Ralph Delano SLOSSON

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1910, Living with parents in Monrovia, Los Angeles Co., California
• Census: 1920, Living with mother in Monrovia, Los Angeles Co., California
• Census: 1930, Living in Monrovia, Los Angeles Co., California
• Occupation: 1930; Cashier
• Military Service: 10 Nov 1942; Enlisted - U.S. World War II Army

Notes:

"George Slawson: An American Pioneer" by Harold D. Slosson - Frank Slosson's second son, gifted with a good speaking voice and fine hand-writing, has been the family correspondent.
During school days honors came to Rallh. He was the leading man in his senior class play. In the pre-TV period, townspeople turned out generally to see the play, with local town publicity specially featuring it.
After high school, Ralph attened business college. At that time, in addition to the study of business fundamentals, good handwriting was stressed. However, the Spencerian style came to him, he is without doubt the best penman in the family.
Ralph's first position was with the First National Bank....this bankd subsequently became a branch of the Security-Pacific bank, the second largest bank in California.
Next, Ralph served the Monrovia Building & Loan Company, which eventually became the Brentwood Savings & Loan Assn. of Beverly Hills...He handled property in the Michilinda area near Huntington Drive. Now a shopping center is near there, with the Santa Anita Fashion Center being not far away.
Starting during high school days, Ralph became interested in youth work. Initially he taught a boys' Sunday School class, and for many years he helped the YMCA of that area. Additionally he had served the Boy Scouts in many important capacities.
During World War II, although older than many concerned, he had been with an air force unit in Florida.
Ralph helped his mother, Nellie Slosson, during her declining years. Now he lives in Monrovia with his wife, Gabrielle, who has been one of the leaders in the Monrovia Business & Professional Women's Club. Gifted with a fine voice, Garielle sang for many years in her church choir. She shared another talent by teaching French language students...

Ralph married Gertrude LEWIS [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ralph married Gabrielle TODD on 24 Jun 1958 in Nevada. Gabrielle was born on 30 May 1893; died in Jan 1977 in Monrovia, Los Angeles County, California. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1880, living with parents in Kensett Twp., Worth Co., Iowa
• Occupation: 1880; Works on the Farm
• Census: 1900, Living in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado
• Occupation: 1900; Coal Miner
• Census: 1910, Living in Monrovia, Los Angeles Co., California
• Occupation: 1910; Real Estate Agent

Notes:

"George Slawson: An American Pioneer" - by Harold D. Slosson
Frank was the adventurer, who, with his wife Nellie Dye, raised a family of six children. In spite of doing this, in his lifetime he was able to take part in many exciting things. Examples are holding down a Dakota timber claim, joining in the Oklahoma land rush, staking mining claims in Colorado's Cripple Creek gold camp, and developing sagebrush land near the Mojave Desert.....
After completion of elementary school, for a time Frank went to Osage Academy, located in Iowa's Mitchell County. Finally he attended Iowa State University at Ames, which had courses in agriculture, engineering, mechanical arts, etc. While there, he was a membe of the National Guard. Still preserved is a badge he received reading "Best Drilled Company, College Battalion, I.A.C., 1885".
Frank attended Iowa State University one year, it is known, and he may have gone there longer. Next, for three terms he taught school, with possibly a part of the time being in the Slosson country school....
Frank teamed up with another young Northwood man, an old family friend believed to be named Atwood. These two ytoung men took adjacent timber claims, located somewhere in the Dakotas, not then divided into North and South Dakota. It was rugged country, too, with some Sioux Indians, it is believed, still in the area.
Frank Slossn and young Atwood, living in cabins at adjacent corners of their respective "160s," did their cooking ("batching") together. It was an enjoyable period, but perhaps without the challenge of social contacts. After the prescribed year of work, Frank relinquished his claim and went back to Northwood.....
Frank accepted a position in the Railway Mail Service tht had benn offered to him. He would travel on the train and see that the mail went through. Earlier, all mail had been sorted at the respective post offices along the railroad line. Time-consuming for the postmasters, that method had slowed down mail collection and delivery as well. Then came the concept of having trained men traveling on a special mail car. They would continuously sort mail picked up in bags stationed by the tracks. The sorted mail would next go into other bags which were tossed off at new stations in succession. This railway mail service, it is recorded, worked well from the start.
Frank became a guardian and classifer of the U.S. Mail, with a chance to see that part of the country....
Frank was granted a leave of absence from the railway mail service to go to Oklahoma. To enter the land race..... Troops stood guard on the borders of this land to hold back the horde of prospective settlers. Then, on April 22, 1889, at the prescribed hour, bugles blew, and the big Oklahoma land rush was one.....According to the plan of this land opening, the entrant had the option of lots or of land. Frank chose lots, going right where the train took him - to what turned out to be the center of Oklahoma City....
Frank staked lots, camped on them, and held off all usurpers. He lived there for a while, probably "batching" in a tent. Around him in that immediate area almost instantaneously 15,000 people had come.....
It was probably a month or two before Frank had sold out and returned to Northwood. Frank's position was still open, and he continued with the railway mail service for some years thereafter.
Before going back to work for the railway mail service, he did have a moment of glory in this hometown of Northwood. After purchasing a new suit, it is recorded, he went around visiting old friends who immediately, in a grand welcome, dubbed him "Oklahoma." Frank was someone; he had participated in perhaps the greatest land rush of all time......
He had a romance with a pleasant young Northwood woman by the name of Nellie Dye. A popular member of Northwood's first high school graduating class. Nellie was also an artist, using crayons and oils for painting portraits and landscapes.....Interested in poetry, too, Hamlet had been her junior class essay assignment. Additionally she played the organ, having, one of the old pump types with tremolo and other stops for various effects....
Frank had an adventurour spirit and so, in 1894, after the depression of that year, he decided to leave the railway mail service... He decided to go to Colorado Springs, close to Cripple Creek.... Their new home, Colorado Springs, was over a mile high, the elevation being 5,980 feet....At first, according to Nellie in later years, they lived in La Verne, a place not now existent, on the Cripple Creek side of Colorado Springs. Here was born Harold Dye Slosson.... Eventually the family moved to their permanent home in Colorado Springs at 828 Spruce Street, near Mesa.
Frank, having friends in Colorado Springs, and some savings, went into the business of selling real estate and mining stocks. This latter helped the prospector to commercialize his mineral discovery. One of his business cards shows "McGill & Slosson, Real Estate, Mining Stocks, Loans & Insurance," with its location at 107 South Tejon Street. For a time, also, he was associated with C.S. Wilson, with the Colorado Springs Board of Trade & Mining Exchange, listing these partners in their directory as members in good standing.....
Partnership was common in those mining days.... He had a couple of mining claims with his father-in-law, Nelson T. Dye, in te rugged Tarrall area of Park County....In partnership with tow other Colorado Springs businessmen, mark L. Dorr and Alexander Merideth, Frank purchased some 160 acres just north of town....The partners soon surmised that down below the land surface was a layer of coal.....A Mr. Corley, who had come into the area with considerable means, leased the property from Frank and his associates on a royalty basis. A two-carpartment shaft was sunk some 477 feet deep, where they found the coal layers, as predicted...
In 1903, for the best interests of their family, Frank and Nellie decided to leave Colorado to make a new start in California.... It was just in tiem, too, for here is a quote about what happened in Cripple Creek: "In 1903 and 1904, one of the bloodiest strikes in the annals of labor started the decline of the (Cripple Creek) Gold Camp. Miners moved their families over night from the terror, and fear turned lose in the district"...
Finally the Slosson family came to the end of their travel at monrovia, California......On his arrival in Monrovia and for a while thereafter, Frank was associated with his brother, Charley, in the latter's real estate office on the main street in the center ot town..... Frank, however, had left the railway mail service in order to have his own independent business. Thus, after a time, he opened his own real estate office in Pasadena, nine miles west of Monrovia.....His first office was just north of the main street, close to a public park. Later he moved into a large, newly constructed office building on the main street, Colorado Avenue.
Frank soon became associated with business groups. He was a member of the Pasadena Board of Trade, which played an important part in the growth and development of the city. He was also a member, taking an active interest in the pasadena Realty Board. Meanwhile, in his residence town, always loyal to his political part, for a time he was president of the Monrovia-Duarte Democratic Club......
In 1918 came the great flu epidemic, one of the most disastrous of all time. And so it came about that on january 30, 1919, Frank Slosson - adventurer, developer, and father of six children - passed one, being laid to reast in Live Oak Cemetery in Monrovia.....
Nellie was a member of the WCTU, having seen woe and sorrow caused by liquor in the Colorado miners. Additionally, always of first interest was her church, which fortunately was within easy walking distance. For many years she had been a regular member, serving on various commitees as well. Now, on the east wall of that church she had fathfully served for a half century, is located a beautiful stained glass window, the "Moses" window, which was dedicated to the memory of Nellie Dye Slosson in a special ceremony.
Although Nellie, with her small frame, had appeared frail, nevertheless, she had a surprising amount of quick energy, with much endurance as well. She was also blessed with longevity, remaining active and mentally alert until just past her eighty-eighth birthday. Then she had a hip fracture, with complications from which she never recovered. And so, on August 20, 1953, she was called Home, with her buiral place being beside Frank in the Family plot in Live Oak Cemetery, Monrovia.

Frank married Nellie Miranda DYE on 10 Oct 1889 in Northwood, Worth County, Iowa. Nellie (daughter of Nelson Timberlake DYE and Martha Jane STONE) was born on 16 Aug 1865 in Wisconsin; died on 20 Aug 1953 in Monrovia, Los Angeles County, California; was buried in Live Oak Cemetery, Monrovia, Los Angeles Co., California. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Daughter of Nelson Timberlake and Martha Jane (Stone) Dye
• Census: 1900, Living with husband in Colorado Springs, El Paso Co., Colorado
• Census: 1910, Living with husband in Monrovia, Los Angeles Co., California
• Census: 1920, Living in Monrovia, Los Angeles Co., California

Notes:

Obituary Notice - Los Angeles Times - Aug 21, 1953

SLOSSON, Nellie Dye, of Monrovia, loving mother of Harold D. Slosson of South San Gabriel, Ralph D. Slosson of Monrovia, Mrs. Will E. Janicki of Wilmington, Mrs. Ernest G. Bashor and Mrs. Horace A. Bashor of Los Angeles and Mrs. Claire C. Crawford of Santa Paula.
Services Saturday 2:30 p.m. at chapel of the W.B. Temple Mortuary, Monrovia