Biography of John F. Ratcliff

JOHN F. RATCLIFF is vice president of the corporation of
Hagen, Ratcliff & Company, which conducts in the City of
Huntington one of the important wholesale grocery estab-
lishments of West Virginia. He was born at Glen Hayes,
Wayne County, this state, November 27, 1867, a son of
William Ratcliff, whose father, Daniel Ratcliff, was one of
the sterling pioneer settlers in that county, where he estab-
lished his home about 1796. William Ratcliff was born on
the site of the present town of Glen Hayes, on May 19,
1802, and he passed his entire life in his native county, his
death having occurred at Glen Hayes in 1885. He became
one of the extensive agriculturists and stock-growers of
Wayne County, and prior to the Civil war had owned a large
number of slaves. He was a democrat, served many years
as local magistrate, and also gave effective service as pres-
ident of the County Court. He was a leader in the local
councils of the democratic party, and was elected to the
Virginia Legislature in 1860. He represented his county in
the Second Wheeling Convention, which convened June 11,
1861. He also represented his county in the Provisional
Legislature which met at Wheeling on July 1, 1861. Both
he and his wife were earnest members of the Baptist Church.
His first wife, whose maiden name was Nancy Garred,

was born near the present Town of Clifford, Kentucky, and
died at the old home at Glen Hayes. They became the
parents of two sons and eight daughters, all of whom are
now deceased. For his second wife William Ratcliff wed-
ded Rachel Vinson, who was born in 1831 and who passed
her entire life in Wayne County, where she died in 1912,
the subject of this review being the only child of this
union.

The public schools of Glen Hayes afforded John F. Rat-
cliff his early education, and he continued his association
with the activities of his father's farm until he was twenty
years of age. Thereafter he was employed five years as
clerk in a store at Louisa, Kentucky, and he then engaged
in the wholesale grocery business at that place, where he re-
mained until 1901, when he came to Huntington, West Vir-
ginia, and purchased H. C. Harvey's interest in the whole-
sale grocery business of Harvey, Hagen & Company, the
title of the concern being then changed to its present form,
Hagen, Ratcliff & Company, and the business being now one
of the largest of its kind in the state. H. B. Hagen is pres-
ident of the company, John F. Ratcliff is vice president, W.
O. Wiatt is treasurer, and D. S. Sayre is secretary. The
well equipped offices and warehouses of the company are
in a substantial building at 1018 20 Third Avenue. Mr.
Ratcliff is also vice president of the Community Savings
& Loan Company, one of the representative financial insti-
tutions of Huntington. His political allegiance is given to
the democratic party, and he is actively identified with the
Huntington Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, the
Guyandot Club, of which he is president, and the Busi-
ness Men's Club. His Masonic affiliations are as here
noted: Huntington Lodge No. 53, A. F. and A. M.; Hunt-
ington Chapter No. 6, R. A. M.; Huntington Commandery
No. 9, Knights Templars; and West Virginia Consistory
No. 1, Scottish Kite, at Wheeling, in which he has received
the thirty-second degree.

Mr. Ratcliff was one of the vigorous workers in support
of the various patriotic activities in his home city and
county during the World war period, and gave much time
to promoting the Government bond and Red Cross drives.

In 1892 Mr. Ratcliff wedded Miss Mary B. Burchett,
daughter of Maj. Drewry James Burchett, who served as
a major in the Union Army in the Civil war, and who is
now engaged in the banking business at Mount Sterling,
Kentucky, his wife being deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Ratcliff
have two children. Anna is the wife of Luther T. Long,
who is junior member of the firm of J. H. Long & Son,
publishers of the Huntington Advertiser. John D. is (1922)
a student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
the City of Boston.

Source: The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 170

Submitted by Valerie F. Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>

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