Randolph S. BEALL was born on February 13, 1864, the son of Ithamar S. "Ith" and Charlotte W. (SWAN) BEALL. Ith died when Randolph was twelve-years-old.

After his father's death, Randolph resided on the home farm near Mount Ayr in Ringgold County, attending the district school and helping around the farm.

Randolph and G. M. KIRBY were the editors of the weekly newspaper, The Advance which was printed in Mount Ayr from 1890 to 1892. Then, Randolph and his brother Walter Hamlin BEALL (1871-1944) became partners, publishing Mount Ayr's Twice-A-Week News from March 6, 1894 to August 29, 1899. Walter continued with the newspaper until February 26, 1907.

While with the Twice-A-Week News, Randolph traveled through the entire county by horse and buggy to compile the most comprehensive directory of Ringgold County's history. This and his many other contributions would span 54 years of either recording or preserving Ringgold County's history. In 1940, Randolph wrote the history of the county for Who's Who in Iowa.

After leaving the Twice-A-Week News Randolph formed a real estate and insurance buisiness partnership with George WYANT. After George's retirement in 1916, Randolph continued the business, successful until his own retirement in 1944.

Randolph was a member of the Commercial Club, serving as secretary for a while. His hobbies included work with the Ringgold County Historical Society [he was a charter member, 1939] and the publication of the Ringgold County Old-Timer Bulletin, an international quarterly with a purpose to promote loving loyalty to the old home and old friends. Randolph begen printing The Bulletin in 1938. Its success prompted him to continue publication, changing the name in 1939 to Ringgold County Bulletin. Circulation of this bulletin reached approximately 1,800 world-wide subscribers. In his declining years, The Bulletin offered Randolph great joy. In politics, Randolph was a Republican.

Randolph married on August 25, 1904 in Ringgold County [probably Diagonal or Mount Ayr] to Martha STAHL, one of nineteen children born to Michael STAHL (1831-1921) and Mary B. (TALLEY) STAHL (1834-1894).

Martha was born on August 11, 1862, and came to Ringgold County, Iowa with her family in 1856, locating on a farm where she grew up. Martha graduated, as did all of her siblings, from Simpson College, Indianola, Warren County, Iowa, in 1888 with a B.A. in 1888, and a M.A. degree in 1891. She took post graduate classes at the Chicago University in 1895. Martha was a mathematics and English teacher at Beford [IA] high school in 1890, and was the Latin professor at Simpson College for nine years beginning in 1895, and was Simpson's Latin librarian from 1895 to 1903. Martha served as the conference secretary for the [Des Moines, Iowa] Women's Methodist Women Conference and was a representative for the Women's Foreign Missionary Society, and a member of the General Methodist Women's Conference in 1912. She was a writer and a public speaker regarding missionary topics. Martha served as the president of the Mount Ayr local village improvement association and was a member of the Monday Club. Martha served as president of the Library Board and was also the corresponding secretary for the Womens' Foreign Missionary Society of the Des Moines branch of the Methodist Church for many years. Martha was member of Epsilon Sigma Chapter.

The Des Moines Conference of the Methodist Church held two conventions for young people which were under the direction of Mrs. Martha (STAHL) BEALL - one held at Redfield and the other at Corning. She wrote, "They were a great inspiration to those who attended. The papers and discussions were practical. The consecration services led by Miss CLINTON at Redfield and by Mrs. THOMPSON at Corning meant a new spiritual vision to those who kneeled at the altar, pledging their young lives to the service of the Lord."

One family genealogy states that Randolph S. and Martha (STAHL) BEALL were the parents of four children. Transcriber's Note: None of the U.S. Federal Censuses from 1910 to 1930 lists any children residing with Randolph and Martha. There is an "Eva STAHL, age 35" residing with them in 1910. Eva was Martha's sister. Eva and Martha's father Michael resided with them in 1920. Martha's sister Josephine who had been a missionary to India resided with them in 1930.

Martha (STAHL) BEALL died January 8, 1934. Randolph S. BEALL died June 2, 1946. They were interred at Rose Hill Cemetery, Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa.

The BEALL directories of 1869 and 1899 are among the collections and resources at the Mount Ayr Public Library. Randolph's directory "contained the name, occupation, location, and post office address of over 5,000" Ringgold County residents, along with a complete census of each township, incorporated town and village, and the names of all county, township, and city officers. Randolph sold his directory for $2 a piece.

What is remarkable is that in 1899 streets were not named - much less the county roads - and there were no house numbers. Randolph devised his own numbering system - for example, if the residence was located one block north and three blocks west of the courthouse, Randolph assigned that house as "1n3w."

It has been said that when accumulating information for his directory, Randolph S. BEALL meet every family in the county when the population of Ringgold County was over 15,000 residents.

BEALL's Directory has well stood the test of time. it is still read, resourced, and written about although it is well over 108 years old.

Ringgold County Bulletin
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
June, 1946

Randolph Sry BEALL, son of Ithamar S. BEALL and Charlotte SWAN BEALL, was born February 13, 1864, in a house standing near the present location of Mrs. DULANY'S house, near the water tower in Mount Ayr. His name was chosen in honor of Randolph SRY, one of the organizers of the county, the second clerk of courts, and later, captain, Company "G' Fourth Iowa Infantry, the first military organization in Ringgold county.

After his father's death, Randolph, at the age of twelve, assumed the man's responsibility of assisting his mother in caring for the family, whose other members were his sister Eunice, two years older than he, and his brother, Walter, eight years younger.

Disaster came to the hone in 1880. In December of that year the house burned and they were forced to move to the farm a mile and a half south of Mount Ayr.

In 1892, he became a partner of his brother, in the newspaper office of the Twice-A-Week News. In the interest of the Twice-A-Week News, Randolph made a house-to-house canvass of the county, traveling by horse and buggy. He met every family living in the county, and from this achievement he acquired his extensive personal acquaintance with the citizens of the county and made numerous friendships which were his the remainder of his life.

In October, 1899, he published a directory of Ringgold county, Iowa, which, as claimed on the title page, contained "name, occupation, location and post office addresses of over 5,000 persons and business firms in Ringgold county, also a complete census of each township, incorporated town and village in the county, and the names of all county, township and city officers in the county."

He was associated with Walter in the Twice-A-Week News until 1899, when he entered into partnership with Geo. A. WYANT in the real [estate] and insurance business. He was associated with Mr. WYANT until 1916, and from that year until his retirement from active business life in June 1944, he conducted his own real estate and insurance agency.

At the time of his death he had been a member of the Mount Ayr Methodist Church longer than any other member. He first attended Sunday school in the county's second court house built in 1859 on the present site of TODD's Hardware store. Writing of this experience, he states:

My earliest recollection of church services was Sunday school held in the second floor of the frame court house. The infant class, of which I was a member, met in the jury room; my mother was the teacher. The first church building I remember was the original Methodist church, built in 1879 on lot 234, where the present brick structure, built in 1911, now stands.

Randolph received all of his formal education in the Mount Ayr public schools. He thus recalls his first experience in public school:

At the time my sister, Eunice, and I started to school, she in 1867 and I in 1869, the log schoolhouse had become a carpenter shop, and there were two school buildings located on the north-east quarter of the block north of the log schoolhouse.

After Randolph's partial retirement from active business life he was free to carry out a project that he had in mind for years, the publishing of a newspaper whose object would be to keep former and present citizens of Ringgold county in contact with each other.

The first number was printed in July, 1938, and was called Ringgold County Old-timer Bulletin. The many letter received in response to this isse convinced Randolph that his venture would succeed. In the August, 1939, issue the name was changed to the Ringgold County Bulletin "An International Quarterly Intended to Promote Loving Loyalty to the Old Home and the Old Friends." Since this number until the May number of 1946, which was not published, the Bulletin had reached approximately 1800 subscribers and friends living in all parts of the United States and Canada, and in many foreign countries.

The feature of the Bulletin which interested its readers more than any other was the Ringgold items, gleaned from the hundreds of letters received every year and answered.

The Bulletin was a hobby, not a business, and was never a paying project. It was undertaken as a loving service to his many friends and to the state and county in which he lived for eighty-two years. Some of the happiest years of his life were those in which he was publishing the Bulletin. And the letters he received not only furnished him with copy, but were the source of the greatest interest and satisfaction of his later years.

On June 27, 1942, he fell in the basement of the Methodist church, breaking his hip. Although he became able to walk again, his general health was permanently impaired. He suffered a serious illness in 1944 which recurred from time to time, and greatly weakened him. On June 2, 1946, death took from us our beloved friend.

While cherishing the old friendships he was ever eager to add new names to that long list of those who were his friends, and although ever sensitive to the great spiritual heritage received from our pioneer forebears, he was zealous in striving for the good of future generations. In short, Randolph was always a forward-looking man - a man possessed of vision that sees beyond the years - a man whose religion enfolds all mankind within its breadth - and a man with the courage to believe in and work for the ultimate triumph of righteousness over the earth.

History of the BEALL Family

SOURCES:
BALDWIN, Charles Candess. BALDWIN Genealogy Vo. 11. p. 235. Cleveland. 1881.

REEVES, Winona EVANS, compiler & editor. The Blue Book of Iowa Women: A History of Contemporary Women. p. 31. Missouri Printing & Publishing Co. Mexico MO. 1914.

"Ringgold County" Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa A.T. Andreas Co. Chicago. 1875

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.library.colby.edu/lccn/sn860660038

The Mount Ayr Record-News, Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa. March 15, 2008.

AVITT, Mike. Pages and Pictures from the Past . . . Ringgold County, Iowa: 1885-2005 p. 75. Paragon Publications, Inc. Mount Ayr, Iowa. 2009.

STAHL, Noah. The STAHL Family Fostoria, Ohio.

"Randolph S. BEALL" Who's Who in Iowa 1940.

BAILEY, Annie G., Publisher. "Young People's Department" Woman's Misionary Friend p. 335. Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. Methodist Episcopal Church. Boston. 1909.

PRICE, Carl Fowler. "Mrs. Martha (STAHL) BEALL" Who's Who in American Methodism. p. 15. E.B. Treat & Co. New York. 1916

U.S. Federal Censuses of Poe Twp., Ringgold Co. IA, 1910, 1920, 1930.

Who's Who in Iowa, 1940 submitted by Mona Sarratt Knight, June of 2009

Transcriptions and compilation by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2009; updated May of 2010