Robert Lee Randolph, M. D., Bossier Parish, Louisiana

Submitted by Mike Miller



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Robert Lee Randolph, M. D., signally honored his native State of

Louisiana both by his sterling character and by his distinguished

achievement in his exacting profession.  He was in every sense one of

the foremost physicians and surgeons in Central Louisiana at the time

of his death, January 14, 1921, and his home city of Alexandria, as

well as the entire community of Rapides Parish, manifested a deep

sense of personal loss and bereavement when he was called from the

stage of life's mortal endeavors, his death having resulted from an

attack of pneumonia.



Doctor Randolph was favored in ancestral heritage of distinguished

Americanism, and his character was the positive expression of a

strong, loyal and noble nature.  The Doctor was born in Bossier

Parish, Louisiana, November 19, 1862, and thus he was fifty-eight

years of age at the time of his death.  He was a son of Col. E. G. and

Mary E. (Thompson) Randolph, both of whom were born in South

Carolina, as representatives of honored Colonial families.  Colonel

Randolph came from South Carolina to Louisiana and settled in

Bossier Parish in the year 1852, and in 1875 he removed with his

family to Fairmount, Grant Parish, where he became the owner of one

of the largest and best plantations in that section of the state.  He

served as a gallant soldier in the Mexican war and also as an officer of

the Confederate forces in the Civil war, in which he was colonel of a

Louisiana regiment.  Colonel Randolph continued his residence in

Grant Parish until his death, and his widow, who long survived him,

was venerable in years when she too passed away.



William Randolph, great-grandfather of the subject of this memoir,

was colonel of a Virginia regiment mm the War of the Revolution, and

the paternal grandfather of Doctor Randolph was a soldier in the War

of 1812.  The Randolph family, of sterling English origin, was founded

in Virginia in the early Colonial period of American history, and has

given to the nation many distinguished citizens, as one generation has

followed another on to the stage of life's activities.  The French strain

of lineage that was claimed by Doctor Randolph was through his

paternal grandmother, who was a representative of the Bulephant

family, her father having come with the French soldiers from France to

participate in the war of the American Revolution, so that along two

lines was Doctor Randolph eligible for affiliation with the Society of

the Sons of the American Revolution, in which he held active and

appreciative membership, as did he also in the United Confederate

Veterans.



The higher academic education of Doctor Randolph was acquired in

the University of Louisiana, in which he was graduated, and thereafter

he was graduated in the medical department of Tulane University. 

After thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he continued in

the active practice of his Profession until the time of his death-a period

of more than thirty years of earnest and able service in behalf of his

fellow men.  He made the City of Alexandria the central stage of his

professional work during these years, and his faithful stewardship and

benignant personality endeared him to all classes of citizens.  His deep

and abiding human sympathy transcended mere sentiment to become

an actuating motive for helpfulness, and self-sacrificing devotion to his

profession marked his entire active career.  He gained special high

reputation as a diagnostician, and in this line he was frequently called

into consultation by his professional confreres, in New Orleans and

other places in the state.  Concerning him the following appreciative

words have been written:



"He was master in his art, and to his knowledge of medicine he added

an intuitive faculty.  He entered the sickroom with confidence and

hope, and carried and communicated an atmosphere of courage to

poor sufferers in the grip of disease.  His patients included all classes

of people, high and low, rich and poor, and they all bore testimony to

his intense loyalty, to his generosity, in connection with which he

brought to bear all he knew of medicine and also a personal tenderness

in the treatment of each case.  This drew to him in life a great number

who not only admired hut also loved him."  Compassion and sympathy

were ever with this distinguished and loved physician, and his fine

mind and line soul found ample field for objective stewardship that

marked him alike as a distinguished physician and surgeon and as the

guide, counsellor and friend of humanity.



Doctor Randolph was actively identified with the Rapides Parish

Medical Society, the Louisiana State Medical Society, the Southern

Medical Association and the American Medical Association.  He was a

loyal advocate and supporter of the cause of the democratic party, as

is also his widow, and he was affiliated with Oliver Lodge No. 84,

Free and Accepted Masons, and Alexandria Lodge No. 546,

Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.  He was characteristically

loyal and public spirited as a citizen, but had no desire for political

office, though he served a long period of years as a valued member of

the board of health of his native state. 



At Cheneyville, Rapides Parish, was solemnized the marriage of

Doctor Randolph to Miss Elizabeth Barstow, who was born at that

place and who is a daughter of Calvin J. and Mary Stella (Smith)

Barstow, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of

Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.  Calvin J. Barstow became one

of the representative planters of Rapides Parish, here served as

president of the police jury for a long term of years, and he was Parish

assessor at the time of his death.  Mrs. Randolph gained her youthful

education in the schools of Cheneyville and New Orleans, and her

gracious personality has made her a popular figure in the social and

cultural affairs of her home city of Alexandria.  She has membership in

the Colonial Dames, by eligibility along both paternal and maternal

lines.  Mrs. Randolph has been active and influential in connection with

civic affairs in Alexandria.  While in charge of Ralph Smith Park, this

city, she supervised the planting of its trees and shrubbery and was

concerned in its general development.  As a member of the United

Daughters of the Confederacy she was director from Louisiana in

connection with the erection by this organization of the monument on

the Shiloh battlefield, and she did effective service also in raising funds

for this laudable purpose.  In the World war period Mrs. Randolph had

charge of the local canteen service, aided in organizing Red Cross

work in three parishes, and she was instant in helpful service at various

military camps, both in connection with the epidemic of influenza and

in supplying food to the young men recruited for service.  She has

served as a member of the board of directors of the Louisiana state

organization of the Colonial Dames, and as a descendant of William

Brewster, she has membership in the Mayflower descendants.  Her

eligibility for membership in the Society of the Daughters of the

American Revolution is fortified through thirty-two different ancestral

lines.



In conclusion is entered brief record concerning the children of Doctor

and Mrs. Randolph:  Leocadie became the wife of Hobart E. Hare, of

Jacksonville, Florida, and the one child of this union is Hobart E., Jr. 

After the death of Mr. Hare, his widow became the wife of John F.

Kerper, and they reside in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Mr. Kerper is

associated with the oil industry.  Mary Beverley is the wife of John

Frank Carroll, engaged in the lumber business at Alexandria,

Louisiana, and they have two children, Elizabeth Lee and Mary

Beverley.  Annie White, the next younger daughter, is the wife of

William E. Wilbur, who is engaged in the automobile business at

Eldorado, Arkansas, their two children being Barbara Anne and

Constance Celeste.  Dorothy Graves became the wife of Richard

Atwood, who died of influenza while in military service in connection

with the World war.  Mrs. Atwood later became the wife of Byron

McAdams, who is associated with business enterprise in Alexandria, in

the mercantile establishment of his father, and they have a daughter,

Dorothy Randolph.  Constance Graves Randolph, youngest of the

children, remains with her widowed mother in the home at Alexandria.



NOTE:  The sketch is accompanied by a black and white

photograph/drawing of the subject.



A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 325-326, by Henry E. Chambers. 

Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New

York, 1925.