Background
Polk, Ralph Lane was born on September 12, 1849 in Bellefontaine, Ohio, United States. Son of Review David and Mary Charlotte (Warner) Polk.
Polk, Ralph Lane was born on September 12, 1849 in Bellefontaine, Ohio, United States. Son of Review David and Mary Charlotte (Warner) Polk.
Educated Pennington (New Jersey) Seminary.
Enlisted as musician in Company G, 40th New York Volumes, at age of 15, remaining in service 8 months. Honorary mustered out, August 1865. Entered directory business at Indianapolis, Indiana, 1869.
Removed to Detroit, 1870, and organized R. L. Polk & Company, now the largest publications of directories in the world, of which he is the dominant head.
Mason.
Married Amelia Francis Hopkins, of Greenwich, England, September 17, 1877.