 The information on the Randall family below is digested from Dauntless Dunn 1970 history publication along with the research of Mike Peterson. The Randalls are included in Dunn County genealogy herein because of their involvement in a wide portion of the area, their history in Dauntless Dunn 1970 and the boundaries of the counties changing frequently.
Timothy Russell was born in Canton, Bradford County, Pennsylvania on 29 September 1847 to Lewis and Esther Palmer Randall. Siblings included at least Stephen, Sylvia, and Emeline. He grew up in Pennsylvania.
He served in the Civil War in a New York regiment, Company B, 64th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment having given his age at 20, he enlisted at Prattsburg, New York as a Private in Company B on 6 August 1864 and mustered out on 30 May 1865 near Alexandria, Virginia.
He returned to Pennsylvania after the war but shortly afterwards he took some Nebraska cows to Iowa and settled there. On 2 July 1868 he married Matilda Clark, who was born at Mt. Pleasant, Henry County, Iowa on 10 December 1850 and had lived there all her life. They moved to Canton for a few years, returned to Mt. Pleasant for a time and then in April 1883 moved to the Dickinson, Dakota Territory area.
Timothy filed on a homestead just west of Dickinson and after proving up the homestead in 1886 moved to Killdeer Mountain and started a small ranch. This ranch was located just under the rim on the southwest corner of the main mountain and just southeast
of the gap between the main mountain and the west mountain. There are no buildings left there now [1970].
Timothy was running about 200 head of his own cattle and 25 head belonging to his nephew, Jay
Grantier [Note: son of his sister Sylvia], in the region west of Killdeer in 1886. The following year they moved to a place they had purchased on the Heart River about 5 miles west of Dickinson near Eland Junction.
Timothy Randall worked as a section hand on the Northern Pacific Railroad. Matilda and the boys would gather buffalo bones that summer, selling them for $2.00 a ton. They gradually worked back into the livestock business. Timothy specialized in trading for unbroken and spoiled horses which he and the boys would break and then trade them off. The family continued to live at the ranch until about
1895, because of school they then moved back to their place west of Dickinson.
Timothy signed a bond for a man who got a contract to haul the mail three times a week from Dickinson.
This involved three days a week on the road each way and was an all day trip with horses each way. It required three teams with a change being made at the noon stop each way. The man had a contract for about $50.00 a month. He anticipated considerable income from carrying passengers. This did not develop so he jumped his contract and left the country. Tim found it cheaper to carry out the contract than to pay the bond, so for several months he hauled the mail until the contract expired.
The Randalls and the four younger children moved to Washington in the fall of 1902. They remained
in Kent County the rest of their lives. Matilda passed away in 1920. Timothy married again to Tina Stafford on 15 October 1921. It was a second marriage for them both. Tina passed away in 1937 and Timothy died in 1941 just before his 94th birthday.
There were ten children, nine of whom reached maturity. The two youngest were born at the mountain ranch. The five oldest boys were all cowboys in western North Dakota in the early days and later had their own ranches.
The children were Stephen, born in 1871 in Iowa; Frank, born in 1873 in Iowa (died in 1878); Clint, born in Pennsylvania in 1876; Lewis, born in Iowa in 1878; Charles (Bipe), born in Iowa in 1881; Guy, born
near Dickinson in 1884; Kate, born near Dickinson in 1886; Ada, born near Oakdale in 1889; Sylvia, born near Oakdale in 1894; James Russell, born near Dickinson in 1897.
Matilda's Burial, Obituary, Tombstone Photo, Links to Some Family Members Tina's Burial, Tombstone Photo, Obituary William was born to William and Mary Hearsay Rappley on 23 April 1839 in Texas.
He served in the Civil War as a sailor. He was a Boatsman Mate on the USS CONGRESS from 1 February 1861 to 13 January 1862 then went to the USS PINOLA from 28 January 1862 until 7 April 1865.
William married Mary Tarpy on 25 October 1865 in Blue Earth, Faribault County, Minnesota. By 1890 the family was in North Dakota and the family lived in Dunn County at Section 22, Township 146, Range 93. They had a large family with at least twelve known children. In addition to those with links below there were Henry (1880), and Julia (1891-before 1930).
William died in Bailey on 12 November 1911. After William's death, Mary moved back to Minnesota and died there on 20 December 1925.
Family Burials: William, Mary, Louise, Mary, Ellen, Louis, Jennie, Martin, Margaret, Joseph, Frank, William III Richard was born to Alvin and Mabel Robison on 26 July 1930 in North Dakota. He had one sister, Audrey.
Richard joined the U. S. Marine Corps on 30 June 1949. He was assigned as a Private 1st Class to Company H, 3rd Marine Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division and while in battle in North Korea was very seriously injured. On 25 September 1951 he died of wounds at the U. S. Army Hospital in Tokyo, Japan. He was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Presidential Unit Citation, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
Richard's Korean War Project Remembrance Richard's Burial, Tombstone Photos Some of the Biography data below was digested from a Dauntless Dunn, Page 297 article written by his son John F., Jr. John was born 27 March 1873 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois to Thomas and Bridgett Donahoe Rooney. He had, at least, these siblings; Mary, Catherine, Anna, Thomas, William and George.
John was a veteran of the Spanish-American war having served in the Cuba Occupation. He was a Private in Company H of the 2nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry a brigade that was created from the Illinois National Guard.
After the war and on 14 September 1900 John married Clare M. Piatt in Berrien County, Michigan. Clare was born in 1876 in Ohio to Oak and Anna Piatt. They had one son John F., Jr.
Sometime after 1910 and before 1913 the Rooney family arrived in Dunn County. John was granted a land patent on Section 34 of Township 143, Range 95. Although listed as a farmer in the census, John had grocery experience so he took a job running the Manning store of Reed Brothers out of Dickinson. Later on he ran their store in Grassy Butte and at another time worked in their Killdeer store. He also worked for Morris Ruder in his Killdeer store until it burned down in a big 1919 fire. He was a census taker in the county eastern townships in 1920 in the middle of winter. He was also a State Tax Supervisor for the 13 Missouri Slope Counties. He returned to Illinois in 1921.
Clare's Burial, Tombstone Photo, Links to Some Family Members |
