Ralph Judd Whitmer
RALPH JUDD WHITMER HISTORICAL PROFILE
RALPH JUDD WHITMER – Historical Profile
1904-1982
Ralph Judd Whitmer was born on 23 October 1904, in Pima, Arizona. His mother Sarah Jane Judd Whitmer (known by all as Jennie) was 20 years old, and his father Angus Van Meter Whitmer was 25 years old at the time. Ralph was the second of 17 children. His older sibling, Angus, was 1 year old when he was born.
According to David Keith Whitmer the Whitmer children were raised, “in the lusty rugged and amazingly beautiful White Mountains of Alpine, Arizona where the mountains reach 8,000 feet in the sky of neverland. Alpine is now a resort but in the early 1900s it was a very small place where farmers raised their cattle, vegetables and did whatever it took to feed their families. The Whitmer children knew the Blue well, a place where the cattle grazed in the winter. All the children were raised riding horses. It was a place where everyone had to work and work hard. Seventeen children were born here. Four died.
Ralph’s brother, Lealand Claude was born two years later in 1906 and died of whooping cough on 8 August 1906. The next year in 1907 the family moved to Alpine, Arizona where Cecil would be born when Ralph was 3 years old. Another brother Harold would be born 2 years later in 1909.
In 1910, when Ralph was 6, Chuck was born. His sister, Geneva, was born in 1912 when Ralph was 8 years old, the same year as that of the sinking of the Titanic. Another sister, Ethel, was born in 1914 when Ralph was 9 years old, the same year as the beginning of World War I. Ralph’s brother, Ray was born in 1915 but died of pneumonia on 3 May 1917. That same year, Ralph’s brother, Afton, was born when Ralph was 12 years old.
In 1918, when Ralph was 14, a terrible flu pandemic struck the United States and the entire world. The Spanish Flu of 1918 infected over a third of the world’s population and killed more than 650,000 Americans alone, as the medical community desperately searched for better treatments or a vaccine. With World War I raging at the same time, it made for a very challenging year for just about everyone. Ralph’s brother, Lawrence, was born this year.
Ralph was 16 years old when the first public radio broadcast aired in 1920. A year later Ralph’s sister, Mary was born. Then in 1922 another brother, Vaughn, was born when Ralph was 18 years old.
Ralph’s family were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and according to her younger sister Fern’s account, “Church and religion was our whole life. We all got up and went to Church. I don’t know if I learned a lot. My parents were so busy I wasn’t given much time. Church and Sunday School on Sunday, Relief Society and Mutual on Tuesdays, Primary Wednesdays. Dances on the weekends. Family prayer sometimes around my parent’s bed.”
Ralph’s sisters, Faye and Fern, were born as twins in 1925.
Ralph’s youngest sisters Blanche and Bertha were stillborn as twins in 1928 and were pronounced dead at birth.
In 1930, just as the country was experiencing the collapse of the stock market and beginning a decade-long period of economic hardships in America known as the Great Depression, 26 year old Ralph married 20 year old Virginia Swapp in St. Johns, Arizona. 7 months later their first son Milford would join them, born on 14 July 1931. The family was living in Luna, New Mexico at the time. 19 months later a brother Allan would join the family.
By this time the family had moved back to the family homestead in Alpine, Arizona near Ralph’s mom and dad. In November of 1934 their son Leroy was born and then August of 1936 brought the birth of their only daughter Lois. The youngest child of Ralph and Virginia was born in 1938 just a year before World War II was about to descend on Europe.
When Ralph was 34 years old, World War II began in Europe, just two decades after the end of the First World War. It would become the most destructive conflict in recorded history.
The next decade brought the dawn of the Atomic age and the end of World War II (1945), the Korean War (1950), a Polio Vaccine in 1953, and the Vietnam conflict stretching from 1955-1975. During this time Ralph would see his father Angus Van Whitmer pass away at the age of 76. Ralph would have been 51 at the time. In 1961, Ralph and Virginia experienced the loss of their youngest son Ben at the age of 22. Ralph’s mother Jennie would live another 11 years until 1967 when she would also pass away at the age of 83.
This was a time of great change in culture, in technology, and in global events. Martin Luther King would lead the nation in a civil rights movement. United States astronauts would land on the moon in 1969. Beginning in 1970 Ralph would begin to see his siblings also begin to pass, starting with his sister Geneva in 1970 at the age of 61, and his brother Angus in 1977 at the age of 74.
Five years later, in 1982, Ralph passed away at the age of 77 in Cortez, Colorado.
Ralph Stories
PAM WHITMER ON RALPH’S FAMILY
Ralph Whitmer
It was snowing when Ralph and Virgie moved from Alpine to Cortez, Colorado. While they were moving, they had a cow that was calving. They waited for days but finally decided to put her in a cattle truck. Unfortunately, the calf’s ears and tail froze off. It was maybe 40 below when they left Alpine. And the window was broken in the truck.
When Ralph and Virgie moved to Cortez, I went out to watch them brand the cows. It was my first time. I was put in charge of numbering the cows as they were branded. I stopped at one point. Stopped in my tracks so to speak. Ralph came over and asked if I got ‘that number’ of the last calf. “No, I didn’t get it,” I said. He asked me, “What’s wrong?” Having been physically abused as a child, I asked him a childish question, “Doesn’t that hurt?” referring to the branding. He sat down beside me and said, “Because of the evils in the world, stealing, etc. it’s a necessary evil (to brand cows) but I don’t promote evil inany form.” It was a beautiful way to explain it to me so I wouldn’t worry about it anymore.
When our oldest son, Shane, got a BB gun for Christmas, he immediately went outside and started shooting, when he shot some of the windows out of Ralph’s shop. I told him, “Grandpa’s going to be mad, mad, mad.” I started marching him into the house. And I thought, here he goes (Uncle Ralph). Then when Shane saw Grandpa Ralph, he said, “Grandpa, I shot a hole in the window with my BB gun.” Pam was waiting for things to start flying. Instead, Ralph said, “It’s okay. Just promise Grandpa you won’t do it again.” He kept him on his lap and loved on him. He was such a gentle loving man.
I was a junior in high school when Ralph and Virgie’s son, Ben, was killed. He was born in 1938. He died in 1961. He was only 23 years old. He was killed in a head on car wreck. The first person to come across it, was Allan, his brother. Then his cousin, Ben Swapp, his mother’s family, who was a policeman, came on the scene. Ben died in Allan’s arms. When they were at the funeral in Kirtland, Ralph was absolutely broken hearted. He and Virgie wept at the casket. I could hardly stand it. Grandma Virgie had them open the casket twice before they could say goodbye to him and bury him. Ralph didn’t have a mean bone in his body. The lady who was also hit, was killed too and she had little children.
Uncle Ralph had great compassion. He gave me permission to heal from my problems. I suffered from physical child abuse while I was growing. I was very traumatized when I married into the family. Uncle Ralph took me under his wing so to speak and always loved on me and comforted me. I totally healed from my abuse and give the credit to my father-in-law.
LOOK-A-LIKES
This is an interesting sidelight that has nothing to do with Ralph or Virgie. Uncle Cecil’s grandson, Jared, and my son, Shane, look exactly alike. Allan, who has passed on, always said that Shane looked like Uncle Don. And now both of the boys resemble Uncle Don.