Arkansas Cemeteries
MERIWETHER LEWIS RANDOLPH GRAVESITE
Clark County, Arkansas
Submitted June 7,
2006, by Don
& Shirley Cagle
Meriwether Lewis
Randolph was born in 1810 at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Albermarle
County, Va. He was named by his grandfather, Thomas Jefferson, for Meriwether
Lewis, President Jefferson's private secretary and an explorer of the Louisiana
Territory. Meriwether's parents were Thomas Mann and Martha Jefferson Randolph.
Thomas Mann Randolph was a Colonel during the War of 1812 and was governor of
Virginia.
On March 7, 1835,
Meriwether was appointed Secretary of the Territory of Arkansas. On March 9,
1835 Meriwether married Elizabeth Martin at her home in Tennessee. They had one
son whose name was Lewis Jackson Randolph.
Randolph purchased
more than 6000 acres of land in South Clark County between Terre Noire Creek
and the Little Missouri River and this was the Randolph homesite.
Arkansas was
granted admission as a state on July 4, 1836. Randolph served as Secretary of
the Territory until September 13, 1836.
Randolph moved his
wife and son to their home in Clark County in November and became a farmer. He
also purchased 4000 more acres including Whetstone Mt. and a salt lick in south
Clark County.
In September 1837,
Meriwether went to Camden to get his winter supplies, a trip that took two
weeks. It rained on his way home, and when he reached home he had a fever.
Randolph was ill with malignant malaria and died on September 24, 1837, four
months before his 28th birthday. He is buried on a small mound near the log
house he had built on his land. Elizabeth returned to Tennessee after
Meriwether's death.
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