He represented the delta parishes: Tensas, Madison, East Carroll, and Concordia,[1] a rich farming region along the Mississippi River in eastern Louisiana ranging from Vidalia to Lake Providence.
Bonds Ratcliff, also a graduate of Jefferson Military Academy, was a plantation manager and a deputy to Tensas Parish Sheriff John Hughes.
In 1930, Bonds Ratcliff succeeded William Mackenzie Davidson as the mayor of the parish seat of St. Joseph, a position which he held until 1932.
[4] Both Clyde and Bonds Ratcliff married daughters of the wealthy planter Douglass Muir, who died in August 1918.
Ratcliff died at home; after services at Newellton Union Church, he was interred at Legion Memorial Cemetery.