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1918 C.A. Ratcliffe & Son

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The story of the Ratcliffe implement and automobile dealership involves three locations on the block of 2nd Street between College and F streets. In 1917, the original C.A. Ratcliffe & Son building was torn down and a new brick building facing 2nd Street was erected.

Images

  • The C.A. Ratcliffe & Son company automobile dealership was on the left and the implement dealership was on the right at the corner with Normal Ave.
  • The view up Normal Ave in 1935 shows C.A. Ratcliffe & Son on the left side of the street. On the right is the Jerue Funeral Home.

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The story of the Ratcliffe implement and automobile dealership involves three locations on the block of 2nd Street between College and F streets.

In 1917, the original C.A. Ratcliffe & Son building was torn down and a new brick building facing 2nd Street was erected. After completing college, Mark Ratcliffe joined the company as a salesman in 1923. His earliest recollections of his association with the business are delivering lumber as a boy.

Charles Ratcliffe died in 1931. His sons, Lynn managed the implement side of the business, while younger brother Mark managed the auto dealership.

The business, except for the expansion into automobiles and picking up tractors, didn't grow too rapidly until after 1933. It saw its greatest period of growth in the 1940s.

Sources

Cheney Free Press 1959
Ratcliffe Family History

Additional Information