William Henry Ralph

This handsome fellow is my great, great grandfather.

William Henry Ralph

Although Bill has been gone for over102 years, his legacy lives on in a lot of people.

With so many years between us, there is not a lot we can truly know about him beyond the basic facts.  I hope this picture can tell me 1000 words.  He was born September 30, 1859 in Philadelphia.  On the day of Bills' birth, Slavery was legal in America, oil was discovered in Pennsylvania, and Abraham Lincoln, not yet president, gave a speech to farmers at the Wisconsin state fair in Milwaukee. 

He was the third of four children born to William Ralph and Harriet Morley.  Bills' father had been born in Hullavington, England, and had arrived in America just 11 years earlier. 

In 1882 he married Anne Ormston.  They had 4 children, Carrie, William, Charles and Isabel.  Anne died in 1909.  Bill then married Blanche Morgan in 1913.  She was 18 years younger.  He was a letter carrier for most of his career and lived his whole life in Philadelphia.  Bill died in 1920, just a few months after his son Charles left for California. 

This photograph was not in the old trunk from Forest Ave.  This one was given to us by a cousin we have not met. 

You see, while working on our family tree, I was googling names, which I do when I find unique or fun names. 

Bills daughter, Carrie, married and had 3 kids: Hazel, Miriam and George.  When I googled Hazel, I found a Facebook group dedicated to her!  When I looked, there was a picture of her that was clearly the same woman in a picture that was in our trunk.

I immediately sent a message to the group.  I explained who I was and how I was related to Hazel.  The private group was made by a granddaughter of Hazels, and all the members are related.  None of them had ever known that their great grandmother Carrie had a brother named Charles that went to California.  I sent them some verification and shared Charles’ story with them.  They were just as excited as I was!

I have been in contact with our cousins Sherrie and Cindy.  They tell me that once this whole covid mess is over, they hope to have a family reunion.  I plan to go, and I look forward to meeting everyone. 

Bill had 4 children, 7 grandchildren, 25 great grandchildren and unknown generations beyond that.  They are living in places like Pennsylvania, California, South Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey & New Hampshire.  That’s a lot of Ralphs, and I think a pretty nice legacy. 

September 30 is now known as Wisconsin history day because of Lincoln’s speech there.  Maybe we can remember Bill on this day?  Perhaps we should consider the words Lincoln spoke the day Bill Ralph was born.

“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentiment to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride; how consoling in the depths of affliction! "And this, too, shall pass away." And yet, let us hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us, and the intellectual and moral worlds within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.”

                                             Abraham Lincoln   9/30/1859

It has been 100 years, and here I am, looking into his eyes, remembering him, wondering about his life, and feeling a familial connection. 

This too will pass away. 

But not yet.