USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume III > Part 21
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expenses to operation, and paid off in- debtedness. They were years of onerous duty and responsibility for Mr. Randolph, who held the sole signing power on bank drafts, and who had the personal care of several millions of dollars of other prop- erty. To the service of the Illinois Cen- tral railroad he gave twenty-one years of his life ; that is, from 1864 to 1885.
Whilst devoted to these fiduciary duties Mr. Randolph was also active and useful as a citizen. He was induced to take the nomination for the mayoralty of Plain- field, where he had again come to reside, and was in 1880 elected to that office. His expert accounting again came into use in unravelling unsatisfactory accounts of offi- cials ; and by untiring energy he achieved beneficial reforms and municipal progress in various directions. About this time he was urged to accept a Congressional nom- ination, but refused. Despite his refusal he received many votes at the Congres- sional convention. He was too independ- ent for politics, and he was otherwise too much occupied. He, however, served for a period as chairman of the Union County Republican Committee.
He had little recreation in these busy. years. though at long intervals he sought the refreshment of the Adirondack woods, or crossed the continent on a mingled mission of business and recuperation. Early in 1885 his overtaxed physical con- stitution broke down. He was six feet tall, and, at that time, only weighed one hundred and thirty-seven pounds, and was threatened with chronic pulmonary weakness. He resigned his duties in the Illinois Central Railroad Company, ex- cept as to certain trusteeships. These he has continued to hold. He went to the Rocky mountains for a period of entire rest, and also visited Texas and New Mexico. He became interested in ranch- ing and purchased land and cattle in the West. His ranching operations after-
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wards developed into a practical owner- ship by him of about four thousand grade Hereford and short-horned cattle in New Mexico. In the meantime, by an open-air life, his health improved, and he regained more than twenty pounds in weight.
In the autumn of 1886 he was invited by the executors of Hon. Samuel J. Til- den's will to become their secretary and to assist in the management of the estate, which was then in litigation. It was 2 very large estate, with many diverse in- terests, and his time was fully occupied in its affairs for several years. Here again his familiarity with the science of accounting, as well as his wide knowledge of investments and business affairs, be- came conspicuously useful. He was ap- pointed secretary of the Tilden Trust, the New York Library Corporation provided for in Mr. Tilden's will. The estate was managed with economy and entire suc- cess throughout the litigation, and the distribution, according to law, of most of the assets was made in 1892. Under the will, about a million dollars remained in special trusts, and the residue of other money devoted to particular purposes re- mained also in the care of the executors and trustees. Accountings were in the meanwhile given with entire satisfaction of the court and of the heirs. Whilst these trusts were still in course of admin- istration, in 1903, one of the trustees, Hon. Andrew H. Green, was suddenly taken away, and Mr. Randolph was appointed to the vacancy as executor and trustee. Closely associated with Mr. Randolph in the care of the Tilden estate for many years was Hon. John Bigelow, statesman and scholar, and between them came to exist enduring confidence and friend- ship, which continued until Mr. Bigelow's death in 1911. Mr. Randolph was a pall- bearer at Mr. Bigelow's funeral.
Meantime, following the settlement of the Tilden litigation, Mr. Randolph was
elected president of the Atlantic Trust Company. This banking institution had important clients and depositors, but had suffered losses under a previous adminis- tration. Mr. Randolph obtained addi- tional capital, reformed methods and built up business; in fact, under his adminis- tration, it became a strong and prosper- ous concern, whose stock was sought for by prudent investors at the price of three hundred per cent. and upwards. In this service he spent some eight or nine years -- the best and most efficient years of his life -- and at the end of this period, in 1902, he joined in a merger of his bank- ing institution with the Metropolitan Trust Company, whose leading stock- holders had bought largely of the shares of the concern he had managed. When he retired from this trust, it was a matter of private and public comment that, in the course of about half a century of suc- cessful work, with widely varied fiduciary relations, in which he had handled hun- dreds of millions of dollars of other peo- ple's money, not a dollar had been lost or misappropriated.
But he was not yet to be suffered to retire to private life. He visited the West Indies in 1903, and on his return he re- ceived an urgent and unanimous invita- tion to take the presidency of the Con- solidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange of New York. He accepted it and again showed his capacity for administration in the reforms he instituted and in the prog- ress he initiated. He was twice reelected to the presidency without opposition, and was urged to continue in this position : but in 1906 he acted on a resolution long cherished, the suitable opportunity for which had now finally been reached, and lie definitely retired from active business. At least he withdrew as much as possible and in a way enabling him to carry out plans for extensive travel.
The above is the barest outline of sixty-
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eight years of Mr. Randolph's life, from 1838 to 1906, but it had many episodes. He helped to organize the New York Zoological Society and was its first treas- urer, continuing in that capacity for about six years. He organized the Atlantic Safe Deposit Company and was its first presi- dent, managing its affairs successfully up to the time when it began to declare divi- dends. He took the presidency of the Kanona & Prattsburg railroad, which had never paid any return on its securities, and it soon became a paying concern. He lifted the Carolina & Cumberland Gap railway (as reorganized) out of bank- ruptcy ; and as president of it sold it as a going concern in course of paying its bonded interest. For a while he managed successfully as president a line of steam- boats operating about New York harbor and the Hudson river. For some years he was half-owner and publisher of a newspaper at Plainfield.
Some particularly hard problems, re- sulting from maladministration or other misfortune, came to him for solution. and he solved them to the satisfaction of the parties interested. One of these con- cerned a congeries of coal-mining proper- ties in Illinois and Iowa, whose bonds were in default and the validity of whose mortgages was in question. He estab- lished the liens of the mortgages in court, foreclosed them, bought in the several properties on behalf of the bondholders at the foreclosure sales, sold some of them, and organized a new company to manage the others ; paid dividends on the company's shares out of earnings, con- ducted a successful litigation against the former management, and liquidated, with abundant satisfaction to the parties con- cerned, the entire original investment. As receiver of the New York Iron Mine, he wound up its affairs and apportioned the cash resulting therefrom. He man-
aged for some years an iron mine in Dutchess county, New York, paid off its indebtedness and paid its first dividend ; and, when a good pile of ore was on the dump and a comfortable cash balance was in bank, he negotiated a sale of the prop- erty at a good price. He took in hand several series of western mortgage bonds and liquidated them to the advantage of investors.
Mr. Randolph took an active part in the management of other considerable estates beside the Tilden estate. He was for many years a trustee of the Jonathan Sturges estate, and, for about a dozen of years, he and Alexander Gilbert, presi- dent of the Market & Fulton Bank, were co-executors and trustees under the will of their friend, William R. Clarkson, liquidating and investing the property and paying the income chiefly to the wife and sister of Mr. Clarkson. In 1910, on the death of the last income-beneficiary, the conveyance of the property was com- pleted to the Jennie Clarkson Home for Children, agreeably to Mr. Clarkson's will; and this institution now cares for about fifty children with what was sub- stantially Mr. Clarkson's fortune of about $400,000. In its board Mr. Randolph has continued to serve as trustee.
Upon his several retirements, or com- pletions of duties, from time to time, suit- able resolutions of recognition and praise of his achievements were adopted by boards of directors and trustees with whom he had served. This was notably the case with the Illinois Central Rail- road Company, the Atlantic Trust Com- pany, the New York Zoological Society, the Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange of New York, the Illinois & Iowa Fuel Company, and the Jennie Clarkson Home for Children. Perhaps the mementoes most prized by him have been the testimonials of young men asso-
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Before the year 1906 Mr. Randolph had in the course of business or recreation traveled somewhat in foreign countries with his family ; but in that year, accom- panied by his wife, he began a series of foreign tours which covered many hun- dreds of thousands of miles and which continued well into his old age. They made, in four months of 1906, the tour of Great Britain and Ireland. In the fol- lowing year, with his youngest daugh- ter, he made a longer journey, visiting Italy, France, Austria, Germany, Holland, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey and Greece. His wife and one daughter accompanied him the next year to North Africa and again to Italy and France. In years since then, he has twice visited South America, the West Indies, Hawaii and Mexico, and has spent much time in Portugal and Spain. In 1914 he visited India, incidentally revisiting Egypt, Palestine, Greece and other countries.
He studied as he travelled. He saw much and read much. On board ship he was known as "the man with a book." Each time on his return from a voyage he delivered lectures (in the West and South, as well as at home) on his observations abroad. On the voyages themselves, also, he was frequently invited to give lectures on his travels for the benefit and pleasure of his fellow-voyagers. He has seen much abroad and is familiar with conditions and scenery in every State and territory of
ciated with him or working under his his native country. Some of the themes direction. For example, in 1864, on his of his lectures have been: "Indian Archi- tecture and Religion," "Egypt," "Joppa, Jerusalem and Jericho;" "Ancient Car- thage and Modern Tunis;" "Athens and the Eleusinian Mysteries;" "The Mak- ing of Italy ;" "Brazil;" "Argentina and Chili;" "The British West Indies," and "The Panama Canal." retirement from the bank, his companions, to the number of fifty, gave him a dinner, and a complete set of Irving's life and works-twenty-six volumes; and in 1902 the clerks of the Atlantic Trust Company, in parting with their president, presented him with an elegant copy of Shakespeare, in twelve volumes, suitably and affection- ately inscribed.
Mr. Randolph gathered works of art and curios from all parts of the world in the course of travel, and with these his home in Plainfield has been interestingly furnished. It has been a happy home. For more than half of his long life he has been domiciled in one house at the corner of Front street and Farragut road. To this home property he has by purchase added many adjoining tracts and has im- proved and adorned them.
In 1867 he had the good fortune to marry Emily Caroline Price, daughter of Matthias and Emily Catherine Price, of Newark, New Jersey. Their united life has been an unbroken harmony for half a century. Their five daughters have grown to womanhood under loving parental care. They have all had abundant opportunities for study and for foreign travel and resi- dence, and have excelled in musical and other accomplishments. The first, third, fourth and fifth have married happily, and are now Mrs. Lee Ashley Grace, of New York City; Mrs. Charles Daniel Parfitt. of Ontario, Canada; Mrs. Robert Spurr Weston, of Brookline, Massachusetts, and Mrs. Harry Keith White, of Plainfield, New Jersey. The second daughter, Mari- on, a Wellesley graduate, has been the invaluable secretary and housekeeper at home. Mr. and Mrs. Randolph now have eleven grandchildren, and the Thanks- giving home-comings and other anniver- sary occasions are numerously and joy- ously attended ..
Mr. Randolph's literary and religious
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interests and activities have continued from youth to old age. In 1900 he pub- lished a volume of poems, entitled "Sur- vivals," which received from the press much praise and no adverse criticisni. Equally successful was his book entitled "Fitz Randolph Traditions," which was published in 1907, and which has been in such demand as to exhaust a large edi- tion. He has continued in membership of the First Baptist Church of Plainfield (of which his father's mother, Mary Man- ning Fitz Randolph was, in the year 1818, a constituent member), and has long been the president of its board of trustees.
As mayor of Plainfield, he appointed the first board of trustees of the Plain- field Public Library. He has been a mem- ber of this board for many years, and also its vice-president, and has had much to do with the library's enlargement and prosperity. He was one of the organizers and original trustees of the Muhlenburg Hospital, and has ever kept his heart and purse open to good causes.
Whilst in the official service of the Illi- nois Central railroad, Mr. Randolph stud- ied law assiduously. He never applied for admission to the bar, but made his studies practical, especially in the prepa- ration of documents and briefs. In these studies and exercises he continued from time to time through much of his busi- ness life. For one brief, which he pre- pared on a somewhat novel (and ulti- mately successful) theory, in an impor- tant case (Peoria & Oquawka railroad case), and for attendance and effort at the hearing thereof, the Illinois Central board, as a party in interest, voted him a special compensation of $2,500. Another impor- tant and also successful brief was in connection with the railroad company's alleged obligation to pay a certain tax on income, as claimed by the government (the claim, in Mr. Randolph's opinion,
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being offset by the fact that a part of the income was derived from sales of lands) ; and still another important document was the foreclosure bill which he prepared as to the old mortgages on the railroad lines south of Cairo, and which the bond- holders' counsel, Judge W. S. Campbell, filed without emendation, and upon which was afterwards obtained a decree of fore- closure.
At the period of his ranchman experi- ence, about 1836, a certain villainous com- bination in the southwest obtained from him an advance payment in money on cattle purchased and then attempted to cheat him, but failed. He arrested the ringleader, attacked the coalition, and, mainly acting as his own lawyer, forced them to disgorge. In the course of this experience, he came to own some thou- sands of acres of Texas farm lands, most of which he afterwards sold. Meantime, he carried forward his ranch enterprise vigorously and successfully, engaging in some interesting and profitable experi- mients in irrigation engineering, and, in the course of time, arrived at satisfactory . results.
At his home in Plainfield he has built up a notable park or garden, with hun- dreds of varieties of rare and beautiful growths, domestic and foreign. It is thought by many to be the most interest- ing garden in the State of New Jersey. His wife and daughters have shared his enthusiasm for this enterprise, and many visitors have participated in the enjoy- ment of the garden and in admiration for it.
In the course of his wide experience, Mr. Randolph has come to know many distinguished persons of his own country and of other countries and has numbered among his friends not a few of those whom the world has counted worthy.
In 1915 Mr. Randolph delivered courses
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of lectures on India and on Italy before Carson-Newman College of Tennessee, which were much appreciated, and the college conferred upon him the degree of Litterarum Doctor.
Mr. Randolph has been generally too busy in conscientiously caring for other people's affairs to grow rich himself. He scorned opportunities for making money, availed of by others, such as were afforded by his official and private knowledge of railway and other corporation matters. He religiously kept free of debt and gradually laid up out of his earnings a competence which in his old age he has enjoyed with his family.
Emily Caroline Price, wife of Lewis V. F. Randolph, was born in Newark, on the corner of Broad and Walnut streets, in the house that is now Grace Church rec- tory. She is the daughter of Matthias Price and his wife, Emily Catherine Judd. Her parents were married July 3, 1838, and had the unusually long married life of sixty-three years and six months, being seldom separated in all that time. The sixtieth anniversary of their wedding was celebrated by friends and neighbors of "auld lang syne," under the trees at the Randolph home.
The father of Mrs. Randolph, Matthias Price, was born at Waverly, New Jersey, on March 12, 1814, on a farm that had been in possession of his ancestors from 1664, when it was purchased from the Indians at the time that Elizabeth was founded. The first ancestor of Matthias Price that came to New Jersey was Ben- jamin Price, who was one of the eighty associates who settled Elizabeth in 1664. He is thought to have come from England in 1638. His name, Ben Price, appears as a witness to the deed bestowing Gardi- ner's Island on Lion Gardiner, and it is believed that he came to America with Lion Gardiner. After living for years in East Hampton, Long Island, where he
acquired property and built a house, Ben Price removed, as one of the eighty asso- ciates, to New Jersey, and was one of the founders of Elizabeth. His oldest son- he had three sons and two daughters- was Ben Price, Jr., and he was old enough to be an associate with his father, and one of the eighty in 1664. There is still a landmark of a part of the Price property in Elizabeth, at the corner of Elizabeth avenue and Florida street, consisting of a large cut stone, marked on top "1694," and on one side "B. P.," and on another "R. T." It has been guarded by an iron railing, put there by the Sons of the Revo- lution, and a sign placed near, reading : "This stone marks the intersection of the Carteret land owned by Richard Town- ley, the land of Benjamin Price, and the King's Highway, now Elizabeth avenue- probably the oldest road in New Jersey, opened by the Dutch before the settle- ment of Elizabethtown; the post and stage route to Philadelphia."-Elizabeth- town Chapter, No. I, Sons of the Ameri- can Revolution, 1908.
Benjamin Price, Sr., was born in 1621, and died in 1712, having shown in his long life of ninety-one years, marked strength and vigor, both physical and mental. He was respected and honored by his associates and was often chosen by them to represent them where judg- ment and skill were needed.
One of the sons of Benjamin Price, Jr., was Joseph, who married Elizabeth Mil- ler, about 1738.
One of their sons was Daniel Price (Ist), who married Phebe Whitehead, in 1766. This Daniel was choir leader in the old First Church at Elizabethtown. All the Prices were musical and possessed of fine voices, the heritage of their Welsh ancestry, for the name Price is a corrup- tion of ap-Rhys, a very ancient Welsh name.
Daniel (Ist) Price was a volunteer who
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aided in capturing the British transport "Blue Mountain Valley," loaded with arms and provisions for the British army, and mounting twelve carriage guns. This ship was captured without loss of a man on the American side, but after the en- durance of great hardship, for the weather was severe, it being late in January, or early in February, 1776. Daniel died in less than a year afterward in consequence.
Daniel Price (2nd), son of Daniel (Ist), was born March 5, 1767, died April 7, 1824, at Waverly. He was married, in 1790, to Phebe Thompson, born August 9, 1772, died March 1, 1857. One of the sons of Daniel (2nd) (Daniel had eight sons and one daughter) was Matthias, youngest of all the nine children, and father of Mrs. Randolph.
Mrs. Randolph's mother, Emily Cath- erine Judd, was born February 20, 1817, and died September 30, 1908. Her par- ents were George Baldwin Judd, born 1796, at Farmington, Connecticut, and died June 1, 1872, in Minnesota. He mar- ried Abigail Soverel, May, 1816. Miss Soverel was born September 1, 1796, in Orange, died November 5, 1880.
The father of George Baldwin Judd was Elizur Judd, of Farmington, a Revo- lutionary soldier, born January 10, 1767, died in 1845, in Illinois. He married Tem- perance Scott. Elizur Judd was son of Heman Judd, born in Farmington, Con- necticut, April 27, 1744, died 1787. He married Anna Goodrich, daughter of Zeb- ulon Goodrich, of Wethersfield, in 1764. The father of Heman Judd was Matthew Judd, of Farmington, born August 31, 1706, died 1755, married, June 28, 1733, Abigail Phelps, who died about 1754. The father of Matthew was Daniel Judd, born 1675, married, December 4, 1705, Mercy Mitchell, of Woodbury, died April 29, 1748. He was one of the most wealthy men of those days. His brother's daugh-
ter was the mother of Samuel Hopkins, D. D., "the Hopkinsian."
Daniel's father was William Judd, born 1635, married, March 30, 1658, to Mary Steele, of Farmington, died 1690, at Farm- ington, a very rich man. He was usually called Sergeant William Judd. His wife Mary was daughter of John Steele. Wil- liam was the eldest of six sons and three daughters. The father of this family was Thomas Judd, who came from England in 1633 and settled in Cambridge, Massa- chusetts. He was married about 1632. He moved to Hartford in 1636 and to Farmington in 1644. He was a substan- tial citizen and many times-at least six- ' teen times-a deputy to the General Court. His wife died in 1678, and the next year he married Clemence Mason and removed to Northampton, the home of Miss Mason, where he died on No- vember 12, 1688. His name is on the Hartford monument, being one of the original settlers of Hartford, and also of Farmington.
Mrs. Randolph is of the pioneer stock of America. Her paternal ancestry have been in New Jersey more than two hun- dred and fifty years, and the Soverels, the family of the grandmother who married into the Judd family, came to New Jer- sey from England in 1739, thus having been Jerseyites for one hundred and sev- enty-seven years. This first Soverel in New Jersey was named Abram and he was born July 15, 1716. He settled in Orange and married Jane Williams, De- cember 10, 1741, and died in Pennsylvania (where he was called by business engage- ments) in 1745.
Thus by birth and breeding Mrs. Ran- dolph is truly a daughter of New Jersey, and though she has traveled in many foreign lands, her thoughts and her love have ever turned fondly to her home in New Jersey.
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THOMAS, Gabriel,
Early Annalist.
In 1698 there was published at Lon- don a book, entitled "An Historical and Genealogical Account of Pensilvania and of West New Jersey." The author was Gabriel Thomas, a member of the Society of Friends, who had recently returned from Philadelphia. Thomas's object was to create through his book a widespread interest in the country along the Dela- ware river, and to induce people to go there and settle. The good man painted a veritable paradise. He wrote, as he says, "in meer Pity and pure Compassion to the Numbers of Poor Labouring Men, Women and Children in England. half- starv'd, visible in their meager looks, that are continually wandering up and down looking for Employment."
Thomas, born in March, 1661, at Ponte- moil, Wales, was one of the first ship- load of immigrants to reach Pennsylvania after that colony had received its name. The ship was the "John and Sarah" of London, and her captain was Henry Smith. The vessel arrived at Philadel- phia, December 14, 1681. Thomas states that he then saw the cellar for Penn's house being dug.
When Thomas returned to England to publish his book, he was aged thirty-six. During the sixteen years that had elapsed since he saw Penn's cellar digging, Penn- sylvania must have grown marvelously. Thomas in his book says that there were above two thousand brick houses in Phil- adelphia alone, and the particulars he gives of orchards, gardens and mill sites in the country on both sides of the Dela- ware furnish apparent proof of wonderful development for so brief a period.
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