Randolph James Bollinger Co
Mo Biography
-
Randolph James, a well-to-do farmer and stock raiser of
Bollinger
County, Mo., was born in Tennessee in 1845, and is a son of
William and
Catherine James [see sketch of Levi B. James].
On
August 15, 1861,
Randolph James and his father went to Cape Girardeau County, and
both
father and son joined the Fremont Rangers.
At their
disbandment three
months later, both joined the Twelfth Missouri Cavalry.
This regiment
was, however, afterward consolidated with the Tenth Missouri
regiment,
forming the Third Missouri Cavalry.
At this time,
William James was
placed in the quartermaster's department at Cape Girardeau,
where he
died from spotted fever in 1862.
Randolph served with
the company in
which he enlisted for three years, when the period of his
enlistment
expired and he returned to his friends at home; but Southeast
Missouri
was then the theater of bloodshed and strife.
Soon
after his return,
his home was attacked by guerrillas.
A fight ensued in
which about
fifty shots were fired, and one of the enemy was wounded.
Mr. James
escaped and immediately went to St. Louis and joined the Federal
forces
again, enlisting in Company I, Fourteenth Missouri Cavalry, with
which
he remained two years.
When the Civil War had ended, he
went with his
regiment under Sheridan to the Southwest to suppress Indian
hostilities.
After traveling over most of the Western
States and
Territories, he was mustered out of service at Fort Leavenworth
on
November 17, 1866, when he returned home.
Mr. James was
with Gen. Grant
when he was commissioned brigadier-general, and afterward went
with him
on his first march - to New Madrid.
Soon after his
return from the
Indian War he was united in marriage with Nancy A. Gaines, a
native of
Tennessee, born in 1846. To them have been born seven children:
Henry
L., William H., Harriet, Mary, Hiram J., Adolph and Martha.
Mrs. James
died on February 25, 1880, after which Mr. James married Martha
Slinkard, who was born in Indiana in 1855.
Mr. James is
Master Workman
of the A.O.U.W. lodge at Bollinger Mills, and is commanger of
the G.A.R.
post, with headquarters in Lutesville. [p. 832-833]
Goodspeed's History of
Southeast Missouri, [p. 832-833]
Contributed by
Joe Crim
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