Biography
My father came to Georgia in the early 1830 and his father came from England. My father was a Negro slave owner but he was not in favor of slavery. He wrote a book on it. He never treated his negroes as slaves. He thought Abraham Lincoln was correct in his ideas about it.
I was born August 13 1878. Papa passed away in 1880 and my mother in 1893. My eldest brother John R Ralls Jr came to Texas in 1890 and went into the mercantile business and I came out 1893. I worked for him in his store. In 1898 I joined the Spanish-Americans War and when I returned 1899 I joined him in his business. He sold out and I went in for myself. In 1906 he came to West Texas and bought 10,000 acres of this Plains land and ran a cattle ranch until 1911. After we got the railroad to come in this part of the state, he then divided this ranch into 160 acre tracts, and sold most of it off after buying 7000 more acres. And then they established the town of Ralls. We built all the brick buildings and rented them to merchants. We are located in the best farming land in Texas. We irrigate from deep wells and make wonderful crops of cotton, wheat and cereal grains.
Percy Bayard Ralls
I was told that Percy is an English name and Bayard was our US Ambassador to England in 1875.
Submitted by Garry Ralls
Obituary
Final rites for Percy B. Ralls, 84, were held at 3 p.m. Monday in Ralls First Methodist Church. Officiating were Rev. W.R. Beaird, retired minister, and Rev. Conrad Ryan, pastor of he church. Burial was in Ralls Cemetery.
Ralls died at 10:30 a.m. Sunday in a Lubbock hospital. He was stricken with a heart attack about 5 a.m. Saturday.
A Spanish American War veteran, Ralls was a native of Monroe County, Georgia. He went to Indian Territory, OK, as a boy. During the two world wars, Ralls served as the chairman of Crosby County draft board.
He moved to Ralls in April 1916. His brother John R. Ralls, founder of the town of Ralls, died in the 'teens. Percy Ralls became administrator of the estate and many area residents thought he was the founder of the city.
He was a charter member of Ralls Rotary Club, city fire marshall for 18 years, first president of the Ralls chamber of commerce, and served several years as a member of Ralls school board.
Ralls was a longtime member of the Methodist church and was a member of the original building committee when the first church was built in Ralls in 1918.
He was a director of West Texas Chamber of Commerce for many years. He was a member and chairman of the Texas Good Roads Association.
Survivors include his wife; three sons, Herbert of Fort Worth, Emory of Glen Rose, and Raymond of Ralls; two daughters, Mrs. C.B. Hendrick and Mrs. Walker Watkins, both of Ralls; six grandchildren; five great grandchildren.
Crosbyton Review, January 17, 1963
Record provided by Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum
transcribed by Linda Fox Hughes
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Crosby County TXGenWeb Project
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