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About ten miles southwest of Lafayette (on the Wabash Railroad line) stands West Point, where Walter Jones and Laura Boswell resided at the close of the 19^th century. [1] At that time the town offered numerous amenities: a 2-story hotel, blacksmith shop, wagon shop, tannery, boot maker, bakery, opera house, pool hall, ice-skating rink, and the offices of five doctors and two attorneys. [2] Nevertheless the community remained small (1909 population: 300), in part because West Point’s young adults often fled to Indiana’s more populous cities. [3]

A case in point is the family of Walter Jones. After the birth of Ralph Boswell in 1897, the family relocated to Marion, Indiana, where in 1903 the couple’s second child, Charles W., was born.[4] In Marion they stayed for several years, but for whatever reason—perhaps Walter couldn’t sell enough furnace parts or Laura pined for her family—the family pulled up stakes again and by 1910 was living in West Point. [5] Having settled back in, the boys attended one of Wayne Township’s one-room schoolhouses and the family dwelled (in harmony?) with Laura’s mother and sister, Josephine and Maude Edith Boswell. [6] Restless, however, Walter remained. So in 1914 his family moved again—to nearby Lafayette. [7]

At that time, according to the Census Bureau estimate, the population of Lafayette, Indiana, was 20,912. Three electric interurban lines and a street railway system traversed the city. Four steam railroads—the Wabash, Monon, Lake Erie and Western—hauled freight and folks to New York and San Francisco, Chicago and New Orleans. As the Lafayette 1918 City Directory boasted, “within a few hours ride are practically one-half the people of the United States.”  The city also hosted 69 manufacturing plants, including one plant that manufactured steering gears for 133 makes of “automobile trucks”. A beef and pork packing plant in Lafayette annually slaughtered 78,000 hogs, 5,200 lambs and 2,600 calves. And the stock farm of Lafayette claimed eminence as the country’s largest importer of Belgian horses. [8]

Within the limits of this thriving city, Walter Jones bought a modest one-and-a-half story home at 901 North Tenth Street. The house was constructed of wood, and sported a brick porch. Its corner location meant that every school day as Ralph and Charles stepped out the front door, they could peer across the intersection at larger all-brick homes and, perhaps, dream of prosperity. [9]

Jefferson High School became the alma mater of Ralph (and later, Charles) Jones. From September 1913 to June 1915, Ralph attended “Jeff” (as it was called) and studied geometry, physics, literature and other challenging subjects. Although an average student, Ralph excelled at Glee Club (a young men’s choir). [10] The school yearbook described him as follows: “Aside from being aspirant to the title of Caruso II, Ralph has other ambitions. He is very much addicted to chewing gum and eating sundaes, and as a pastime visits the Star frequently. He has not made a decision as to his future occupation.” [11]

At the Star—one of Lafayette’s movie houses (which included the Arc, Lyric, and Orpheum)—patrons could enjoy Dorothy Gish in “I’ll Get Him Yet,” June Elvidge in “His Father’s Wife,” and 24-year-old Charles Chaplin in “The Floor Walker”. Also available for viewing were novelty bicycle acts, comedy sketches and ventriloquists. [12]

In Ralph’s younger years, women’s suffrage and prohibition took hold, Thomas Edison experimented with “talking” motion pictures, and Germans threatened to overrun Europe. In those days politicians promised to provide “running water on every farm in Indiana” and veterans of Gettysburg planned an anniversary. One could ride the Wabash Railroad to Denver for $32.75 (round trip) or purchase cambric petticoats for 79 cents, bearskin coats for $2.00, trimmed hats for $2.95 or a man’s suit for $15. A brand new car—the Maxwell Runabout, sporting a 16 horsepower engine, gas lamp, and roof—could be had for $600. And sports editorials debated whether Babe Ruth’s batting prowess was really worth $125,000 a season.[13]

Dorothy Dorner

Also attending Jefferson High School was Ralph’s future bride, Dorothy Dorner, who belonged to a family of hard-working entrepreneurs.[14] By the turn of the century, her grandparents—stalwarts of the Dorner and Prass families—were firmly established in Lafayette.[15] They had emigrated from Germany to the United States in the mid-1800s and within a generation were operating successful businesses along Lafayette’s Main Street. At 640 Main stood the retail outlet of F. Dorner and Sons, Florists. [16] Dorothy’s paternal grandfather, Frederick Dorner, had founded a florist firm specializing in carnations in 1870, and by 1898 (when Dorothy was born) Frederick was growing flowers in seventeen greenhouses and shipping them throughout the United States and overseas. [17] Unusual for that era, a businesswoman also helped manage the florist business: Emily Dorner, Dorothy’s aunt, was Vice-President of the firm in 1911. [18] (As Dorothy recalled, “Aunt Nelly [Emily] … ran the downtown store.”) [19] Also on Main Street was Nicholas F. Prass, Dorothy’s uncle, who sold wines and liquors, and Robert Prass (another Prass relative) who presided over the Prass Shoe Company. [20] Together, these three family businesses kept the community well stocked in bedding plants, wingtips and Chardonnay.

On humid summer days Dorothy could stroll down Main Street and visit Uncle Nick, who sat in his liquor store with its big wine casks and joked with those who happened by. [21] She could embroider in the family parlor and revel at the wonders of Europe with Aunt Emma Prass, who lived with Dorothy’s family, taught 8^th grade at the local Ford School and traveled widely. [22] Dorothy could meander through the country with her friend, Lucy Harter, or ponder carnations and roses and chrysanthemums with Uncle Herman Dorner, floriculture professor at the University of Illinois.[23] Also near at hand was Dorothy’s father, Fred. His main duty was helping manage the florist business in Lafayette, but he also functioned as Secretary-Treasurer of the American Carnation Society. In that capacity, he would sometimes travel, collecting treasures for his family. As Dorothy later recalled:“They’d have meetings in Atlantic City and Chicago and places like that and every time he came home from one of those places he’d bring her [Eda, his wife] something pearl-handled. That’s how she got that pearl-handled set [of knives].” [24]

At age 14 Dorothy entered Jefferson High School and began her studies in botany and chemistry, geometry and algebra, Latin and German. She excelled in literature—reading required texts from Dickens, Poe, Emerson, Hawthorne, Shakespeare—and functioned as the literary editor of the school’s yearbook. Throughout high school Dorothy stretched her vocal chords in the Girls Glee Club. In Dorothy’s senior year the young ladies performed at the Parker School of Music, the Teacher’s Convention in Indianapolis, the School Organization Entertainment, the Grade and High School Musicale, and the Oratorical Primary. They also vocalized at the Annual Concert where, under the able direction of Miss Rena Rice, Dorothy and 35 other glee-clubbers sat on stage, belting out tunes as they embroidered.[25]

Dorothy completed her studies at Jefferson High School in January 1916, but as she later recalled, “January was no time to go away to college a’tall”. [26] So she worked in her father’s store until September, then departed for Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. There she studied English, mathematics, zoology, botany and psychology. As she recalled, “I went to Northwestern, and then one year Dad couldn’t afford to send me to Northwestern so I went to Purdue for one year. Then I went back to Northwestern and graduated.” [27] In fact, Dorothy graduated in June 1921 with honors, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology, with minors in Psychology and English Education. [28]  

Ralph at Purdue

After completing high school in June 1915, Ralph enrolled at Purdue University, located across the Wabash River in West Lafayette.[29] Annual tuition at the university was free to Indiana residents (non-residents were required to shell out a whopping $25 a year). [30] Purdue had six schools: Agriculture, including horticulture, animal husbandry, and dairying; Science; Mechanical Engineering; Civil Engineering; Electrical Engineering; and Pharmacy.[31] Ralph started at the School of Science because, as Dorothy Jones later recalled, “he always wanted to be a physician.”[32] Immersing himself in biology, mechanical drawing, chemistry, physics, English, French and German, Ralph maintained a solid “B” average and garnered “A”s in military drill. [33]

Although he would remain a lifelong member of Purdue’s Alumni Association, Ralph actually attended the university for less than two years, September 11, 1915 to May 10, 1917. [34] After America declared war on Germany in April 1917, Ralph enlisted. Consequently his sophomore year was cut short, and he never returned to Purdue. [35]

[35] Ibid.

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