Scrapbook treasure: The Randol log house

Tucked away in my office closet at the Missourian is a stack of scrapbooks. Most were compiled by Missourian staffers long gone. Others were donated by readers, who asked us to preserve the stories and photos contained within the books, donating them to the Missourian's archive.

Among those scrapbooks is one with a bright green cover. It has badly deteriorated from 60-plus years of use. But, oh, the treasures it holds, including this story written by Jo Burton Bock.

Published Aug. 5, 1950:

CAPE COUNTY HOUSE IS REMINDER OF DAYS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR

By JO BURTON BOCK

Shown in its scenic surroundings on a county road near Cape Girardeau is the old Randol place, which dates back to pre-Civil War days. Built originally of logs and later covered with wood siding, the five-room dwelling is today filled with bundles of hay and is surrounded by knee-high weeks.

Gone are the days when smoke curled lazily out of the serviceable chimneys, which children romped near by and laughter filled the now deserted rooms. Today the site makes one think of Joyce Kilmer's poem, "The House With Nobody In It," which tells of a "poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black, its crumbling roof, and staring window and door."

Time and again the old log house has aroused the curiosity of passersby, for its square limestone chimneys, long sturdy logs and sagging clapboard roof are indicative of bygone building techniques, and are suggestive of an age unfamiliar to many persons. Among the more curious passersby was Bill Harwell, a photographer, who snapped the above picture, recognizing its photogenic charm.

Story Unfolds

In conversing with Mrs. J.L. Hit, 904 S. Ellis St., a reporter found that the late Mr. and Mrs. Eli Randol were the first persons to live in the dwelling, built by Eli himself sometime before the Civil War. The large strong logs were cut down by Mr. Randol, who toiled many hours building the early-day farm house.

Five daughters and a son, children of the Eli Randols, were reared on the site and were resident there during Civil War days, Mrs. Hitt related. The six children, are all deceased, she added. One of the girls, Mrs. Priscilla Hitt, was the mother of J.L. Hitt, and it was from her that the couple attained their knowledge of the old home place.

Randols Marry Randols

Besides Priscilla there was another daughter, Elbina, who married a man by the name of Hitt, and two of the girls were wed to Randols, which enabled them to retain their maiden names. The fifth girl, Algebra, married a Mr. (William) Quade, and the only son was John Cooper Randol.

Mr. and Mrs. Hitt, in addition to having had a relative reared on the Randol place, resided there themselves about 40 years ago when they were looking for a place to live. With their infant son, Harold, They lived in the log house three months, after which time they moved to a farm near Jackson.

From another Cape Girardean, Mrs. R.C. Ranney of Spring Farm, it was earned she had visited the log house as a girl of 7 years. Mrs. Ranney remembered the house and its surroundings well, telling of a cemetery across the road from the house, of a barn near the dwelling, and of a large pond near the road. "It was a beautiful, clear pond with wild ducks, Mrs. Ranney recalled.

Marvin Priest Is Owner

Judged to be about 100 years old, the house is situated near the Oak Grove School and is the property of Marvin Priest of Jackson, whose mother, the late Mrs. Ida Priest, was the daughter of John Cooper Randol. When Mr. Randol was owner, he rented the dwelling and among the tenants were his nephew and wife, the late Mr. and Mrs. Green Randol.

The house as Mrs. Hitt remembers it had a large living room, a bedroom, dining room, kitchen, attic, and a spacious screened-in porch extending along the east side and running alongside the dining room and kitchen. Both Mrs. Hitt and Mrs. Ranney spoke of a breezeway connecting the kitchen and the front rooms. Mrs. Ranney said these open or screened-in passages were built in early day homes to keep the front rooms free of the kitchen heat during the summer.

A visit to the site by this reporter uncovered additional details. Unusually picturesque are the immense limestone chimneys, located in the living room and kitchen, and covered with quantities of vines. They appear as erect and stately as when they were first erected in the early 1800s.

Also noticeable is an opening that leads to a cellar, and near the dwelling is the smokehouse which is in a dilapidated state. No trace of the old barn could be found, however. The clapboard roof that kept wind and rain from the interior of the house is now sagging dangerously. A closer survey of the house revealed that old style square 15 penny nails had been used to attach the wood siding to the logs.

Old Randol Cemetery

The cemetery across the way is the Randol Cemetery, according to Mrs. Hitt, who said that Mr. and Mrs. Eli Randol and their son, John Cooper, are among those buried there.

Despite its forlorn appearance, the house is not completely isolated, Nearby are the farms of Bob Medley, George Weiss and John Statler, and not far away are the Poplar Grove and Oak Grove schools.

Eli B. Randol was the son of John and Mary K. Hitt Randol Jr. He married Mary Louise Lewis about 1849. She was the daughter of Joseph Cooper and Elizabeth Hitt Lewis. Mary Louise died in 1861.

Eli B. died in 1902. His will, probated in Cape Girardeau County, identifies his six daughters and one son. The daughters, according to the will, were Priscilla Ann, who married Greer Hitt; Louisa Melvina, who married Elam Hitt; Josephine, who married Judson M. Randol; Nicy J. who married Jeremiah S. Randol; Elvina C., who married Thomas Williams, and Algebra A.(!), who married William Quade.