Below is an Obituary for James Madison Randolph. This family was closely associated with mine, I would love to know more about James Madison and his father Willoughby H. Randolph. JAMES MADISON RANDOLPH PIONEER OF THIS COMMUNITY Laid to Rest Under Sheltering Branches of Ancestral Oaks in Randolph Cemetery. The subject of this sketch, James Madison Randolph, was born June 27, 1846 in Logan county, Illinois, on the old homestead which had been taken from the government about two years before by his father. He was the oldest son of Willoughby H. and Louvicy (Barr) Randolph, and the Randolph family of three brothers- James, Brooks, and William Randolph had emigrated to Illinois from Virginia ,a sixteen years previous, before the winter of the big, snow in 1830. William Randolph was his grandfather and James Randolph was the father of J. S. Randolph, better known as "Shelt". While he and "Shelt" were thus second cousins, yet all their lives and until the death of J. S. Randolph a number of years ago, their association was almost that of brothers, instead of distant cousins. He was thus one of the few remaining pioneers of the first generation and with advancing years took delight in recounting experiences of his boyhood. He told of one occasion of starting to Clinton with a load of grain and two yoke of oxen and having a serious breakdown on the present site of Kenney. He was married to Elizabeth G. Jett on December 30, 1871 who survives him. Seven children were born to this union; G. A. Randolph, of Richmond, Va., R. J. Randolph, of Kenney; Jett and John Randolph, Mrs. Mack Carlley and Mrs. A. P. Robertson, of Tulsa, Okla. One daughter, Grace, died at age of five. Two sisters, Mrs. Emma Hildreth, and Mrs. Mary Forrest are living, both residing On Pacific Coast, and there are ten grandchildren. Always a deep student and constructive thinker, he spent the years 1865 and 1866 at Shurtleff college, Alton, Ill., and but for several years of weak eyesight frorh an epidemic of eye trouble, he would have graduated as a civil engineer and made this his life work. Generous with his family, tolerant of the opinions of others and yet with firm convictions of his own, his life showed continually the workings of a well balanced and orderly mind. Baptized in the Christian church at Kenney, following a revival in 1888, he talked freely in his last illness of the state of his soul and said he was prepared to meet his God. In all the trials of life, in withstanding the "Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune,"' he showed the iron determination of his forbears who stood at Crecy and Agincourt. In the summer of 1923, he visited his son, G. A. Randolph at Richmond, Va., and took great delight in looking up the site of the home of his ancestor, William Randolph, of Turkey Island, and in visiting the monument of the Indian Princess, Pocahontas, at Jamestown Island, from whom he was descended. On a boat trip down the historic James, the captain, on learnimg his name and ancestry, showed pleasure in pointing out the sites of the homes of the Randolpbs in this locality, so aptly called the "Cradle of the Republic." Among his relatives were, John Randolph, of Roanoke, Peyton Randolph, President of the First Continental Congress, and Edmund Randolph, Governor of Virginia and First Attorney General of the United states. Thomas Jefferson, Chief Justice Marshall, General Robert E. Lee and Carter H. Harrison of Chicago were kinsmen, their mothers being Randolph's. After being in remarkably.. good health for a man of his years, the final illness came in January and he passed away at his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma on March 26. The remains were brought to Kenney to the home of his sister-in-law, Mrs. Sabra Buchanan. Funeral arrangements on March 28 were handled by R. B. Pullen and the services were at the Christian church in charge of Rev. 0. P. Wright, who is an old friend of the family. He delivered a most feeling discourse. A quartet composed of C. A. Trowbridge, Ned Warrick, H. K. Cantrell, and E. 11. Hoggard, rendered appropriate selection with Miss Nina Warrick at the piano. The pall bearers were four grandsons James Homer, Ross and Harry Randolph and two nephews, Roy and Ralph Buchanan. Services at the cemetery were conducted by Kenney Lodge I. 0. 0. F. of which he had been a member nearly 50 years. Under the sheltering branches of the ancestral oaks of his grandfather Randolph's farm where he had wandered happily with his cousins, Levi and Whitney Regan and Frank and Josiah Coppenbarger, all that was mortal of James Madison Randolph was laid to rest. Mary Ann, you are welcomed to post this if you like. Earliene Kaelin jeniann@wa.net or earliene@wa.net 1118 156th St. East Tacoma, WA. 98445-2324 Coordinator for http://www.rootsweb.com/~ildewitt/ Home Page http://www.telisphere.com/~cartmill