Favorite Links

Important links to relatives, friends, and work associates often develop a connection which can be properly viewed accurately from a distance. The long view of the modern era for the linked families and their friends and associates begins precisely where many historians place the modern era for North America. 1898 was the year Ralph Brothers was founded - the predecessor local firm to the regional giant, Abernathy Company; it was also the year when our biggest city emerged into a world-class destination, the U.S.A. entered into a major war, the year the future fiftieth state in the union was annexed and when science announced the discovery of five elements that changed our world. Here, then, is a brief, select list of establishments, accomplishments, notable births and deaths that took place when the Ralphs launched a laundry business in Texarkana, USA -  a seemingly small business entry that was part of what we now know was the first recognized ripple into the fastest-paced, most highly energized period of civilised advancement - the beginnings of modern history as we know it:

• New York City becomes City of Greater New York, then divided into the five boroughs
• The world's first fatality from an automobile accident is recorded in England
• The USS Maine explodes and sinks: U.S.A. declares war to be prosecuted against Spain
• The Yukon Territory is formed
• The U.S.A. annexes the Hawaiian Islands
• Caleb Bradham names his soft drink Pepsi-Cola
• The Treaty of Paris ends the Spanish-American War
• Marie and Pierre Curie announce their discovery of radium
• Ramsey and Travers discover neon, krypton, xenon and argon
• George Jessel, American comedian, is born
• C. S. Lewis, the writer, is born
• Armand Hammer, American entrepreneur, is born
• Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, American clergyman, is born
• Stephen Vincent Benet, American writer, is born
• George Gershwin, Amercian composer-musician, is born
• Lewis Carroll, British writer-mathematician, dies
• Henry Bessemer, inventor of the Bessemer (steel) process, dies
• William Seward Burroughs, inventor of the adding machine, dies
• "Jane's Fighting Ships", the reference publication, is founded
• Active authors widely read include Jospeh Conrad, Stephen Crane, Henry James, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells, Emile Zola
• Active playwrights include George Bernard Shaw and Gabriele D'Annunzio
• 'O Sole Mio' composed and lyrics set

While we can never hope to accurately guage the effect of any one of these occurances on the lives and thoughts of Ralphs, Rays and Abernathys, we can be certain the cumulative effect helped shape the way many Ralphs, Rays and Abernathys saw the modern era, participated in the Golden Age, the War-to-end-all-wars, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, the Swing Era, the Korean War (ongoing), the Beat Generation, Vietnam War, the Sexual Revolution, the Great Recession of 1979, the Go-Go Eighties, the Collapse of the Soviet Union, the Y2K Obsession, and the expanding Global War on Terrorism .

The following is a list useful links that the families have compiled. If you wish to be added to this list, please send us an e-mail.