     R.B. Ratliff at the age of sixteen left the home farm to learn a
trade, and for four years worked at rifle-making in Bardstown.  He now has
a twenty-dollar gold piece, bearing date of 1801, which he earned by
working nights after nine o'clock, while he was learning his trade.  At the
end of the four years he went to Shepherdsville, where he spent the next
four years in making Kentucky rifles, and from there, in 1844, he came to
Princeton.  His first eight years in Princeton were given to the
manufacture of rifles.  Then he turned his attention to merchandising.  He
ran a store, and also at the same time dealt in real estate and bought and
sold negroes, horses and mules.  He made money and sometimes lost it, but
he believed in "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," and on the whole his
ventures were successful.  He had a wager of five thousand dollars on the
election of Zachary Taylor for president, and won.  He began his banking
operations more than forty years ago, his bank being known as the Farmers'
Bank.  In 1861, during the uncertain times incident to the opening of the
Civil war, he thought it wise to move his deposits in bank to a place of
safety.  Accordingly, in the dead hours of the night, he loaded one hundred
and sixty thousand dollars in gold and silver from the back end of the bank
into a wagon, and drove, all night and all the next day, to Russellville,
landing in safety and going thence by rail to Louisville, where he
deposited his treasure.  Being a Union man, it was unpleasant and at times
unsafe for Mr. Ratliff at Princeton.  At one time he was compelled to leave
the place and remain away for three months.  He continued merchandising
until 1870, when he sold his store.  All these years he was also interested
more or less in farming, and he still carries on farming operations, being
the owner of four hundred acres of land.  A part of this land is in the
corporate limits of Princeton.  Also he has other real estate here,
including several dwellings which he rents.
     When the First National Bank in Princeton was organized, Mr. Ratliff,
being the largest stockholder, was made president, and this position he has
since retained, the other officers of the bank being H.M. Jones,
vice-president, and Edward Garrett, cashier.  This bank has a capital stock
of seventy-five thousand dollars and a surplus of fifty thousand dollars.
     Mr. Ratliff is to-day ranked as the largest taxpayer in the county,
and is said to have more ready cash than any other man in the county.  When
he started in business here in Princeton, he was not only without capital,
but he was several hundred dollars in debt, and his success in life may be
attributed to his own good management, his industry and his sobriety.  He
has never been known to drink a drop of whiskey, beer or wine in the last
sixty or more years.  He has been a prominent factor in the development of
the county, was interested in securing its railroad facilities, and in his
prime took an active part in politics.  During the Civil war he was county
sheriff.  On three different occasions he was a candidate for Congress, and
was candidate for state auditor on the ticket with John M. Harlan, now
chief justice of the United States; and with his party suffered defeat.
     Mr. Ratliff was married in 1846 to Mary J. Knight, a native of Bullitt
county, Kentucky, who shared the joys and sorrows of life with him for half
a century, her death occurring in 1896.  To them were born six children,
five sons and one daughter, viz.:  Albert G., a resident of Missouri;
George, a resident of Parsons, Kansas; Charles, engaged in the hardware
business at Princeton, Kentucky; William and James, who reside with their
father and look after the farming operations; and Laura, wife of Thomas J.
Landrum, of Princeton.

Ratliff Stone Jones Garrett Harlan Knight Landrum
=
Bullitt-KY VA Nelson-KY Logan-KY Jefferson-KY MO Labette-KS

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/caldwell/ratliff.rb.txt