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.
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.