Silas Randall

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Vice - illustration from patent application, 1890

Silas Herbert Randall was a Cincinnati inventor who corresponded with Platonist Thomas Moore Johnson.[1]

Randall was born on Jul 31, 1852 in Mystic, Connecticut to Silas Burrows Randall and his wife Emily Doane Randall. The family included another son, James D. Randall and daughters Helen and Emily.[2] Sometime after the Civil War, they all moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and Silas Herbert attended college there. By 1880, he had married Edith De Golyer and was established as a physician in Cincinnati. They had a daughter Jennie and son De Golyer.[3]

His father, Silas B. Randall, had worked for Perkins & Co. in 1872-1873, but in 1974 set up as a manufacturer at Randall & Co. He produced equipment used in harness-making. Both of his sons joined the business and stayed in the Cincinnati area for the rest of their lives. The father died in 1895. James eventually became president and secretary of the company, was prosperous enough to enjoy a yearlong world tour in 1922-23, and lived until 1936.[4][5][6]

Silas H. Randall invented and patented new products, including a vise, harness maker's press, leather punching machine, leather creasing machine, bracket, crupper former, collar-stuffer, and stitching horse.[7]

He died on July 27, 1901 in Wyoming, Ohio, near Cincinnati.[8]

Notes

  1. Patrick D. Bowen and K. Paul Johnson, eds. Letters to the Sage: Selected Correspondence of Thomas Moore Johnson Volume One: The Esotericists. Forest Grove, OR: The Typhon Press, 2016.
  2. 1880 U.S. Census entry for Silas B. Randall.
  3. 1880 U.S. Census entry for Silas H. Randall.
  4. Cincinnati city directories, 1881-1920.
  5. U.S. Passport Application, 1922.
  6. U.S. Find A Grave Index, 1600s-current for James D. Randall.
  7. Google Patents.
  8. U.S. Find A Grave Index, 1600s-current for Silas Herbert Randall.