Ohio History Journal

Emilius Oviatt Randall.            117

 

tion from his voice--he needed no pen--the subject-matter

being wide and comprehensive. He gave us the benefit of his

thought and wit upon such topics as "The Boston Tea Party,"

"Washington in the West," "Our First Inhabitants," "The

Original Ohio Land Company," etc., etc., but the crowning favor

was bestowed just one year ago, on Washington's birthday, when

his subject was "Americanization at Home and Abroad." We

marveled as we sat enthralled by his eloquence how he could so

logically travel back from Mt. Sinai and the Mosaic law and

in perfect sequence, profound thought and delicious humor

come on down through the ages to the present day and condi-

tions and sum it all up in "Americanization at Home and

Abroad." It was too profound to retain unassisted. Looking

back to that address, I appreciate Mr. Ryan's statement at the

memorial that "in his reading he ran the gamut of human

learning." The chapter hoped, expected, to be able to read at

leisure his remarkable address and great was its surprise and

disappointment to find that not one word had been written, not

a note made; it had simply flowed forth at command - his mind

an inexhaustible reservoir from which he could have drawn

indefinitely.

Just one year ago!-but

 

"Can that man be dead

Whose spiritual influence is upon his kind?

He lives in glory; and his speaking dust

Has more of life than half its breathing moulds."

 

 

EMILIUS OVIATT RANDALL.

A Biographical Sketch.

BY WALTER W. SPOONER.

Emilius Oviatt Randall, son of David Austin and Harriet

Eunice (Oviatt) Randall, was born in Richfield, Summit County,

Ohio, October 28, 1850.

The Randall family, from which the subject of this sketch

descended, is recorded in the Domesday Book, prepared by com-

mand of William the Conqueror and containing a list of English

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118      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

landholders in the year 1086. John Randall, born (1629) in

Bath, England, of which city his father, Mathew Randall, was

mayor, was the first of the family to emigrate to America, ar-

riving in the colonies in 1667. A great-grandson of this colonist

was also a John Randall, a Revolutionary soldier, enlisting

July 13, 1775, in Colonel Huntington's eighth Connecticut regi-

ment and serving throughout the entire war. A son of this

patriot soldier was James Randall, who married Joanna Pember-

ton, daughter of Patrick Grant Pemberton, a colonial volunteer

in the American Revolution, enrolled in Lieutenant-Colonel Gal-

lup's regiment of the Connecticut militia. The Pembertons fig-

ured conspicuously in the annals of Scotland and England, and

Ebenezer Pemberton, grandfather of Patrick Grant Pemberton,

was for many years a most distinguished pastor of Old South

Church, Boston, Massachusetts.

James Randall and Joanna (Pemberton) Randall were the

parents of David Austin Randall, born in Colchester, Connecti-

cut, January 14, 1813. In the town of Gorham, New York,

March 3, 1837, he was married to Mary Ann Witter. The fol-

lowing year he was licensed to preach, and a year later, accom-

panying his father's family, he and his young wife removed

to Richfield, Summit County, Ohio, where he was ordained in

the ministry on the 19th of December, 1839. His first pastorate

was at Medina, Ohio. While here he edited the Washing-

tonian, a weekly paper devoted to the great temperance agitation

then sweeping the country. His first wife died in 1842, and on

June 6, 1843, he was married to Mrs. Harriet Oviatt Bronson,

widow of Sherman Bronson, of Medina, and daughter of Captain

Heman Oviatt, of Richfield-a native of Goshen, Litchfield

County, Connecticut, and son of Benjamin Oviatt, a Revolu-

tionary soldier. Heman Oviatt was one of the Western Reserve

pioneers, being a member of the party that in 1800 emigrated

from Connecticut under the leadership of David Hudson and

founded the town of Hudson, Ohio. Heman Oviatt was one of

the founders of Western Reserve College at Hudson, since re-

moved to Cleveland and now known as Adelbert College. In

1845 Rev. Mr. Randall removed to Columbus.

The maiden name of the mother of Emilius was Harriet

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Emilius Oviatt Randall.             119

 

Eunice Oviatt. She was a daughter of Eunice Newton and

granddaughter of Isaac Newton (born in Goshen, Connecticut,

1744), of a family with a New England history extending back

to 1646. Isaac Newton's wife was Rebecca Minot, a descendant

of George Minot, who emigrated from England to the colonies in

1630. The direct line of Minots has a most distinguished record,

embracing in successive generations three captains and a colonel

in the pre-Revolutionary New England soldiery. Eunice New-

ton became the wife of Heman Oviatt, of Goshen, Connecticut.

Their daughter, Harriet Eunice Oviatt, was born in Hudson,

Ohio, May 26, 1808. The Oviats are found of record in France

in the year 1000 A. D., and were seated at Ovia, Normandy, as

"Oviatte." In 1066, the year of the Norman conquest, a branch

located at Mendippe Hills, County Somerset, England, and there

the line became anglicised and the name assumed the present

form, Oviatt. Thomas Oviatt, first emigrant to America, came

to Milford, Connecticut, in 1639. His direct descendant, Benja-

min Oviatt (Ovit), lived at Goshen, Connecticut, and was a

minute man in the Connecticut revolutionary militia. His son,

Captain Heman Oviatt (Goshen, Connecticut), came to Ohio in

1800 and settled in Hudson. His daughter, Harriet Eunice,

married David Austin Randall, father of Emilius.

A few weeks after his birth at Richfield, where his mother

was temporarily staying, the boy Emilius was taken by his

mother to Columbus, the home of his parents -and his home

afterward through life. Being an invalid in early youth, he was

privately instructed exclusively by his father until his sixteenth

year, when he entered the public schools of Columbus. In the

Central High School of that city and at Phillips Academy, An-

dover, Massachusetts, he was prepared for college. He early

evinced a taste and talent for literary work. During his term

in the high school, he established and edited a monthly publica-

tion known as the High School News, and in association with one

of his boyhood mates he published and edited a monthly called

the Whip-poor-will, which rapidly attained a circulation through-

out the state. It was devoted to the entertainment and instruc-

tion of young people. While a student at Phillips, he was editor

of the school magazine, the Philo Mirror.

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120      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications. In 1870 he entered Cornell University, from which he was graduated in 1874, in the literary department, with the degree of bachelor of philosophy. He was commencement orator, his subject being "The Spectator and the Tribune;" on class-day he was historian of the class of 1874. During his college days he was editor of the Cornell Era, the weekly college publication. After graduation he pursued a two years' course of supplemental study at Cornell and in Europe. In 1878 he was editor of the Saturday Gazette, a weekly paper in Columbus devoted to litera-

ture, art, and society. From 1878 to 1890 his energies were divided between mer- cantile and literary pursuits in Columbus, during which time he read law under the guidance of Frank C. Hub- bard and was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of Ohio June 5, 1890. In 1892 Mr. Randall was graduated from the college of law of the Ohio State Uni- versity with the degrees of bachelor of laws and master of arts.  The year of his graduation he was made in- structor in the same college of law, and in 1895 he be- came professor of law, a po- sition which he retained until

1911. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon (college) and Phi Delta Phi (law school) fraternities. On the 14th of May, 1895, he was appointed, by the judges of the court, official reporter of the supreme court of Ohio. This responsible office, requiring both literary and legal qualifi- cations, he still held at the time of his death. In 1913 his duties were enlarged to embrace the reporting of the opinions of the courts of appeals of the state. As reporter he has edited and

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Emilius Oviatt Randall.             121

 

published forty-eight volumes of the decisions of the supreme

court and ten volumes of the courts of appeals. He was editor

of a volume on the Negotiable Bills Acts of Ohio, and of a

synopsis of the Cases in Ohio Agency; was contributor to the

Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure, and was associate editor

of the Bench and Bar of Ohio, (two volumes, Chicago, 1897).

He served as a member of the Columbus board of education,

1887-89; president of the Columbus Board of Trade (now the

Chamber of Commerce), 1889, and trustee of the Columbus

Public Library from 1887 to the time of his death. It was chiefly

due to his efforts that the funds for the erection of the present

public library building were secured from Andrew Carnegie.

In February, 1893, Mr. Randall was appointed, by Governor

McKinley, a trustee of The Ohio State Archaeological and His-

torical Society. To that office he was reappointed successively

by Governors Bushnell, Nash, Herrick, Harris, Harmon, and

Cox. He was secretary of the society and editor of its publi-

cations since 1894; edited twenty-eight volumes issued by the

society; and in addition wrote various published monographs for

the  society, including  Blennerhassett, The  Zoar Society,

The Serpent Mound, The Ohio Mound Builders, Ohio in the

American Revolution, etc.  No one has been more zealous

or effective in promoting the progress of the Ohio State Archaeo-

logical and Historical Society, or in securing the annual legis-

lative budgets for its support. He was especially active and in-

fluential in the work of inducing the seventy-ninth general as-

sembly to make the merited appropriation for erecting the splen-

did edifice that now houses the library and museum of the

society.

Politically Mr. Randall was always actively affiliated with

the Republican party. In the two McKinley presidential cam-

paigns he made political addresses in all sections of the state.

He was delegate in 1904 from his congressional district to the

Chicago national Republican convention, which nominated Theo-

dore Roosevelt for the presidency.

In 1903 Mr. Randall was the protagonist and director of the

Ohio centennial anniversary celebration, held under the auspices

of the State Archaeological and Historical Society at Chilli-

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122      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

cothe, May 20 to 22. The complete report of the proceedings of

this centennial, a volume of over seven hundred pages, was

edited by him.

He was long prominent in the Society of the Sons of the

American Revolution, and in 19O1-2 was president of its Ohio

state society. In 1907 he was president of the Ohio Valley

Historical Association, the first year of its activities. He was

widely known as a public speaker on literary and historical sub-

jects.

For many years Mr. Randall was a diligent, comprehensive,

and enthusiastic student of Ohio history. He visited most of

the historical sites within the boundaries of the state, and col-

lected a large library of Ohioana. In connection with the prepar-

ation of the Ohio History, which he wrote in collaboration with

Daniel J. Ryan, he visited many of the leading libraries of the

country. The first two volumes of this History of Ohio are the

result of his efforts on the historical field, especially in the pre-

historic and pioneer periods.

Mr. Randall's activity in public affairs continued almost to

the end of his life. During the World War he was active in

travelling over the state, delivering patriotic addresses at the

camps, barracks and in churches. He was appointed by Governor

Cox as a member of the Historical Commission of Ohio, the

object of which was to collect and preserve the historical litera-

ture relating to the participation of Ohio in the war. Governor

Cox urged him to accept the chairmanship of the Commission,

but press of other duties forced him to decline. He was a mem-

ber of the Americanization Committee of Columbus, Ohio, and

devoted considerable time to the work of this organization. He

was also a member of the English Speaking Union, Columbus

Post, No. 3, an association having for its object a closer alliance

of the English-speaking nations of the world.

In 1918 Ohio University conferred upon him the degree of

LL. D.

As Reporter of the Supreme Court his standing with that

dignified body may be measured by the fact that the Court itself

has prepared and published his memorial -the first time in the

history of the Court that this was ever done.

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Emilius Oviatt Randall.             123

 

For several months prior to his death Mr. Randall con-

tributed editorials to the Columbus Dispatch, upon historical and

other subjects.

Mr. Randall had a unique ecclesiastic experience.  His

mother was a devoted Episcopalian, his father a prominent

Baptist clergyman. At the age of eighteen, on a Saturday after-

noon, he was immersed by his father in the baptistry of the

First Baptist Church of Columbus. On the following Sunday

morning he was confirmed in the Trinity Episcopal Church by

Bishop Mcllvain. A few years later he withdrew from the

Episcopal Church and became a member of the First Congrega-

tional Church, of which Dr. Washington Gladden was for so

long the distinguished pastor.

He married, October 28, 1874, at Ithaca, New York, Mary

A. Coy, daughter of John H. and Catherine A. (Granger) Coy,

both of whom were natives of New Hampshire and descendants

of colonial and revolutionary ancestors. Mr. Randall was sur-

vived by his wife and three children: Rita (Mrs. Robert E.

Pfeiffer), David A., and Sherman B., married to Bessie A.

Thompson, a daughter of Dr. W. O. Thompson, President of

Ohio State University.

Emilius Oviatt Randall departed this life in Columbus,

December 18, 1919. Press editorials and tributes of those who

knew his worth bear testimony to his character as man, citizen,

historian and servant of the state.

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