John Robinson Ralls

Ralls was the eldest son of a Georgia planter, and after his father's death in 1880 he helped his mother run the family's 1,000-acre plantation, getting only a few months at an Atlanta college. Moving to Bowie, Texas, in 1890, he kept stores in Belcherville, Terrell and finally Ryan, Oklahoma, before trading the Ryan store for his Crosby County ranch. He cut the ranch into quarter sections for farmers and built an opera house locals called one of the finest west of Fort Worth. He died on October 3, 1921.

What the plaque says

John Robinson Ralls Born on a Monroe County, Georgia, plantation; came to Texas, 1890. In 1906, traded flourishing general store for 10,000-acre ranch. Founded Ralls, 1911, at point where Crosbyton-South Plains Railroad crossed land. Donated land for townsite and gave 12 acres for first school. Built most of business houses including first theater. Gave lots plus much of construction costs for all churches in town. Recorded, 1967.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum — 9.4 mi
  Crosbyton's museum of Blanco Canyon, built in 1958 as a copy of Hank Smith's Rock House, and the place to learn the canyon's 1871 fight between Mackenzie's cavalry and Quanah's Quahadi Comanche.
• Slaton Harvey House — 21 mi
  A 1912 Santa Fe Harvey House in the railroad town of Slaton, restored as a museum, event hall and five-room inn overlooking a working BNSF yard.
• Silent Wings Museum — 25 mi
  The museum of the American combat glider pilots of World War II, in Lubbock's old airport terminal on the field where most of them earned their wings.
• American Windmill Museum — 25 mi
  Lubbock's park of restored water-pumping windmills and early wind chargers, more than 70 of them turning outdoors and the rare ones under roof, with a megawatt-era turbine overhead.

More markers nearby

• Ralls Cemetery — steps away
• City of Ralls — 1.1 mi
• Emma — 3.8 mi
• Emma Cemetery — 4.3 mi