Adin Randall
| Adin Randall | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Adin Randall October 12, 1829 Clarksville, Madison County, New York |
| Died | April 26, 1868 (Age 39) |
| Residence | Eau Claire, Wisconsin |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, Proprietor, land agent |
| Known for | Founder of Eau Claire, Wisconsin and 1st Eau Claire County Treasurer |
| Home town | Eau Claire, Wisconsin[1] |
| Spouse(s) | Clamenzia Babcock (m.1852) |
| Children | Six children |
Adin Randall (October 12, 1829 - April 26, 1868) was a philanthropist, businessman, and politician in the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin, who served as a first Treasurer of Eau Claire County, Wisconsin. He ran a ferry across the Chippewa, a planing mill, a sash and door factory, and invented the sheer boom to efficiently shunt logs into Half Moon Lake. He is regarded as one of the founders of the city. He donated the land for Randall Park, Lakeview Cemetery and the Eau Claire Area School District.
Early life
Adin Randall was born near Clarksville, Madison County, New York. In 1852 he married Clamenzia Babcock, and in 1854 moved west and settled in Madison, Wisconsin. There he became a building contractor and made a little money, with which he bought an interest in a saw mill in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in the fall of 1855.
Logger and entrepreneur
Early in his career in Eau Claire, Randall was associated with Gage & Reed, but soon sold out his interest in the business and purchased the land which is now the west side of the city of Eau Claire. This area was known as Randall Town for some time afterwards. He built a small planing mill and secured the right to operate a ferry on the Chippewa River between the east and west sides. Randall founded the Neighborhood association on the west side of Eau Claire and served as its first president.
Randall donated the land for Randall Park to the corporation and also the land for Lakeview cemetery in Eau Claire. To the First Congregational church he gave the land which that society still owns and occupies, and to the Methodist church he donated half of the land which constitutes the present grounds of the Eau Claire Area School District Central Office Building.
In 1856, upon the recognition of Eau Claire as a county by the state legislature, Randall was elected the first county treasurer. In the same year, Randall built the Eau Claire House hotel. Randall was one of the thousands whose finances were affected by the financial convulsions of the United States from 1857 to 1860. In order to carry out his plans he had mortgaged the west side and being unable to meet the claims of the mortgagees they took the property. Randall had the parcel platted as "Eau Claire City." In that way, he helped give the current city its name.
In 1860 he sold out his planing mill and went to Chippewa Falls. He remained there but a short time, however, and then built a saw mill at Jim Falls, Wisconsin, which he ran for two years. Having sold that mill he purchased a grist mill at Reed's Landing, Minnesota and made it over into a saw mill. This he operated until the time of his death, which occurred on April 26, 1868, when he was but thirty-nine years of age.[2]
Legacy
Noted for his philanthropies, he donated Randall Park to the city of Eau Claire, and a statue is erected to commemorate him and his service to Eau Claire. Mears began working on the statue in 1911, when commissioned by O. H. Ingram of the City of Eau Claire. The final statue was cast in bronze and installed in Randall Park in Eau Claire in 1915.[3] The Eau Claire Landmarks Commission created a commemorative marker of the life of Randall which is located in Owen Park along the Chippewa River Trail. Randall's home (built in 1862) is in the National Register of Historic Places.[4]
Notes
- ↑ http://web.ci.eau-claire.wi.us/landmarks/tour/Adin_Randall_House.pdf
- ↑ 'Historical and Biographical Album of the Chippewa Valley, Wisconsin,' George Forrester, A. Warner: 1892, Biographical Sketch of Edgar A. Randall, pg. 569 (Information about his father Adin Randall)
- ↑ http://oshkosh.pastperfect-online.com/20004cgi/mweb.exe?request=record&id=C94DEFB1-50BD-4D38-B0EC-315496923809&type=102
- ↑ "Adin Randall House" (PDF). City of Eau Claire Landmark Commission. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
Further reading and references
- Barland, Lois. The Rivers Flow On. Stevens Point: Warzalla Publishing, 1965.
- Bonham, Neil. The Givers: Eau Claire Philanthropists in the Context of American Trends. Eau Claire: Mcintyre Library-UW Eau Claire, 2009.