My Genealogy Hound

Thomas A. Randolph, a resident of Edina, Mo., was born in Marion County, Mo., March 8, 1843, and is a son of Thomas Randolph. [See sketch.] Our subject arrived at majority upon the farm in his native county, obtained a fair education, and at the age of sixteen was employed as a clerk in a mercantile store in Linn County, Mo., where he remained about one year. In 1862 he entered the Confederate Army as a private under Franklin and McCullough, where he served a few months in Northeast Missouri. After the battle of Kirksville he went to Illinois, but returned in the fall of 1863 and clerked in his brother’s store in Newark. In 1808 he became his brother’s partner, and in 1870 bought him out, and conducted the business there successfully until 1879. In the fall of the following year he came to Edina, and engaged in the mercantile business, where he has since remained, and has met with good and well-merited success. At his store on the west of public square, he carries a full and well-selected stock of staple and fancy dry goods, notions, boots, shoes, hats, caps, and clothing, and controls a large share of the city and country trade in this line. In 1867 he married Tillie M. Towson, of this county, daughter of the late John Towson, formerly of this county, but who died in California in 1850. Mr. and Mrs. Randolph have had two children: Ernest T. (deceased) and Wilbur. Mr. Randolph has always been a Democrat. He is secretary of the Knox County Fair Association, and has served as city treasurer two years, and now holds that office. He is a Master Mason, and an eminent and successful business man.