6. JOHN HENRY C. RANDALL, born November 20, 1831 in Roxbury, Massachusetts; died March 11, 1916 in St. Paul, Ramsey Country, Minnesota; buried 1916 in Oakland Cemetery, St. Paul, Minnesota: Block 8, Lot 51. He was the son of 2. William Hannaford Randall and Elizabeth Colburn. He married 1) Emma Louisa Boggs December 11, 1851, Norfolk Baptist Church, presumably in New York, New York; divorced February 28, 1865, St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota; and 2) 17. Sarah Arvila Oakes January 1, 1866 in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota. 1) Emma Louisa Boggs, born between September 4, 1835 and September 3, 1836 in New York; died in Chicago, Ill. very roughly about 1870. She was the daughter of William G. Boggs. 2) Sarah Arvila Oakes, born February 20, 1843 in China, St. Clair County, Michigan; died December 14, 1902 in St. Paul, Minnesota; buried 1902 in Oakland Cemetery, St. Paul, Minnesota: Block 8, Lot 51. She was the daughter of John Mead Oakes and Minerva G. Kenyon.
“John Henry Randall … was born on November 20th, 1831, in Roxbury, during one of his mother’s visits home [from New York City]. He came ahead of time, was just a little more than a seven month’s baby, & no one expected he would live to grow up. On top of that he had the cholera when that awful scourge swept the country-while he was under two year of age & was given up then [Incidentally that was why, up to the day of his death, he could never eat certain things.] - but he outlived his whole family! …. After Papa completed, what today we would call high school he was sent to a private school there in New York, & was there he had his Latin & French & a wonderful foundation in English, on which he was always building. In 1847, at the age of sixteen, he went into a wholesale silk business.”
He worked in the silk house from then until he departed for St. Paul in 1856. According to the New York City Directories, he was a clerk in 1852/53, residing at William Hannaford Randall’s home at 171 Rivington St., where he remained through 1853/54. A J. H. Randall residing at 310 Madison Ave. in 1854/55 may also have been him. He first married one Emma Louisa Boggs. “Emma Boggs & Aunt Mary [John’s younger sister] were school-mates at a select private school & became the closest of friends & consequently Papa was thrown in close companionship with her from the time they were in their early teens. In all my life Papa never mentioned her to me but once, & that was the last time Will [John and Emma’s son] was home. Papa told me that he was giving Will the Shakespear to take home with him, & when I said “Oh” -- because I knew we all wanted that set -- I got no further, for he said “that belonged to Willie’s mother. I gave it to her, & he is to have it.”-But Mama used to see her at the church &c, & she told me that she was a strikingly handsome woman, tall, stately, a brunett, reserved & dignified in manner, & very scholarly. Mama said once Uncle D. D. had taken her & Uncle George to a S. S. picnic at Anoka & Papa & his wife were there-Mama said she … was very much impressed not only by her beauty & manner but by the fact that she had a book with her, & after visiting for a while would go & sit by herself & read …. I remember Mama’s telling me that Will’s mother was a very fine musician too …. Yes, she came from a very fine family. Her father had been a minister, & later became an editor. Will, on his last visit, told me much of his relatives, for Papa had insisted that he keep in touch with them & he-Will,--told me he could never thank Papa enough for it. His Aunt Mary Boggs, had married a very prominent doctor who for years held an important post in Washington, & Will had visited them several times. His Aunt Flora Boggs was married & lived in Saratoga for years, where he saw & visited her frequently, & his uncle was a successful artist, had had several pictures “hung” in Paris-lived there-tho’ Will had seen him too when he was home on visits. So you see it was a very fine family. Will’s Revolutionary record was very fine Israel Putnam was one ancestor, I remember. Papa & Miss Boggs were married in ’52 when Papa was just twenty-one, & she some younger, & they kept house there in New York. Papa was with that wholesale silk house you remember. Willie was born April 13, 1853, there. Mrs. Boggs-as far as Papa knew-or her own children-at least for many years-was “very much of an invalid” & for months at a time had to be in a “Sanatorium”. It was most unfortunate & unkind, that Papa was never told the truth, or he could have guarded his wife more carefully, for she was a “dipsomaniac”, of the worst kind, & when Will was born, his mother was so long in regaining her strength that the doctor -- Dr Shell -- ordered beer to bring her strength back. Papa got it for her of course for they all used those things in Grandpa & Grandma’s family & thot nothing of it, but it was the very worst thing that could have been done for her, for it wakened the disease in her. At first, the spells were not so long, nor so frequent. Still Papa had to take all the responsibility of Willie from the very first almost, had to hire the nurses, look after his food, & care for him nights when ever he was sick, never dared trust him to his mother. He might go away in the morning leaving her all right, only to come home at night to find her dead to everything in a drunken stupor. You remember a careless nurse let Willie fall down the front steps & never told Papa, ‘til some time later Papa noticed Willie holding his arm peculiarly & upon investigation, found out what had happened & that Willie couldn’t walk. He had everything done for him, that science knew what to do & while his leg grew stronger, his arm & hand were never normal & his mother was so drunk she never knew or cared about her baby. Pathetic! It’s simple enough to put these words on paper, but oh what Papa must have suffered! -- In disillusionment & humiliation. He stood it, there in New York with matters growing decidedly worse all the time, ‘til ’56, when he came west to visit his Father & Mother. Grandpa’s affairs had become such a business of his own real estate & loans that he wanted Papa to help him. So Papa went back & settled up his affairs & made provision for his wife & Willie, nurse & caretaker &c. & came back to St. Paul to live in ’57, hoping to get away from the disgrace & awfulness of it all. He hadn’t been here very long before Willie appeared. His mother had sent him out to Papa & pled so hard to be allowed to come too. When she came I don’t remember, but I know they lived for years in one of those “brown-stone fronts” on Wabashaw St. opposite the “old Capitol”, for Willie has told me many things of how Papa played with him there & things they used to do together &c. It wasn’t long before their family physician in New York Dr. Shell, came to St. Paul, & then poor Papa had to suffer further disgrace & humiliation, & it was his following of Mrs. Randall & actions with her &c, that gave Papa Bible reasons for divorce. When after a long debauch she came back home bringing a baby that she said she had felt sorry for & adopted & soon after it died & she insisted that it be buried on the family lot. [That was one of the few times I remember Papa & Mama having serious words Mama wanted “that child” removed from the Randall lot, when Ruth was buried. I knew nothing of the matter, at the time I overheard the discussion, & was too young to understand, but I do remember her telling him it wasn’t his child & had no business on his lot. But when Papa gave me the diagram for our lost, the little grave, just Baby was there. Mama said, when she told me about it years later, that it was Dr Shell’s baby] - Anyway, the disease, & her actions when she was under the influence of liquor grew so serious that for Willie’s sake, as well as his own, Papa was forced to divorce her. I don’t know just when that was, [February 28, 1865, in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota.] because you see Mama saw her & Mama didn’t come to St Paul ‘til ’64 or ’65. She went to Chicago to live & died there when I was several years old. Whether Dr Shell followed her to Chicago or not, I do not know, but he never married ‘til after her death, & then he married the widow of Mama’s cousin David Oakes, Uncle Charlie’s son.”
As noted above, John “arrived in Minn[esota]. in 1856. [He] Ran his father’s, William H. [Randall’s], real estate business (who had lost heavily in [the] Panic of 1857) in St. Paul[,] 1857-62.” “On the day the first train on the St. Paul & Pacific railroad left St. Paul July 2, 1862, Mr. Randall began his service with that company, continuing with the road until James J. Hill and associates took charge of it in 1879. John wrote that when “I began service …. There were three officials in the office, president, secretary, and chief engineer. The treasurer was an official of the First National Bank. My official position was general ticket agent, chief accountant, chief clerk in the engineering department, and paymaster. The outside employees were one conductor, one engineer, one fireman, and one baggageman, with one or two men at the roundhouse. When either the conductor or the baggageman was sick or away, the general ticket agent ran in their stead on the road.” “Upon leaving the St. Paul & Pacific in 1879, Mr. Randall went with the St. Paul Harvester works for eight years and then returned to railroading, accepting the post of comptroller of the St. Paul & Northern Pacific. When this subsequently became the Northern Pacific Mr. Randall was appointed right-of-way agent, remaining in active service until May, 1907.”
“RANDALL, a railway village in Darling township, [Morrison County,] platted in March, 1890, and incorporated in July, 1900, was named in honor of John H. Randall, of St. Paul ….This township [Darling] was originally named Randall in 1891, after the village, and received its present name in 1907.” “Mr. Randall was active in church work from the date of his arrival in St. Paul.”
He was “United with the First Baptist Church of St. Paul by letter Nov. 5, 1858; elected Deacon Nov. 9, 1870; superintendent of Bible School for thirteen years, from 1866 to 1879; church clerk from 1868 to 1878.” He was president of the St. Paul YMCA, 1868-70. John died March 11, 1916 “at the home of his daughter, Mrs. George P. Lyman [Grace Oakes Randall Lyman], 604 Summit Avenue. Mr. Randall suffered a stroke of apoplexy a week [before]. Newson described him as “a man of excellent character, whose whole life thus far has been one of labor, and if there is a gentleman in the city who lives up to his Christian faith, it is John H. Randall. Steady, upright, busy, manly, moral, temperate, unostentatious, as a philosopher he forgets "what might have been," puts his burden on his shoulder and trudges along over the path of life.”
“In 1866 John Henry Randall married a second time [to]…. Sarah Arvila Oakes Randall.” Sarah “was born at St. Clair, Michigan, February 20, 1843. Her early home was characterized by an earnest “every-day Christian life.” Strong faith in God, lofty ambitions and high ideals were implanted in her young heart by loving, God-fearing parents. After two years and a half of college life she was called home by illness in the family. These years, filled to the utmost, were all too short for the ambitious girl to carry out her plans. It was during this time that she took a Bible course under Prof. Gregory, that helped her so much in her later teaching. After some time spent at home she came to St. Paul in 1864, and taught in the old Washington school until she was married to Mr. John H. Randall in 1866.” “She realized the decided difference between her background & Papa’s, & I’ve never known nor heard of another daughter-in-law that revered & worshipped her mother-in-law as Mama did Grandma [Elizabeth Colburn] Randall! You remember Grandma [Minerva Kenyon Parker] Oakes made such a “tune” because Papa was “a divorced man”, that there pretty nearly was no wedding, but Papa went east & got his mother & on the way west stopped at St Clair & between them they won Grandma Oakes over completely, so that ever after “Johnny” was absolutely all right in Grandma Oakes eyes, but Mama always said it was Grandma R[andall]’s tact & diplomacy that accomplished it.” Sarah devoted a good deal of her married life to the support of Baptist missions abroad. “The call to give one’s self to the work of foreign missions is frequently interpreted as a direct summons to the foreign field. So Mrs. Randall understood it, when while a girl in years, the voice and the vision spoke to her. Prevented from putting her own interpretation on the message, [presumably by her marriage,] she was not slow to learn its meaning, since there was more than one channel through which to direct her consecration to so great a cause.” “With the organization of the Woman’s Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of the West, in 1871, she was prompt in volunteering sympathy and co-operation. In 1876 she became state vice-president for Minnesota, which position she held more than twenty years. In 1897 she became the president of the Western Society for two years, and but for the fact that her residence was so remote from the headquarters of the society, she doubtless would have occupied this position until her decease. In 1899, however, she accepted the vice-presidency of the society with the characteristic expression: “There is no first or second place in the Lord’s service.” This position she occupied with unremitting zeal until called above.” “She was also a member of the Board of Managers of the Missionary Union.” “It was characteristic of her faith that she should remark before her demise: “It is not a question of which world one is in for doing one’s work.” Mrs. Randall’s life and service in Minnesota stamped indelibly her ideals upon the churches generally respecting their world-wide relations. No less than fourteen young women from Minnesota alone were recruited for service abroad and received invaluable tuition for their work from our sister. Mrs. Randall was the first to receive their early confidences. Her quick, motherly sympathy, her faith in the Redeemers’ purpose respecting missions as the supreme work of the church and her strong courage communicated undying inspirations. Her personal acquaintance with scores of other missionaries, including many veterans in the service, was very intimate and prolonged, and with these she conducted a wide correspondence. Her well ordered house was always to returned missionaries especially a hospice.” Sarah also worked for the Union of Primary Sunday School Workers in St. Paul and Minneapolis. She served nine years (1893?-1902?) as chairman of their program committee; she taught Sunday School at the First Baptist Church Sabbath School; she taught Sunday School teachers as the “normal and training teacher in the Union”; she acted as examining visitor for the Union; and she served as President of the Primary Sunday School Institute of Ramsey and Hennepin Counties (apparently more an annual event than a continuing institution).
Sarah died December 14, 1902 in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota. Rev. H. C. Mabie wrote in his obituary of Sarah that, “Mrs. Randall was a woman of rare biblical intelligence, having an uncommon familiarity also with church history. Her generalizations respecting world movements were statesmanlike and masterful, and she had strong administrative powers. She was a woman of truly ecumenical measure. She saw the world on the scale of its meridians, and she loved it and prayed for it in its entirety. She was a ready writer, and in public addresses also had the rare ability easily to lift an entire convention to a lofty plane of thought, feeling and action …. Taken all in all, Mrs. Randall was a conspicuous example of enlightened, far-sighted and comprehensive Christian womanhood in a period and land wherein the sisterhood of our churches have become so educative, so forceful and so distinguished.” At her funeral, her son John Herman Randall, Sr. said that Sarah “was in a pre-eminent sense the noblest type of a Christian mother. Whatever of power and influence she had in the world outside can be traced to her splendid, symmetrical motherhood as its source. Her home was her real throne-room, and her reign was always the reign of love. The home was to her first, the place of rest and inspiration and truest culture for her husband and children, and then it was the place of rest and inspiration for any of God’s children, regardless of their station in life. Few understood the secret art of hospitality as did she, and in all parts of the world are those today who bless God for the “mountain-top” days they have spent in the place she made home. Always the first to rise, her cheery voice singing the words of some familiar hymn ushered in the new day for the other members of the household. Each day was to her a full day, and her wonderful ability to accomplish so much was due not only to her persistent and unflagging will, but also to a systematic mind that planned the day’s labor as if each day was a little life in itself. No mother was ever more self-sacrificing in her devotion to the comfort and happiness of her husband and children. With a love that would not be denied, she gave her mornings universally to the teaching of her children, conducting them in their studies herself to within a year of the High School, and this in addition to the many other interests of her always busy life. And yet she was the master of her work, so that she never gave the impression of being rushed or crowded, or even hurried. How she managed it all-the matchless care of the home, the training of the children, physically, intellectually and spiritually, the general andprivate reading and devotions, the almost incredible number of letters written, the church work, the Sunday School work, the missionary work, the individual cases of poverty, or sickness, or need, which she always carried on her great heart, and amid it all maintianing her serene self-poise, her cheerfulness, her constant and ready sympathy for all-is a mystery that only she herself could explain. May not the secret of her life be found in the fact that “her mind was stayed on Him” in all things?”
There is a barbed undertone to some of this characterization. At some remove, Francis Ballard Randall writes that Sarah “was [a] formidable character. She was six feet tall, very unusual for a woman in her day, and proportionately thick, not fat but burly. She had a low, but not a masculine voice, which she could control, from ladylike to thundering. She had a mild mustache to shave, and, according to my grandmother, hair on her toes. At least once, my grandmother, who was a relatively small person, called her mother-in-law “a whale of a woman” …. Everyone who mentioned her described her as “forceful” and “dominating,” even her son, my grandfather, who was reticent on the subject, as his wife was not. Clearly she ran the household in their - her - mansion in St. Paul with effective, detailed attention, being “considerate of the servants,” spending what was necessary to maintain what she believed was her husband’s position, but without showy extravagance, for both economic and religious reasons. To this day, at least two branches of the family preserve some of her beautiful napkins, embroidered with “SAOR.” There is no record that she tried to “interfere” in her husband’s business affairs against his will, but it seems very likely that they discussed his changes of position and the sometimes dramatic fortunes of his railroads. She was the prime mover in the family’s charities and charitable activities, giving both money and her personal attention and work to Baptist and other organizations for the poor, and was praised for doing far more along these lines than was required, or conventional. I have never heard anyone attribute any sense of humor to her, but personal kindness and attentiveness, yes, ascribed to her profoundly Christian nature, but most likely the result of her personal nature and drives as well. Her husband must have known what she was like when he married her. He freely entered into a union with a woman with a force and personality at least equal to his own, and continued in it, without any report of conflict that has come to me, for thirty six years. He had the money, and the laws of the 19th Century on his side, as Victorian husbands did, but I believe that under the very different conditions and customs of marriage in that age, theirs was a voluntarily equal partnership, which they believed was in the Protestant Christian spirit, and which, in quite different ways, does credit to them both.”
John Henry Randall's Publications: “The Beginning of Railroad Building in Minnesota,” Accepted by the Publications Committee November 11, 1912, Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, vol. XV (St. Paul, 1915), pp. 215-20. Sara Arvila Oakes Randall Publications: Memories of the twenty-five years of the Women’s Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of the West (1896?).