The area of the townsite was established on May 23, 1907 with the sale of 282.7 acres of land owned by Omaha newspaper editor George L Miller to the Ralston Investment Company. A year later the town was platted by future Omaha mayor Roy N. Towl.[5] A petition to incorporate the property as a village was submitted to the Douglas County Board of Commissions on June 22, 1912, which was adopted by the Board two days later on June 24.[5]
The still nascent village experienced a devastating blow to its development on Easter, March 23, 1913, when a tornado tore through the downtown area.[5] The 1913 Easter Tornado was part of a March 1913 tornado outbreak sequence that ripped through the Southern and Midwestern regions of the United States.
In 1934, following a fire that destroyed half a city block, Ralston declared bankruptcy; it was one of the first cities in the United States to do so.