My Genealogy Hound

W. L. RANDALL. A young man in years but a comparatively old settler and one of the most progressive, enterprising and public spirited man of his locality, is W. L. Randall, the famous, one-price, cash merchant of the town of Gibbon, Buffalo county. Mr. Randall came to the county when about seventeen years of age; while therefore he is hardly “to the manor born” he is nevertheless almost a product of the soil, having grown up in the community where he resides and having been identified with the best interests of that community from his earliest days. He is a son of a former well-known citizen and old settlor of Gibbon township, now deceased, and before entering on the record of the subject of this notice it will be proper to refer to a few facts of his father’s history.

John D. Randall was born in New York and was reared there to the age of seventeen, being brought thence to Ohio by his parents, who settled in Clermont county. There he grew up and married a neighbor girl, Jane Beatty, a daughter of John Beatty, one of the first settlers of that county, and settled down to the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. He was so engaged till the clouds of a civil war burst over his unhappy country. Then, with an alacrity born of the patriotism in him, he offered his services for the preservation of the Union, enlisting in September, 1861, in Company C, commanded by his brother, W. S. B. Randall, Second Ohio volunteer infantry, commanded by his brother-in-law, Col. William T. Beatty. His regiment was assigned to duty in the western department, and, beginning its services in Kentucky, it was in the engagements at Perryville, that state; Ivy mountain and Stone river, Tennessee; Chickamauga, Lookout mountain and Missionary ridge, and then, entering the Atlanta campaign, down to the taking of Atlanta. He entered as a private and was discharged as a sergeant, having served out the term of his enlistment. Returning to Ohio he resumed farming and continued there so engaged till 1877, when with his family he moved to Nebraska and settled in Gibbon township, Buffalo county, four miles west of the town of Gibbon, where he lived till his death, which occurred July 23, 1887, he having attained his seventieth year. He never had any aspirations for public life, but filled a number of local offices both in Ohio and this state with credit to himself and satisfaction to his fellow-citizens. He was a man of plain tastes, quiet habits and settled disposition, leading an active, industrious, useful life, and laying down his burden at the end of his journey with a consciousness of duty well done, and bearing with him to his grave the sincere regret of those whose friendship and esteem he had enjoyed while living. He was for many years a zealous member of the Methodist church and a liberal contributor to all charitable purposes. Being an old soldier, he took much interest in Grand Army matters, and no man had a warmer place in his bosom for an old comrade than he. He left surviving him a widow and six children, one having preceded him to the unknown world. His widow is still living at Gibbon, and his children are all married and are themselves the heads of families. These are Mrs. Jane Seeley, wife of C. G . Seeley of Goshen, Ohio; Mrs. Lida Osborn of Wilmington, Ohio, wife of I. H. Osborn, who moved to Gibbon, September 11, 1890; Mrs. Caroline Schooley, wife of N. Schooley, of Gibbon, Buffalo county, this state; Mrs. Kate Huffman, wife of Amos Huffman of Wilmington, Ohio; John E. of Buffalo county, and William L., the subject proper of this sketch, the one that died being Frank, the second child in point of age.

William L. Randall was born in Clermont county, Ohio, September 5, 1860. He was reared in that and Buffalo county, this state, growing up on his father’s farm and receiving a fair common-school education. His earlier pursuits were of an agricultural nature. He quit the farm, however, in 1884, and after spending two years in the Gibbon creamery and running the Commercial hotel of that place, he went to Wood River, in Hall county, where he began the mercantile business. Returning to Gibbon in July, 1889, he opened his present store, inaugurating at that date the well remembered era of low prices for people of that vicinity. Having been brought up on the farm and having spent the greater part of his life among the farmers, he knows their wants perfectly, and is in entire sympathy with them, and is therefore prepared to furnish them what they need and do it at living prices to them. Mr. Randall has built up an immense trade for the time he has been in business and the volume of his business is constantly increasing. He is no respecter of persons or prices when they conflict with his sense of justice to his patronage. He reserves the right to buy where he can get the best for the least money and to sell at such figures as he sees fit to put on his goods. He is thoroughly independent, and is a man of good intelligence, shrewd and practical, attending strictly to his own affairs but discharging his duties as a citizen with promptness and fidelity. He has a family, having married April 19, 1882, the lady whom he selected for a wife being Miss Emma Wescoatt, daughter of Riley Wescoatt, a merchant of Wood River, Hall county, Nebr., and a native of Albia, Iowa, but reared mainly in Hall county, whither her parents moved in 1876. Mr. Randall has a pleasant home and a host of warm friends. He was elected member of the board of trustees in April, 1890, and took his seat as same the first Monday in May, 1890. He has enlarged his store to double its former capacity and now carries the largest and best assortment of general merchandise in the city. He also runs a large stock of general merchandise at Wood River, Hall county, he having bought his father-in-law’s stock at that place.