ARKANSAS - ALLEN H. RATTERREE - Bio
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Source:  California and Californians, Vol. Three.  Hunt, Rockwell D., 
ed. Chicago: Lewis Publishing, 1932.

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Allen H. Ratterree and his gracious wife need no further patent to 
true nobility than the statement that they are, virtually above all 
else, friends of children who have been denied the normal birthright 
of devoted parents or have suffered misfortune through crippled 
bodies, through being orphaned and through other afflictions. No two 
persons in California, and few in the entire nation, have shown more 
earnest and liberal philanthrophy in providing for the needs of 
otherwise helpless children than have Mr. and Mrs. Ratterree, and to 
them high tribute is due not only in this publication but also through 
other mediums that wish to take recognition of gallant helpfulness to 
children-a service that represents the best in human sympathy 
translated into tangible aid. To have loved and helped a child is in 
itself a justification for having lived. 

Allen H. Ratterree, benefactor of children, is not a mere 
sentimentalist. He has seen life widely and in all phases, his youth 
was one of selfreliant adventure, and his intellectual ken has been 
broadened and intensified in its perspective by that finer discipline 
that comes only through cosmopolitan experiences and contacts with 
"all sorts and conditions of men." His own initiative and good 
judgment have brought to him material prosperity of substantial order, 
and well have he and his gracious wife made use of that prosperity. 
Their beautiful home is in the Beverly Hills district and pervades the 
spirit of love, kindliness and abiding human sympathy and tolerance-a 
spirit that has been given an outward expression in an angle of 
influence that is ever widening in beneficence. 

Allen H. Ratterree was born at Charlotte, North Carolina, and is a son 
of J. R. Ratterree, who was a man educated through self-application 
and under the preceptorship of the wisest of head-masters, experience. 
When little more than a boy Allen H. Ratteree was pronounced, through 
the public press, to be the "world's greatest globe trotter." Before 
he was eighteen years of age he had thrice circled his way around the 
world, and, further than this, had worked his way on two of his 
circumnavigatory trips around the world. He set forth as a stowaway, 
and manifold and varied were his youthful experiences on sea and land. 
He retains in his possession a remarkable scrapbook in which are 
preserved clippings [p.353] of articles that appeared in New York 
newspapers and that gave interesting descriptions of the adventures of 
this youthful "soldier of fortune." Among other things he was in China 
during the Boxer war, and he profited by each and every experience, 
gained a knowledge of true life values and co-ordinated and solidified 
the admirable education that can be gained through no other means. Mr. 
Ratterree relates that he passed through the Suez Canal three times-on 
the first occasion as a stowaway and with his second transit made in 
the brig, or ship prison, in which he was placed after his presence as 
a stowaway had been discovered, and the third time he passed through 
the canal as a first-class passenger, with $3,000 in his pocket.

After these marvelous sojournings about the world Mr. Ratterree was 
engaged in the real estate business in Arkansas a few years, and he 
then went to Terre Haute, Indiana. His health was greatly impaired 
during a period of a few years, and shortly after his marriage, in 
1918, he and his wife, who are still young folk, came to California 
and here established their permanent home. Mr. Ratterree here became 
interested in real estate development projects, and his was remarkable 
vision as touching the course of such development in the Los Angeles 
metropolitan area. He seemed to have prescience of what was to happen 
and when it was to happen, and on this basis he made wise investments. 
He purchased land along the main arteries that he knew indicated the 
popular trend of development, and sold his holdings when the time was 
most auspicious. Thus he realized in his varied transactions returns 
that have given to him a substantial and worthily won fortune. Many of 
his investments were along Vermont Avenue, on Western and Sunset 
boulevards and upon Sepulveda Boulevard-and well has time demonstrated 
the eminent judiciousness of both investments and sales. Mr. Ratterree 
is the sole owner of the large and important business still conducted 
under the title of Ratterree Land Company. 

Mr. Ratterree has received the thirty-second degree in the Masonic 
Scottish Rite, besides being a Noble of Malakaih Temple of the Mystic 
Shrine, in Los Angeles. He is an active and popular member of the Los 
Angeles Athletic Club. 

In the City of Chicago, the year 1918, recorded the marriage of Mr. 
Ratterree to Miss Rose Elizabeth Tuller, who was born in the State of 
Illinois and who was eighteen years of age at the time of her 
marriage, Mrs. Ratterree received much of her early education in the 
City of Terre Haute, Indiana, and thereafter was a student of a 
leading conservatory of music in Indianapolis, capital city of that 
state, and in Mrs. Blaker's Kindergarten school. In the year that 
marked their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Ratterree established their home in 
California, and here they have been working hand in hand and with 
significant devotion and appreciative stewardship in doing all in 
their power for the benefit of crippled and homeless children. Both 
have been made honorary members of the organizations of the Native 
Sons and the Native Daughters of the Golden West committee for 
homeless children, which unusual distinction was given them in 
recognition and appreciation of their work for and their financial 
assistance to the organization mentioned. At a cost of $50,000 to Mr. 
Ratterree and through the generosity of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios a 
wonderful motion picture depicting the life of the crippled child was 
produced and this tense and instructive picture was shown in all parts 
of the United States, as well as in the Canadian provinces. The 
primary object of its projection was, if possible, to induce men and 
women of means to make provision for such children through direct 
donations or devisement by wills, and thus aid in creating a fund or 
endowment for the care of such afflicted children. The picture was 
entitled "An Equal Chance." Mr. and Mrs. Ratterree have likewise aided 
substantially and [p.354] earnestly in making provision for homeless 
children, especially through the medium of the Society for Homeless 
Children that is maintained by the Native Sons and Daughters of the 
Golden West. Mr. Ratterree erected, at a cost of $55,000, the Allen 
Junior Home, as a refuge for children prior to their adoption into 
private homes. This home Mr. Ratterree presented to the Native Sons 
and Daughters where it was used for three years and later given to the 
Kiddie Koop Home and constitutes one of the splendid mediums of 
service in connection with the noble organizations that have it in 
charge, the donor having equipped the building completely and its 
facilities providing accommodations for eighteen infants. Mr. and Mrs. 
Ratterree contribute to the general support of the Kiddie Koop Home, 
and also provide regularly for the care of several infants each month 
in the White Memorial Hospital. They adopted two infants and have 
given to these charming children the fullest measure of parental 
devotion, both children being now in school and being integers in a 
family circle of utmost ideality. The adopted son is Allen H., Jr., 
and the little foster daughter is Betty Jean. Mrs. Ratterree is a 
member of the Beverly Hills Welfare League and a member of the board 
of directors of Kiddie Koop Home.