Ralph Humphrey

By

Darrell E. Hamilton

       Ralph Leslie Humphrey Jr. was born on June 7, 1936 in Westerville, Ohio to Ralph and Christina Humphrey.
       Ralph’s father was doing milk testing for the state in the central Ohio area at the time he was born. Shortly after Ralph was born the family moved back to Ashtabula.
       The first Humphrey to come to Ashtabula County was Ambrose Humphrey in 1801. He came from Bristol, Connecticut. His ancestors before him came from Devonshire, England. Ambrose built the first grist mill in Mechanicsville.
       Humphrey Avenue near the hospital was named after his great-grandfather Russell C. Humphrey. His great-grandfather had more land transactions recorded in Jefferson than anyone else at the time. He had also laid out Swedtown and forty acres near the hospital.
       Ralph’s ancestors bought the last remaining parcel of land from the Western Reserve Land Company which included the marsh where WREO sits now. He bought the land, drained the marsh and farmed the land.
       Ralph’s great-grandfather, Russell C. Humphrey built the house that that stands on Bunker Hill opposite of West Avenue in 1906. He lived there many years.
       Ralph’s grandfather, Russell C. Humphrey, had three children. In 1909 Ralph Humphrey Sr. was born.
       The house that sits across from WREO was built by Ralph’s grandfather Edwin Humphrey. He farmed the land almost his whole adult life. He died at age sixty-five.
       Both of Ralph’s parents graduated Ashtabula High School. His father graduated in 1925 and his mother in 1928. Ralph’s father was expected to farm but the depression came along and his father became a milk tester. Ralph’s father had also attended Ohio State for one year.
       Ralph’s mother went to business college for a year after high school. She grew up in Saybrook on Shepard Road. She was a good friend of his father’s sister Eunice. Ralph suspects that how his parents met through his aunt.
       Ralph’s parents were married in 1933. Ralph’s brother John was born first being twenty-one months older than Ralph. Ralph was born in Westerville while his father was a milk tester in the Columbus area.
       Ralph’s parents decided to move back to Ashtabula in 1936 and start an insurance agency. His father was the sixth agent for the Grange Mutual Casualty Insurance Company. Up to now the Humphrey’s have been with that company for almost seventy years.
       They lived in and started their insurance agency in the house where Perkins sits now on Prospect.
       Growing up on Prospect in Ashtabula Ralph had a lot of fond memories. He remembers the corner grocery store that was owned by a Arthur and Agnes Nelson that sat across from his house where a used car lot sits now. They shopped there a lot because it was easy access being just across the street. Mr. Nelson put two boys through medical school with the store.
       Across the street from Ralph’s home/insurance agency was the Diary Queen stand owned by Chuck and Marcella Hoag. There also used to be a service station on the corner owned by Ernie Irvine.
       Ralph can remember the west end with great fondness. Ralph can remember Johnson’s bakery, Swallows Restaurant, West End Hardware, the post office which was located right on Prospect at the time, Mrs. Tong’s Confectionary store, Eastman’s Clover Farm grocery store, Hoffman’s Drug Store, George Livingston’s Variety Shop, Hugh Murray’s Bakery and not to forget his Smoke Shop and Wright’s Barber Shop. You could get a hair cut back then for a quarter.
       Back then the West End was a city within a city. You could buy just about anything from the West End without ever leaving the area. Yes it even had the State Theater and the Strubbe Lumber Company.
       The first movie Ralph ever saw was at the State Theater (at the corner of Prospect and West Avenue) was “My Friend Flicka”.

 
       Ralph raised goats at his house on Prospect for five or six years. His grandfather even kept a Jersey cow for a couple of years.
       Ralph attended West Junior high. He went to kindergarten in the big building then went to first, second and third in the little building. He then went back to the large building for forth through ninth grades.
1944 - Mrs. Fleming
1947 - Mr. Cudeback
1948 Miss Nelson
 
       Ironic enough Ralph and I had many of the same teachers at West Junior High. Both of us had Miss Gertrude Howard for a teacher. Miss Howard’s mother was also a teacher at Bunker Hill. He also had Mr. Wade Cudeback and a host of other teachers that I also had at West Junior High.

Mr. & Mrs. Ralph Humphrey Sr. back - Ralph Jr. & John
       Out of all the teachers in school that Ralph had, he had a favorite teacher that he seemed to pick out. Even though he liked all of his teachers Mr. Don Hogan, an industrial arts teacher stood out above the rest.
       Ralph was also active in the boy scouts and took piano lessons from Nellie Cudeback, wife of Wade Cudeback. He also took lessons from Helen Luce, Ruth Cook and Rachel Davis who lived on Summer Avenue.
       Ralph was also on the student council in school.
       At home his parents were busy with the insurance business. Ralph’s grandmother (mother’s mother) ran the household.
Ralph & his brother John sitting on the insurance sign in front of their home on Prospect
       “She was a good cook and a good discipliner. She could make kids vaporize with her finger. All she had to do was put her finger up and point and the kids would disappear.” Ralph reiterated to me.
       Ralph’s grandmother lived to be ninety-eight.
       “My favorite food growing up was potato soup with cornbread with maple syrup and butter.” Ralph said to me as licked his lips.
       Business was not prosperous in the beginning and money was in short supply.
       “So we had oatmeal, fried oatmeal and chicken with no gourmet meals. My grandmother made good apple sauce cake and gingerbread cake. She didn’t put any frosting on anything. She didn’t believe in sugar. When my mother was growing up she was paid ten cents a day for not eating any sugar.”
       Ralph’s grandparents would have salad along with whole wheat muffins almost every morning.
       However Ralph’s favorite snack was a Hire’s root beer and a Clark Bar. Ralph had an aunt that lived on Woodman Avenue. His grandmother used to send food down to her. His aunt would give Ralph and his brother fifteen cents each for bringing the food down to her. That was just enough for a bottle of Hires Root Beer and a Clark Bar.
       Ralph lived in the house from the time he was about two years old until he went away to college.
       Ralph and I both attended the Prospect Presbyterian Church. Rev. Ernest T. Roney was the pastor when Ralph was growing up. Rev. Roney was from Scotland. Rev. Harold D. Shiflet became the pastor after that. Rev. Shiflet’s son, Hobart Shiflet will become one of my subjects for my biography column at a later date.
       Woodland Beach Park’s log cabin was the last remaining structure at the park. I often wondered what happen to the log cabin. I thought it was just simply torn down.
       Ralph’s father had bought twenty-five acres on the Conneaut River. Ralph’ father bought the log cabin from Nelson Pinney.
       While Ralph was in high school his father, brother and Ralph took apart the log cabin and numbered the logs. They then moved the logs and reassembled it on the property that Ralph’s father bought on Horton Road. The cabin was built in 1809 and was there long before Woodland Beach Park was there.
       The cabin was used many years by Ralph and his family along with other families and the boy scouts. However the cabin was burned down by some kids some years back. Remnants of the cabin can still be found on the property.
       Main Avenue was the social center for the area. There was no internet and if you had a television there were very few channels to watch. Ralph himself does not have the internet nor has watched television in about three years.
       In February 2002 Ralph had a Nigerian friend come to stay with him that he hadn’t seen in thirty years. His friend was a retired high justice of the court in Nigeria. His friend was handicapped as he couldn’t walk and feed himself.
       Ralph went to Adelphia during a free installation month. Adelphia spent two hours getting his home ready for cable.
       They watched such shows as “I Love Lucy” and “The Jeffersons”. His friend knew the endings as his friend had watched the programs in 1972 before but they still laughed for five days.
       After Ralph’s friends left,, Ralph took the cable box back to Adelphia and told the lady he wanted his service cancelled. The lady said that he had just had the cable put in. Ralph said, “I know it makes me nervous.” It cost Ralph $6.24 for cable for five days for his friends.
       Getting back to Main Avenue, Main Avenue was where all the traffic was. At Carlisle’s you could get anything you wanted. Ralph remembers the Silver Diner that used to sit next to the tracks. It later got moved to the East Side next to Headman’s Gulf station.
       Ralph also remembers the Penthouse which was over the Palace Theater. Students could spend the evening at dances, playing ping-pong and a variety of other activities.
       Ralph attended the opening of the Shea’s Theater in 1949. It was the same night as the Newberry’s five and dime caught fire. There were three five and dimes at the time in Ashtabula. They were Newberry’s, Neisners, and Woolworths.
       There was also Ducro furniture store, Candyland, Harry the Hatters and WICA which was on the second floor on Center Street.
       When Ralph was in High School he was a junior fair board member for the Ohio State fair. He got to have his picture taken with Governor Frank Lausche at his office in Columbus. The picture can be viewed along with Ralph and the rest of his family at www.Ashtabula200.com.

Gov. Frank Lausche - Ralph Humphrey fifth from the right
       One year Governor Lausche, who was a Democrat came to the Ashtabula County fair unannounced. Fifty years ago Ashtabula County was heavily Republican. The mc learned that the Governor was in the audience and announced him. The only person to stand up and clap was the Democratic Chairman, Nelson Humphrey.
       Ralph graduated Ashtabula High School in 1954. He then entered Lehigh College that was recommended by Art Whight, the assistant principal at Ashtabula High School. Ralph had scored very well in his SAT’s scoring a 99 percentile in engineering.

Ralph's Senior Picture - 1954
       After his first year, Ralph didn’t think that the students were studying hard enough . He then transferred to Carnegie Tech and found the students were studying harder at Lehigh. He then transferred back to Lehigh for his remaining two years. He graduated from Lehigh in 1958 with honors.
       Back at home Ralph’s father, Ralph Sr. had been a state representative and then he became a state senator. He had lobbied hard for the insurance industry. He also sponsored the Submerged Land Act that gave his good friend Nelson Pinney title to the piers that Nelson Pinney ran into Lake Erie. Ralph L. Humphrey Sr. died of a heart attack in Columbus at age fifty-two.
       When Ralph was nineteen he was invited to a New Year’s party on Sanborn Road with his parents. While he was there he met a pretty little fifteen year old that attended the Andrew School for Girls in Willoughby. At the party the young girl invited Ralph to a party for her stepsister. From then they started to date. She graduated Andrews School for Girls at the same time Ralph was graduating from Lehigh. Afterwards she went to Bowling Green University for a semester and then they were married on March 15, 1959. Ralph would not tell me how he asked his wife to marry him. He just said it was a very, very pleasant event. Her name was Sandra Leigh Ricks. Sandra’s brother had attended Lehigh at the same time as Ralph.
       Out of college Ralph was hired by General Electric at the Hotpoint Division in the GE training program in Chicago. He then went to Cincinnati and into missile production.
       He then went back to College and did graduate work in the jet engineering department. Ralph then went back to the Burlington, Vermont GE to work on the Vulcan 20 mm gun which could fire 10,000 rounds a minute. He also worked on the Polaris Missile electronics.
       Ralph then went to work at Hughes Aircraft in California with design responsibility for the inertial reference unit on the Surveyor space craft.
       Ralph then came back to Ashtabula in 1964 after his father’s death to help his mother and brother out in the insurance business for a year. At the time he didn’t think he fit in the insurance business.
       Ralph then went to work for Moog Value  in East Aurora, New York as a quality control manager for three years. The company made valves that are used on Saturn’s missiles.
       Ralph then decided to go to law school. He got hired at General Motors with the patented section. General Motors paid for his moving and his tuition at Georgetown University Law School. He graduated in 1973 from Law school.
       Ralph’s wife, Sandra attended six different universities during Ralph’s travels. She got her bachelors degree in sociology from George Washington University and her masters in social work at Catholic University. 
       Ralph then joined a Patent law firm in Washington D. C. He stayed with them until 1979 when he moved back to Ashtabula when Ralph’s mother decided to retire at the age of 67. She had been the first woman president of the Ashtabula Area Chamber of Commerce.
       Ralph’s father’s sister Eunice worked in the insurance agency for forty-three years until she was eighty-three. When computers came out she didn’t to lean learn computers so she retired.
       In 1967 the Humphrey Insurance Agency had purchased the Roger Griswold mansion on Prospect for $43,000.  
       The Griswolds had become quite wealthy from their greenhouses in Ashtabula. Roger Griswold was the descendant of the first Roger Griswold that came to Ashtabula. The first Roger Griswold was the first mayor of Ashtabula.
       If you have not been in the old Roger Griswold estate (now Humphrey Insurance) you are in for a treat. The former home is simply beautiful.
       The outer office from Ralph's office                               The Basement

                                         Handwriting on the wall by Roger Griswold

 
 
 

 

Ralph Humphrey Jr.
       Ralph’ brother, John had decided that selling insurance wasn’t his profession.
       John Humphrey started college in art. He was a very intelligent, artistic guy and very creative. He also did some beautiful paintings.
       He built a earth and bank passive solar four story house on Plymouth Ridge Road. John’s daughter Meeghan lives in the house now.
       John was known in town for his deer skin jacket with fringe and his leather hat.
       John had three children, Richard, Meeghan and Ryan. John died at age fifty-seven.
       Since Ralph came back to Ashtabula in 1979, he has been vice-president of city council, president of the Ashtabula Area Chamber of Commerce, president of the Harbor Merchants, and president of the Rotary.
       Ralph and Sandra had three children Greg, Jeff and Thad. Greg was born in 1959 and lives in Mechanicsville, Jeff was born in 1961 and lives in Connecticut. Jeff and his wife are both medical doctors. Thad was born in 1964 and lives in Bexley, Ohio.
       Ralph has four grandchildren, two grandsons and two granddaughters.
       Right before the closing of my interview with Ralph, he took me on a tour of the old Roger Griswold estate. I took videos and pictures of the old estate and they can be viewed on www.Ashtabula 200.com.
       In closing Ralph left some words of wisdom which we should all live by. “Make the most of it (life) while you have it. None of us are here permanently.”
 

Sarah & Daniel Humphrey (grandchildren)
 
          Sierra Humphrey - October 2000                    Hayden Humphrey - October 2000