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an independent town. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad system acquired both lines, and it eventually merged into the giant CSX Corporation, from which the Latonia site was acquired. The museum collection features 20th-century freight and passenger railroad equipment of seven major railroad systems that served the Greater Cincinnati region, set on 16 outdoor rail tracks to provide an authentic working rail yard environment. Notable pieces in the collection include two kitchen-equipped dining cars, a 1910 Post Office car, Pullman sleeper cars with private compartments, an authentic caboose with windowed cupola and crew living quarters, an army sleeper car used to transport troops across the country during World War II, and a 1906 plush and polished private car of a railroad vice president, which served as a traveling office and living quarters. Visitors are invited to climb aboard selected rail cars. Franzen, Gene. “Now and Then,” KE, October 15, 2000, B1–B2. Hyde, Tim, executive vice president for operations of the Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati. Interview by Rebecca Mitchell Turney, June 29, 2005, Latonia, Ky. The Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati. Brochure. Latonia, Ky.: Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati, 2004.
Rebecca Mitchell Turney
R.A. JONES & COMPANY INC. Lexington dentist and entrepreneur Dr. Ruel Anderson Jones founded this company in 1905. He was born around 1874 in the western part of the state at Columbia. The company’s first product was a novelty “advertising soap,” a bar of toilet soap with a pressed label encased in wax on one side, which would last as long as the soap. In 1910 Jones moved to Covington. Before 1912 each bar of soap that his company made had to be set by hand, but in that year Jones and his plant superintendent, Harry Struewing, fashioned the first automatic soap press, increasing productivity 10-fold. In 1913 Jones built a plant in Covington on E. 15th St. Realizing that the company’s future was not in soap but in the manufacturing process, Jones sold the soap business and in 1919 introduced the first of his many automatic cartoning machines. In 1921 the Procter & Gamble Company of Cincinnati, the world’s largest manufacturer of soap products, purchased the first Jones cartoner to package soap. By 1933 most of the world’s mass-produced consumer products (for example, razor blades, toothpaste, and soaps) were being packaged by Jones-made machines, equipment such as the Constant Motion Cartoner Machine, which packaged and sealed both solid and semisolid articles. In 1966 R.A. Jones & Company moved to a new 235,000-square-foot plant in Crescent Springs, Ky.; today it employs 500 workers. The company has become a world leader in the manufacturing of high-speed packaging machinery. Some of its equipment can package up to 2,500 items per minute. R.A. Jones & Company’s industrial machines are known for their simplicity, long life, speed, and efficiency. The Jones client list includes Anheiser
Busch, Kraft, Kellogg’s, and P&G. Until 1987 the company had had only two presidents, R. A. Jones himself and his son, Wickliffe. R. A. Jones, who lived at 422 Wallace Ave. in Covington, died October 20, 1941, at Holmes Hospital in Cincinnati; Wickliffe Jones, who held some 21 patents, died at his Indian Hill home on the east side of Cincinnati February 18, 1989. Both are buried in the family lot at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell. In 1998 R.A. Jones & Company, a privately held venture, was sold to the British conglomerate BWI, which in turn has been sold to the German company IWKA. Marketing its goods and ser vices to the food, beverage, electronics, communications, and pharmaceutical industries, the company has annual sales of close to $50 million and sees its future growth coming from international markets. Only twice did the company fail to show a profit, in 1945 and in 1946. It is proud that there have been no layoffs of employees since 1953. Today, R.A. Jones & Company is one of the largest exporters of goods in the Northern Kentucky region. For almost 100 years, the company has been a successful and innovative firm employing many Northern Kentuckians. Today, it is part of OYSTAR Jones (formerly IWKA). “Dr. R.A. Jones Widely Known Inventor Dies,” CP, October 21, 1941, 2. Obituary, CP, February 20, 1989, 2C. OYSTAR Jones. “R.A. Jones & Company Inc.” www .rajones.com (accessed December 10, 2006). “R.A. Jones Deal Protects Employees,” KP, August 18, 1898, B18. “R.A. Jones Manufacturing,” NKH 13, no. 2 (Spring– Summer 2006): 2–12. Slade, Adele. “Intricate Machines Made in Covington Package Large Part of World’s Products,” KP, September 25, 1933, 1.
RAMAGE, JAMES A., CIVIL WAR MUSEUM. See James A. Ramage Civil War Museum.
RANDOLPH, JAMES E. (b. January 17, 1888, Hannibal, Mo.; d. May 23, 1981, Newport, Ky.). James E. Randolph was an African American medical doctor who practiced in Covington for 59 years. He was the first African American permitted to practice in any Northern Kentucky hospital. Randolph graduated from the Meharry Medical School in Nashville, Tenn., in 1917. The grandson of a slave, he worked his way through medical school as a railroad Pullman porter. Randolph began his practice at Shelbyville, Tenn. He served in the U.S. Army Medical Reserve Corps in World War I. In 1922 Randolph moved to Covington. He lived first at 1039 Greenup St. and later, in 1950, moved across the street to 1002 Greenup. Randolph was the staff physician at the LincolnGrant School in Covington for more than 40 years. In 1973, after the school’s name was changed to 12th District School, he began treating children from the school at his nearby office. A grove of trees on the campus of Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights memorializes Randolph’s achievements. In 1974 the City of Covington named an Eastside neighborhood
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park in his honor. In 1976 he received from the parochial La Salette Academy in Covington a Gold Medal for ser vice to the community. He was an active member of the St. James A.M.E. Church in Covington. He died in 1981, at age 93, at the Baptist Convalescent Center in Newport, following cataract surgery, and was buried at the Mary E. Smith Cemetery in Elsmere. On May 9, 1997, Randolph was inducted into the region’s Leadership Hall of Fame during ceremonies held by the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. He was acknowledged as the first African American physician on staff at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Covington and as the first African American member of the Campbell-Kenton Medical Society. A Kentucky Historical Society Highway Marker along Greenup St. was dedicated to Randolph on September 10, 2004. “Dr. Randolph Was ‘There to Help Us,’ ” KP, May 25, 1981, 1K. “He’s 85 . . . Still One of the Busiest Doctors,” KP, February 15, 1973, 11. “Leaders Who Made Mark Inducted in Hall of Fame,” KP, April 29, 1997, 3K. “N. Ky. Hall Adds Th ree,” KE, May 9, 1997, C1–C2. “Pioneering Covington Physician Recognized,” KP, September 11, 2004, B1. “Portrait of an Epic Journey,” KP, June 1, 1995, 1K. “Students’ Book Celebrates Covington’s Black History,” KP, February 26, 1997, 2K.
Theodore H. H. Harris
RATTERMAN, GEORGE (b. November 26, 1926, Cincinnati, Ohio; d. November 3, 2007, Centennial, Colo.). George William Ratterman, the son of Leander and Claribell Cahill Ratterman, made Northern Kentucky history in two areas: sports and politics. He grew up on Burch Ave. in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Cincinnati and graduated from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati in 1944. Ratterman attended the University of Notre Dame in the summer of 1944 in the V-12 naval officer college program. After two years there, he was accepted by the Notre Dame law school (standard practice for medical and law schools during the war). He took law classes at Notre Dame, the University of Michigan, and a few other law schools before eventually graduating from Salmon P. Chase Law School (see Chase College of Law). In 1947 quarterback Ratterman led the College Football All-Stars to victory over the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) in the annual College All-Star game in Chicago. He played 10 years of professional football: 3 with the Buffalo Bills of the old All-America Football Conference (1947–1949), 2 with the New York Yanks of the NFL (1950–1951), and 5 with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns (1952–1956). He also played one season (1951) with the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League. Injuries cut short his football career in 1956. After retirement, he worked for ABC (1960–1964) and NBC (1965–1973) as a television commentator on AFL and NFL game broadcasts. Ratterman worked as an investment adviser in Cincinnati while attending the Salmon P. Chase