Descendants of William Hannaford Randall |
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William Hannaford Randall and Elizabeth Colburn Randall In early adulthood, William Randall worked with his brother John, first in their shipping firm in New York, then in the fur-trading business. William saw the possibilities of westward expansion, and joined the pioneers streaming to the new city of St. Paul, Minn., where he is remembered as a founding father. |
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John Henry Randall was born in Roxbury Mass., as was his father, William Hannaford Randall. He grew up in New York City, but like his father, he adopted fledgling St. Paul as home. Where his father was a mercantile pioneer in that city, John Henry became a railroad pioneer. His career spanned the early days of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Co., which later became part of the Great Northern Railroad. and is now part of Burlington Northern. He later worked for St. Paul Harvester Works. An obituary reads: "Mr. Randall is 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." |
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His wife, Sarah Arvila Oakes, was in the words of descendant, 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.' All this is to say that she had very much the physique of her possible ancestor, Ethan Allen." She is also remembered as a great moral force, a trait which appears to have helped to shape the intellects of her descendants. |
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Their son John Herman Randall Sr. was born in St.
Paul, Minn., and died in New York City in 1946. He earned his bachelor
of divinity degree at University of Chicago Divinity School and
was ordained in the Baptist church, despite personal theological
doubts. He married Minerva Ballard in 1896 during a pastorate in
Chenoa, Ill. In 1906 he moved from the liberal Fountain Street Church
in Grand Rapids, Mich., to the even more liberal Mount Morris Baptist
Church in New York where he became became prominent, lecturing and
writing. Developing pacifist convictions during World War I, he
left his church in 1919 to join John Haynes Holmes in the shockingly
'advanced' Community Church. In 1929 he became head of World Unity
Foundation, and editor of World Unity Magazine.
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Minerva Inez Ballard was one of 'five marriageable daughters ' of Henry Francis Ballard and Mary Edith Young. A descendant recalls that Minerva had only had about a high school education, but was determinedly self-educated, and very cultured. She is remembered, too for 'a dry and sometimes peppery wit', no doubt an asset for a minister's wife. She died in New York in 1948. |
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Philosopher and author John Herman Randall Jr.
taught at Columbia University for more than half a century. His
field encompassed Greek humanism and Christian ethics, the historian
of philosophy and the Western intellectual tradition. In 1951 he
was appointed the first Woodbridge Professor in the history of philosophy
at Columbia, retiring in 1967. As an author, Dr. Randall was best
known for 'The Making of the Modern Mind,' which first appeared
in 1926 and with some revisions continued in print for more than
50 years. He died at home in Manhattan in 1980 at 81 years of age.
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Mercedes Moritz was born in Guatemala, the daughter of Albert Moritz, an American merchant. She married John Herman Randall Jr. in 1922. A teacher, a scholar and a feminist, she was also a prominent pacifist and for many years a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She was the author of “The Improper Bostonian,” a life of Emily Greene Balch. A second book, “Beyond Nationalism” reflected her political ideas. In 1943 she wrote“Voice of a Brother’s Blood,” attacking Nazi persecution of Jews. Mrs. Randall was 81 when she died at home in Manhattan in 1977. |
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