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FROM THE BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF PRIMITIVE OR OLD SCHOOL BAPTIST MINISTERS BY DAVID MONTGOMERY AND MARK GREEN:
SUBMITTED BY KENNETH RATCLIFF:
Elder Cornish L. Ratcliff was born in Scott County, Ky., on March 1, 1899. He and his wife, Mattie, joined Ray's Fork Church on Sept. 16, 1933, while attending a service conducted by Eld. S. E. Angle at a church of another faith. They were baptized the next morning with his brother, Otto, he having joined at the water. Having a feeling that he had a call to the ministry, he began to exercise publicly in November 1936, and after a year or more the church called for his ordination to the full work of the ministry, which was done August 10, 1938.
Elder Ratcliff pastored Liberty Church in Estill County and Winchester Church in Winchester, Ky., Clark County, before feeling impressed to move to near Monroe, N. C. in May 1954. About six months later he was called to pastor Cool Springs Church near Travelers Rest, S.C. He lived in North Carolina over nine years before moving to South Carolina in January 1964, and continued serving Cool Springs through 1967. Before becoming disabled by old age, he moved back to Kentucky to be near their two sons and their families in November 1969, and joined Sugar Grove Church near Liberty, Indiana. In January 1972, he had a heart attack followed by three more attacks during the next few years, and had been unable to serve as a pastor since the first attack. Sister Ratcliff died on Feb. 10, 1986.
In October 1995, Elder Ratcliff, his son Kenneth and his wife, received letters of dimission and joined Middle Run Church near Waynesville, Ohio. The last sermon he preached was at Middle Run in October 1995. From about the middle of January 1996, he was in St. Luke Hospital until he died on Feb. 7. |
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